Co-parenting in the context of child psychiatric hospitalization: a multilevel qualitative study

Abstract The hospitalization of a child in psychiatric care presents parents with a confluence of emotional, relational, and practical challenges. This qualitative study explored co-parenting experiences in this context, focusing on how parents perceive the decision to hospitalize their child and interpret hospitalization's outcomes. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 parents (13 dyads) and analyzed using a multilevel approach. At the individual level, most parents described hospitalization as a last resort following prolonged crisis. At the dyadic level, convergence in narratives was more frequent regarding the reasons for hospitalization than in expectations regarding outcomes or parental involvement during hospitalization. At the co-parenting profile level, three distinct co-parenting profiles emerged: aligned co-parenting (mutual understanding and shared support), partially aligned co-parenting (shared practical perspectives but divergent emotional experiences), and perceived discrepancy (one parent, typically the father, reporting detachment or secondary involvement). Overall, findings suggest that the hospitalization was mostly perceived as a joint crisis event which requires joint action and cooperation. This study offers insight into implicit co-parenting experiences during psychiatric hospitalization. Findings highlight the need for clinicians to attend to each parent’s narrative and to support shared meaning-making processes, especially when emotional dissonance exists within the dyad.