COPARENTING DURING THE CHILDS 2ND YEAR - A DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT

In this report, a description of coparenting processes (i.e., the manner in which mothers and fathers support and/or undermine one another's parenting efforts) in two-parent families raising firstborn toddler boys is presented. Sixty-nine families were naturalistically observed during their evening routine when their child was first 15 months and then 21 months old. Developmental analyses indicated that the mean frequency of total events and supportive exchanges remained unchanged from 15 months to 21 months, whereas unsupportive interactions decreased and mixed events increased. Individual differences in mothers' and fathers' coparenting interactions remained moderately stable. Analysis of coparenting agent behavior revealed that fathers supported mothers' parenting efforts twice as often as mothers supported fathers' efforts; the frequency of unsupportive coparental acts across men and women did not differ.