Contributions of child temperament and marital quality to coparenting among Chinese families

Given the importance of coparenting in children’s development, examining antecedents of coparenting quality is imperative. However, existing research has primarily focused on Western contexts. Using data collected from 714 Chinese families with preschool-aged children, the current study examined the associations between child temperament and coparenting quality. We further explored the potential moderating role of marital quality in such associations. The results showed that a child’s negative affect was negatively related, while child effortful control was positively related, to mother-perceived coparental support (i.e., fathers’ contributions to coparenting). However, child temperament was not associated with father-perceived coparental support (i.e., mothers’ contributions to coparenting). Marital quality did not moderate the relationships between child temperament and coparenting, whereas marital satisfaction was positively linked to coparenting quality for both fathers and mothers. The findings revealed that the relationships among child temperament, marital quality, and coparenting could vary by parent gender in the Chinese context. For both mothers and fathers, improving marital satisfaction may be the key to ensuring higher quality coparenting. It is especially important to support fathers with temperamentally difficult children to improve their coparenting quality.