Work

Cooperative coparenting moderates the association between parenting practices and children’s prosocial behavior.

Year: 2013

Type: article

Abstract: This study examined how aspects of the parenting and coparenting relationships relate to children's prosocial behavior in early childhood. Fifty-eight 2-parent families from a larger ongoing longitudinal study participated in this study. Mothers completed questionnaires that measured their use of inductive reasoning, as well as their children's prosocial behavior. Furthermore, parents and their children participated in 3 triadic interaction tasks that were coded to assess cooperative coparenting behavior. Results revealed that cooperative coparenting was positively associated with children's prosocial behavior. A significant interaction also emerged between maternal inductive reasoning and cooperative coparenting behavior. These findings underscore the important role of a cooperative coparenting subsystem in influencing children's emerging prosocial behavior, as well as highlight the association between positive parenting practices and children's prosocial development within the context of cooperative coparenting behaviors. This study demonstrates the utility of understanding family-level processes that contribute to children's prosocial development during early childhood.

Source: Journal of Family Psychology

DOI: 10.1037/a0032893

Authors: Meghan B. Scrimgeour, Alysia Y. Blandon, Cynthia A. Stifter, Kristin A. Buss

Institution: Pennsylvania State University

Language: English

Topic: Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development

Subfield: Clinical Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: Pennsylvania State University, National Institute of Mental Health

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