Search

The transition to parenthood is a significant period of transformation and adjustment for all members of a new family, reshaping relational dynamics that often endure throughout the initial years of a child's life. This qualitative and longitudinal study aimed to explore coparenting representations held by both partners in a parental couple, along with observations of their family interactions, at three distinct points in time, with the aim to better understand the interaction between these representational and behavioral observations. In‐depth interviews were conducted with 17 heterosexual, first‐time parents in Santiago de Chile, during pregnancy and at two different times during the first year of their child's life. Family interactions were assessed using the Lausanne Trilogue Play task (LTP) on all occasions. Three main coparenting representation categories emerged: traditional, ambiguous, and co‐responsible. On observation, approximately half of the couples showed cooperative coparenting interactions, while the other half had conflictual interactions. Couples generally followed stable trajectories over time. Cooperative couples demonstrated co‐responsibility and open dialogue, while conflictual couples tended to follow traditional gender roles with tacit communication styles. This study highlights the importance of promoting co‐responsibility and dialogue for fostering cooperative relational dynamics during the critical transition to parenthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When working with families of infants and toddlers, intentionally looking beyond dyadic child‐parent relationship functioning to conceptualize the child's socioemotional adaptation within their broader family collective can enhance the likelihood that clinical gains will be supported and sustained. However, there has been little expert guidance regarding how best to frame infant‐family mental health therapeutic encounters for the adults responsible for the child's care and upbringing in a manner that elevates their mindfulness about and their resolve to strengthen the impact of their coparenting collective. This article describes a new collaborative initiative organized by family‐oriented infant mental health professionals across several different countries, all of whom bring expansive expertise assessing and working with coparenting and triangular family dynamics. The Collaborative's aims are to identify a means for framing initial infant mental health encounters and intakes with families with the goal of assessing and raising family consciousness about the relevance of coparenting. Initial points of convergence and growing points identified by the Collaborative for subsequent field study are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the infant mental health field, scant conceptual attention has been given to coparenting and family adaptations of non‐white family systems, with no evidence‐based, community‐informed coparenting interventions responsive to unmarried Black mothers' and fathers' life circumstances. This study examined 1‐year post‐partum child and family outcomes of a novel, modest dosage (six sessions) prenatal focused coparenting consultation (FCC) using randomized controlled trial methodology. One‐hundred‐thirty‐eight expectant families (one or both parents identified as Black/African American) were randomized to an intervention (N = 70) or treatment‐as‐usual (TAU; control) condition (N = 68). TAU families received navigational support in accessing existing community services for pregnant families. Intervention families received TAU plus 6 dyadic FCC sessions led by a Black male‐female Community Mentor team. When infants were three and 12 months old, parents reported on coparenting, father engagement, interparental aggression, depressive symptoms, and infant social and emotional adjustment. Intent‐to‐treat analyses focusing on 12‐month post‐partum data indicated significant intervention effects on coparenting, interparental psychological aggression, and infants' emotional adjustment. Improvement was also seen in depression and father engagement, with gains for both groups. Results suggest FCC delivered by same‐race Community Mentors to unmarried Black coparents transitioning to parenthood supports infant and family adaptation during the first year of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This longitudinal prospective and multi-informant study based on a three-wave research program (pregnancy, 12 months' postpartum, and 16 months' postpartum) aimed to determine the process of construction of family alliance, as assessed by the Lausanne Trilogue Play (Fivaz-Depeursinge & Corboz-Warnery, 1999). A model using parents' individual characteristics (i.e., personality traits and attachment orientations) as distal variables, coparenting as a mediator, child's temperament as a moderator, and family alliance as outcome was tested using structural equation modeling on 62 nonreferred families. Results showed that both parents' conscientiousness was positively and mothers' avoidant attachment and fathers' anxious attachment were negatively and indirectly (via coparenting) associated with the family alliance. The discussion underlines mothers' and fathers' different roles and the importance of coparenting as a core mechanism in the development of family alliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]