“Identifying risk and protective factors in parental coordination as family law intervention: An exploratory study”

Abstract Over the last ten years, Parental Coordination has gradually established itself in Italy as an innovative intervention for managing high‐intensity parental conflict, in cases where family mediation is impractical or ineffective. Introduced in 2014, the first phase of experimentation covered the decade 2014–2025, with a gradual increase in cases, confirming the growing need for this method. This paper presents exploratory research conducted at the Department of Dynamic, Clinical, and Health Psychology at Sapienza University of Rome on 31 cases followed between 2021 and 2025. The aim was to formulate hypotheses about the factors that influence the effectiveness of the intervention. The seven factors tested were the presence/absence of a foster institution, years between the start of proceedings and the start of parental coordination, presence/absence of criminal proceedings, years of union before the child's birth, age of child at the time of separation, coparenting style, and parental engagement. Although no significant associations were found between the variables examined and the outcome of the intervention, balanced parental engagement and the quality of the coparenting relationship appear to be frequently associated with positive outcomes, while an exclusionary coparenting style or highly unbalanced parental engagement seems to be associated with the risk of discontinuation.