Abstract
This chapter examines the contributions of expectant parents’ recollections of their own parents’ coparenting and the current quality of their couple relationship to their newly forming coparenting relationship. Data from 182 dual-earner, expectant, different-sex couples were used. Couples were observed during the third trimester of pregnancy engaging in a couple discussion task to assess couple relationship quality and the Prenatal Lausanne Trilogue Play Procedure to assess the developing coparenting relationship. Expectant mothers and fathers were also asked to report about their recollections of the quality of their own parents’ coparenting relationships. Results indicated that mothers’ experiences of coparenting in the family of origin were associated with observed prenatal coparenting relationship quality, but only for couples with lower-quality relationships. In other words, when mothers remembered more supportive coparenting relationships in their families of origin, those experiences appeared to buffer couples at risk for poorer coparenting due to lower couple relationship quality from demonstrating less positive prenatal coparenting relationships.
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Acknowledgments
This research was funded by the National Science Foundation (Grant CAREER 0746548, awarded to Sarah J. Schoppe-Sullivan), with additional support from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (Grant 1 K-1HD056238, awarded to Claire M. Kamp Dush) and The Ohio State University’s Institute for Population Research (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Grant R24HD058484) and program in Human Development and Family Science. We also acknowledge Claire M. Kamp Dush’s invaluable contributions to the design and execution of the New Parents Project.
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Olsavsky, A.L., Walker, I.S., Schoppe-Sullivan, S.J. (2021). The Role of Relationships Past and Present in Prenatal Coparenting Behavior on the Cusp of the Transition to Parenthood. In: Kuersten-Hogan, R., McHale, J.P. (eds) Prenatal Family Dynamics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51988-9_4
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