Poster #94 - Longitudinal Associations between Coparenting and Marital Adjustment during Infancy in Turkish Sample

• In Event: 3-206 - Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Section - Family Context & Processes

Integrative Statement

Coparenting and marital adjustment within two-parent families are conceptualized as inter-related, albeit distinct constructs, with evidence supporting the distinction between family processes (e.g., McHale et al., 2004; Feinberg et al., 2012, Brandon et al., 2016). While there is limited research documenting that marital and coparenting systems bidirectionally influence one another (Schoppe-Sullivan et al., 2004), additional longitudinal research is needed to further elucidate associations between them. The current study examined longitudinal associations between these two constructs when mothers and fathers’ babies were 3 months and 2 years old. Method: Thirty-five Turkish families were visited at their homes when their babies were ages 3 months and 2 years. Parents’ coparenting behaviors were recorded at 3 months as mother, father and baby played en-face in the Lausanne Trilogue Play Paradigm (Fivaz-Depeursinge & Corboz-Warnery, 1999) and were coded with the ‘Coparenting and Family Rating System -- 3 month” system (McHale et al. 2004). Perceived coparenting was assessed via a Parenting Alliance Inventory (Abidin & Brunner, 1995), while marital adjustment was assessed via the Marital Adjustment Test (Locke & Wallace, 1959) at both 3 months and 2 years.
Results: To account for potential dependencies between mothers and fathers in the same family and within person over time, Multilevel Modeling (MLM) was employed using HLM v7 software (Raudenbush et al. 2011) for analyses. Results indicated that neither marital adjustment nor perceived coparenting significantly changed in the first two years of family life for either parent. In predicting perceived coparenting at 2 years, there was a significant interaction effect of parent gender and marital adjustment (β = .006, t (29) = 2.3, p < .05). For only mothers but not for fathers, marital adjustment at 3 months significantly and positively predicted perceived coparenting at 2 years, after controlling for marital adjustment and perceived coparenting at 3 months (for mothers simple slope = .013, SE = .001, t (29) = 2.29, p < .05). Of significant interest, in predicting marital adjustment, it was not perceived coparenting but rather high observed cooperation (β = 5.11, t (33) = 2.78, p < .01) during trilogue play at 3 months (with no role of observed competition) that significantly and positively predicted marital satisfaction at 2 years. This study contributes to the burgeoning literature on cross-time family adaptation by identifying the relevance of taking account of gendered perceptions when examining reciprocal associations between marital adjustment and coparenting adaptation and in documenting the importance of capturing both perceived and observed coparenting in studies ostensibly investigating within-family trajectories.

Authors

• Selin Salman-Engin, Bilkent University
  Presenting Author

• James McHale, USF St. Petersburg
  Non-Presenting Author

• Emre Selcuk, Middle East Technical University
  Non-Presenting Author

• BİLGE GENÇOĞLU, BOĞAZİÇİ UNIVERSITY
  Non-Presenting Author

• Muaz Özcan, Koç University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Aslı Saçaklı, Baskent University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Rabia Yalın, Bilkent University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Dilara Günay, Bilkent University
  Non-Presenting Author