Coparenting as a Predictor and Outcome of Infant Developmental Processes: The Role of Socioeconomic Risk
Open Access
- Author:
- Kim, Christine
- Graduate Program:
- Human Development and Family Studies
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- May 06, 2024
- Committee Members:
- Douglas Teti, Program Head/Chair
Douglas Teti, Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Heidemarie Laurent, Major Field Member
Rina Eiden, Outside Unit & Field Member
Damon Jones, Major Field Member - Keywords:
- Coparenting
Socioemotional Development
Infancy
Sleep
Transition to Parenthood - Abstract:
- Feinberg’s ecological model of coparenting (2003) suggests that coparenting and infant processes are bidirectionally intertwined. Coparenting is a crucial indicator of overall family well-being during early infancy, and infants are highly susceptible to the caregiving environment as they are largely dependent on their parents for survival and well-being. As such, coparenting may significantly predict infant developmental processes. However, as family processes are in continuous, cyclical transactions with the environment (Sameroff, 2009), infant processes may also in turn, predict the quality of coparenting. The interlinkage between coparenting and infant processes may be influenced by the family’s socioeconomic risk, as developmental processes occur within multiple interrelated contextual systems (Bronfenbrenner, 1992). This dissertation aimed to investigate how coparenting and infant processes are associated with one another, specifically examining infant nighttime distress across the first year of life (Study 1) and socioemotional functioning across the second year (Study 2). In addition, socioeconomic risk was examined as a moderator in both studies. Data for both studies were drawn from a study funded by the National Institutes of Health on infant sleep, development, and parenting across the first two years of life (N = 167). Study 1 used multilevel modeling to explore mothers’ and fathers’ averaged reports of coparenting quality (Coparenting Relationships Scale; Feinberg et al., 2012) as a predictor and outcome of observed infant nighttime distress across the first year of life (1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months), examining family socioeconomic risk as a moderator. Infants displayed higher levels of nighttime distress at 1 month when their family’s coparenting quality was worse than their average across time. In addition, coparenting quality also tended to be lower than usual when infants’ nighttime distress levels were higher than infants’ usual levels. Socioeconomic risk did not moderate these associations. Study 2 used multilevel modeling to explore mothers’ and fathers’ averaged reports of coparenting quality (Coparenting Relationships Scale; Feinberg et al., 2012) as a predictor and outcome of mother-reported infant socioemotional functioning (ITSEA; Carter et al., 2003) across the second year of life (12, 18, and 24 months), examining family socioeconomic risk as a moderator. Poorer quality of coparenting predicted higher dysregulation and lower competence in infants. At 24 months, poorer coparenting relative to one’s average across time predicted higher infant externalizing, but not at earlier timepoints. Additionally, poorer coparenting was associated with higher externalizing only in families of high socioeconomic risk, but not for families of low socioeconomic risk. Unexpectedly, in the case of infant competence, poor coparenting more strongly predicted lower competence for families of low socioeconomic risk, compared to families of high socioeconomic risk. In the inverse direction, higher externalizing, higher internalizing, higher dysregulation, and lower competence predicted poorer coparenting. Notably, externalizing’s negative association with coparenting was strongest at 24 months and was only significant for families of high socioeconomic risk. This dissertation contributes to a larger body of literature examining the relations between coparenting and child development and adds to a smaller body of literature examining infant processes as a predictor of coparenting. The findings support coparenting as a predictor and outcome of two domains of infant developmental processes, sleep dysregulation and socioemotional functioning. It also provides evidence that infants are sensitive to variations in their family’s coparenting and that parents are sensitive to variations in their infants’ behaviors. Finally, results suggest that these within- and between-person associations between coparenting and infant developmental processes may vary across socioeconomic contexts.