Co-parenting Mediates the Influence of Marital Satisfaction on Child Adjustment: The Conditional Indirect Effect by Parental Empathy

Abstract

This study investigated the mediational role of co-parenting in the association between marital satisfaction and child adjustment, by exploring the conditional indirect effect by parental empathy. Using a sample of 101 Italian father-mother dyads with school-aged children, we administered to parents a series of measures in order to assess marital satisfaction, co-parenting, parents’ empathic skills and children’s adjustment. We computed conditional indirect analyses in order to analyze the mediational role of co-parenting in the associations between marital satisfaction and child adjustment. Consequently, we computed a moderated mediated model in order to explore if mothers’ and fathers’ empathic skills moderated the mediating role of co-parenting. Our findings showed that lower levels of co-parenting mediated the associations between mothers and fathers marital dissatisfaction and children’s behavioral problems. Results also showed that this effect was moderated by parent’s empathic skills, such that mediation is stronger for those with lower empathic competencies (moderated mediation).