Quality of Coparenting and Infant-mother Attachment: The Mediating Role of Maternal Emotional Availability

Open Access
- Author:
- Kim, Christine
- Graduate Program:
- Human Development and Family Studies
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- May 11, 2020
- Committee Members:
- Douglas Michael Teti, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Steffany Fredman, Committee Member
Lesley Anne Ross, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- coparenting
parenting
attachment
transition to parenthood - Abstract:
- Increasing attention has been paid to the influence of family contextual factors in predicting infant attachment security. However, little is known about the influence of coparenting quality on attachment. The goal of the present study was to examine the associations between parental perceptions of coparenting quality, quality of mothering, and infant-mother attachment. Parental reports of positive and negative coparenting quality, maternal emotional availability, and infant-mother attachment were assessed in 167 infants and their parents at 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months. Direct and indirect effects were assessed within a structural equation modeling framework to examine: (a) direct effects of mother-reported coparenting on infant-mother attachment, (b) indirect effects of mother-reported coparenting on infant-mother attachment through the quality of mothering, and (c) indirect effects of father-reported coparenting on infant-mother attachment through the quality of mothering. Results revealed that there was an indirect, but not direct, association between mother-reported coparenting quality across the first year of life and infant-mother attachment at one year through maternal emotional availability across the first year. However, father-reported coparenting was not indirectly related to infant-mother attachment. Post hoc analyses revealed that mothers’ perceptions of coparenting at 1 month were indirectly linked to attachment at one year through maternal emotional availability across the first year. Findings highlight the importance of coparenting quality, especially in the early postpartum, in organizing quality of parenting and infant attachment.