Longitudinal effects of coparenting on parent-child closeness and adolescent depression and anxiety among socioeconomically disadvantaged families

• In Event: Parenting adolescents and young adults

Abstract

Introduction: This study examined how cooperative coparenting is related to parent-child closeness and adolescent anxiety and depression within socioeconomically disadvantaged families. Families with material hardships face multiple challenges in family relationships and risk child socioemotional outcomes in the long run. Less is known about how mothers and fathers in these families can collaborate and build close relationships with children, thus helping children achieve adaptation. The study makes an important contribution to understanding the underlying family process linking the long-term effects of material hardships on adolescent outcomes in socioeconomically disadvantaged families from childbirth to adolescence. It also explores the potential protective effects of positive family functioning, such as cooperative coparenting, and positive parent-child relationships that promote adolescent adaptation and buffer the negative effects of early material hardships.

Method: The study used longitudinal data from 4,898 parents and their adolescent children in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study from childbirth to age fifteen. Material hardships were measured when the focal child was one year old. Cooperative coparenting was measured from mothers and fathers at child ages one, three, five, and nine. Parent-child closeness was measured from child-reported closeness to mothers and fathers at ages nine and fifteen. Child depression and anxiety were measured when the child was age fifteen. The analysis involved structural equation modeling to construct two latent variables of child closeness to mothers and fathers and examine them as mediators in the associations among material hardship, cooperative coparenting, and adolescent depression and anxiety. Family characteristics, including child’s sex and mother’s age, race, education, and marital status, were included as covariates.

Results: More material hardships were associated with reduced cooperative coparenting β = (-.16, p < .001) and mother-child closeness β = (-.05, p < .05). They had no significant direct association with father-child closeness or adolescent outcomes. High cooperative coparenting was related to high parent-child closeness in both mothers (β = .09, p < .001) and fathers (β = .39, p < .001), which were related to low risks of poor adolescent outcomes. Mother-child closeness had stronger negative associations with adolescent depression (β = -.29, p < .001) and anxiety (β = -.29, p < .001) than father-child closeness had with these two adolescent outcomes (β = -.10, p < .001). Although high cooperative coparenting did not directly affect adolescent outcomes, it indirectly decreased adolescent depression and anxiety by increasing parent-child closeness in both mothers and fathers.

Conclusion: Material hardships posit direct challenges for socioeconomically disadvantaged mothers and fathers to collaborate in parenting and impede mothers from staying close to children. Both mothers and fathers can benefit from cooperative coparenting programs to improve parent-child relationships, lowering the risk for poor adolescent socioemotional outcomes. Family strengthening programs that highlight cooperative coparenting between mothers and fathers and positive parenting practices to bond with children early in life would promote socioemotional development when children enter adolescence.

Authors

• Dan Wang, University of Oklahoma
  Presenting Author

• Qingyu Jiang, University of Nebraska - Lincoln