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Mothers' and fathers' perceptions of marital relationships and coparenting twins during school transition

Latham, RM; Mark, KM; Oliver, BR; (2019) Mothers' and fathers' perceptions of marital relationships and coparenting twins during school transition. Journal of Family Studies , 28 (1) pp. 1-18. 10.1080/13229400.2019.1667411. Green open access

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Abstract

Coparenting and the marital relationship are closely related yet distinct family subsystems hypothesized to influence one another. Little is known about these processes with consideration of more than one child in the family, which may have important implications. Here, we specifically focus on families with young twins, enabling us to account for sibling age-difference confounds, as well as due to the greater parenting demands and higher divorce rates in twin families. Using cross-lagged models for both mothers and fathers, we examined bidirectional associations between coparenting and the marital relationship during children’s transition to formal schooling. Parents of twins from 107 ‘intact’ families reported perceptions of coparenting and the marital relationship via telephone interview at Time 1 (Mchild age = 4years 8 months, SDchild age = 4.44 months) and questionnaire at Time 2 (Mchild age = 6 years, SDchild age = 6.12 months). Accounting for within-time associations and temporal stability for both mothers and fathers, coparenting was positively associated with subsequent reports of the marital relationship; there was no evidence of reciprocal associations between the marital relationship and subsequent coparenting. As children transition to primary school, the quality of coparenting may be a driver of the quality of the marital relationship for parents of twins. Those seeking to improve the marital relationship should pay due attention to perceptions of coparenting.

Type: Article
Title: Mothers' and fathers' perceptions of marital relationships and coparenting twins during school transition
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1080/13229400.2019.1667411
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1080/13229400.2019.1667411
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: Coparenting, family processes, marital quality, transitions, twin-families
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Psychology and Human Development
URI: https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10104206
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