Parenting in couple relationships

Parental inconsistency and particularly harsh coercive parenting practices increase children's risk of developing serious mental health problems. This chapter introduces a conceptual framework for understanding coparenting and the factors that influence partners' relationships with each other and their parenting practices. It explores the types of coparenting interventions that can be used to positively influence the couple's relationship using a broad public health framework for providing parenting support. Contextual factors influence the type and nature of coparenting relationships. These factors include whether parents reside together, how close they are as a couple, the quality of the parents' communication with each other and individual parent and child factors such as gender and relational style. The chapter focuses on key factors of relevance to couple relationship functioning and distress as illustrated by several of the case couples. It concludes with consideration of how parenting programs provide a valuable context for addressing couple's relationship problems both in terms of prevention and treatment