Poster #85 - Negative Infant Temperament, Parental Involvement, and Positive Coparenting Experiences of New Mothers and Fathers

• In Event: Poster Session 17

Abstract

Coparenting refers to the ways parents collaborate and share responsibilities in childrearing, and coparenting relationships characterized by support and cooperation are associated with positive child outcomes (Feinberg, 2003). Negative infant temperament has been associated with coparent undermining (Cook et al., 2011; Song & Volling, 2015), but research linking negative infant temperament and positive coparenting is mixed (Schoppe-Sullivan et al., 2007). and associations may vary between fathers and mothers (Burney & Leerkes, 2010). In the current study, we examined associations between negative infant temperament and positive coparenting experiences of new mothers and fathers. We hypothesized that parent involvement would moderate associations between negative infant temperament and positive coparenting quality, such that negative infant temperament would have a stronger adverse impact on coparenting experiences for parents who are more directly involved in parenting.

180 different-sex, dual-earner couples expecting their firstborn child were recruited. Mothers and fathers completed questionnaires across three timepoints: three months, six months, and nine months postpartum. Most parents identified as White (>85%) and were approximately 30 years old (AgeMOTHER = 29.2, AgeFATHER = 31.2). Most parents (71% mothers, 64% fathers) had obtained a bachelor’s degree or higher. Median annual family income was $80,000. Parents independently completed the Coparenting Relationship Scale (Feinberg et al., 2012) with four subscales: agreement, closeness, support, and endorsement of partner’s parenting. Infant temperament was measured with the Negative Affect subscale from the Revised Infant Behavior Questionnaire—Very Short Form (Putnam et al., 2014). Parent involvement was measured with a modified six-item measure of how often each parent engaged in age-appropriate activities with their infant (e.g., play “peek-a-boo”, sing nursery rhymes) from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study.

Across three to nine months postpartum, fathers who reported greater infant negative affect also reported lower coparenting agreement (r = -.28, p < .001), closeness (r = -.24, p < .001), support (r = -.13, p = .003), and endorsement of partner’s parenting (r = -.19, p < .001). However, in mothers, the only significant association was between greater infant negative affect and lower coparenting agreement (r = -.14, p = .002). To examine interaction effects, we conducted random intercept regression analyses. Among fathers, parent involvement (β = .48, p < .001) and the interaction of parent involvement and infant negative affect (β = -.07, p = .033) were significant predictors of coparenting support (Figure 1). No interaction effects were observed for mothers.

The present study demonstrated that the role of infant temperament in positive coparenting experiences may be more marked for fathers than mothers. For fathers who were more involved in parenting their infants, their infant’s negative affect had an adverse effect on how supported they felt by their coparent. However, this did not hold for mothers. This is in line with prior research that demonstrated stronger effects of child temperament on fathering than mothering (McBride et al., 2002) and is consistent with the notion that fathers’ parenting experiences may be especially susceptible to difficulty within the family system.

Authors

• Julianna Rose Calabrese, Ohio State University
  Presenting Author

• Sarah Jane Schoppe-Sullivan, Ohio State University