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Article
Overt and covert coparenting processes in the family.
USF St. Petersburg campus Faculty Publications
  • James P. McHale
SelectedWorks Author Profiles:

James P. McHale

Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1997
Disciplines
Abstract

This article introduces a new self-report instrument designed to measure the frequency of parental behaviors thought to promote or undermine children's sense of family. Members of 103 married couples rated their behavior in both public (all family members present) and private (alone with child) contexts. Factor analyses of these data revealed four distinct factors indexing: behaviors in the service of promoting a sense of Family Integrity; largely covert parent-to-child communications undermining, or conveying Disparagement of, the coparental partner; overt interparental Conflict in the presence of the child; and coparental disciplinary activities (Reprimand). Significant husband-wife correlations were found on each of the four individual subscales. Construct-specific intercorrelations also obtained between like scales on the new measure and on the Family Environment Scale and Quality of Coparenting Scale. Cluster analyses of husbands' and wives' scores on the four Coparenting Scale factors suggested five "types" of coparenting families: Disconnected, Supportive, Average, Distressed-Conflicted, and Passionate. These clusters, along with the value of self-report instruments in assessing coparenting behaviors that may be largely clandestine in nature, are discussed.

Comments
Abstract only. Full-text article is available only through licensed access provided by the publisher. Published in Family Process, 36, 183-201. Members of the USF System may access the full-text of the article through the authenticated link provided.
Language
en_US
Publisher
Family Process
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0
Citation Information
McHale, J.P. (1997). Overt and covert coparenting processes in the family. Family Process, 36, 183-201.