Coparenting and Parental School Involvement

Abstract

Parental school involvement is associated with social, psychological, and academic child outcomes. Beyond school, demographic, and individual influences, research on the relationship between family level processes and parental school involvement is limited. Coparenting is a unique family level relationship that influences parental engagement, but its link with parental school involvement is less understood. The goal of this study was to examine the association between coparenting support and biological mothers’ and fathers’ home-based involvement and school-based involvement when the child was 9-years-old. This study also tested whether biological parental union transitions (i.e., parental union dissolution; parental union formation with each other; stable coresident relationship with one another) significantly moderated these relationships, and whether the associations among the variables of interest were empirically stronger for mothers or fathers. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 1896 biological mothers and fathers), the current study utilized multiple-sample latent variable structural equation modeling analyses to explore the above associations. Higher levels of coparenting support were associated with higher levels of mothers’ and fathers’ home-based involvement, and higher levels of fathers’ school-based involvement. Union transitions did not moderate these relationships. The link between coparenting support and home-based involvement was significantly stronger for mothers, and the link between coparenting support and school-based involvement was significantly stronger for fathers. Coparenting support may be important to understanding the many components that influence parental school involvement.