Doing Post-Separation Parenting: Contact Frequency, Coparenting, and Children’s Mental Health in Germany

his study examines how the quantity and quality of post-separation interactions among the nonresident parent, the resident parent, and the child jointly shape children’s emotional problems and hyperactivity. Post-separation families face the challenge of reorganizing family life, such as the care of minors. This has become increasingly complex because more families opt for shared-care models involving frequent contact with both parents. Previous research on children’s mental health in post-separation families has either focused on the quantity of contact or the quality of family ties, but their joint impact is understudied. Using data from the panel “Growing up in Germany” (N = 353 children), the interaction quantity was measured by the frequency of contact between the nonresident parent and the child, and the interaction quality between the parents by their level of coparenting problems. Frequent conflicts in the coparenting relationship between the resident and nonresident parent, combined with frequent or occasional contact between the child and the nonresident parent, were risk factors for emotional problems only. Having no contact and no coparenting relationship was also associated with more emotional problems. Our results highlight that emotional adjustment specifically seems to depend on constructive cooperation between both parents and sustained parent–child contact.