Venting to Unify the Front: Parents’ Negative Relational Disclosures about Their Children as Mediators of Coparental Communication and Relational Quality

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn families with children, presenting a unified front is important for healthy couple and family functioning, yet the behavioral mechanisms that explain how coparental communication strengthens the interparental relationship remain unclear. In this study, we examined how parents’ negative relational disclosures about their children to each other serve as mediators of coparental communication and relational quality in divorced (n = 65 dyads) and married couples (n = 173 dyads). Coparents’ reports of closeness and satisfaction in both couple types were predicted primarily by their reports of supportive and antagonistic coparental communication. The results also revealed significant indirect effects of supportive coparental communication on closeness through negative relational disclosures about young adult children for married mothers and divorced fathers. Antagonistic coparental communication positively predicted married coparents’ disclosures about their children, but not divorced coparents’ disclosures. The results extend theoretical models of coparenting and provide implications for coparenting education programs.