Parents Engage in More Positive Relationship Behaviors With Partners After Experiencing Greater Coparenting Support

Ecological models of coparenting propose reciprocal processes between coparenting and couple relationship dynamics, but previous literature has limited evidence of directionality. Using daily diary data in 89 families with a 3- to 5-year-old child from the Southwestern US, this report investigated within-day and time-lagged patterns of mother-father couples engaging in positive relationship behaviors and coparenting support. Dynamic structural equation modeling revealed day-to-day stability in mothers' coparenting perceptions and in fathers' positive relationship behaviors. Results primarily supported a unidirectional path where the previous day's perceptions of coparenting support positively related to the following day's reports of positive relationship behaviors after controlling for autoregressive effects in both variables. Our findings provide evidence of directionality in coparenting-couple processes-that the coparenting system may be shaping couple relationship dynamics more than the reverse. Clinical implications of this work include addressing the coparenting relationship as a prerequisite for managing problems within the marital relationship.