This study was designed to investigate aspects of the coparenting relationship between employed mothers and fathers within the same family. Similarities and dissimilarities in parenting goals between married or cohabiting couples with toddler or preschool-aged children were the main focus. One hundred thirty couples were recruited via advertisements posted in community agencies and also through published advertisements in parent-oriented magazines. Parents who each worked (or attended school) twenty-five hours per week or more and who had an eldest child between 24 and 60 months of age participated independently in an interview about their parenting goals and also responded to questionnaires about family well-being. Overall, the participants were a well-adjusted sample of parents, representing the demographics of the Canadian city from which the majority of the sample was taken.
A contextually-based vignette-style interview of parenting goals revealed moderate agreement between parents within the same family on parenting goals. Mothers and fathers reported parenting goals that were flexible and based on the behaviour displayed by the child. In particular, in responding to children's internalizing behaviour, parents attached greater importance to child-centred and relationship-centred goals than to parent-centred goals. In response to vignettes depicting externalizing child behaviour, parents endorsed greater importance for parent-centred goals than for either child-centred or relationship-centred goals. Similarity in parenting goals was higher for parents of toddlers than for parents of preschool-age children. Also, the greater the similarity in parenting goals between mothers and fathers the more satisfied mothers were with their parenting and their life in general. For fathers, greater similarity in parenting goals was related to greater satisfaction with their parenting only. Interestingly, although the degree of similarity in parenting goals was not related to marital satisfaction, the relation between similarity in parenting goals and mothers' ratings of marital satisfaction was different depending on the support for parenting mothers received from their partners. The findings of the present study emphasize that not all differences between parents on child-related issues are harmful to family well-being and that it is important to consider both mothers' and fathers' perspectives within the area of coparenting. Clinical and research implications are discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/29196 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Bax, Karen A |
| Publisher | University of Ottawa (Canada) |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 139 p. |
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