Coparenting in Europe, 2015: Celebrations of advances and cautions about misdirection

Abstract

McHale, Rao, and their colleagues have been encouraging ‘emic’ approaches to the study of coparenting since the late 1990s, calling upon indigenous researchers to explore and illuminate the meaning of coparenting within their specific national and cultural contexts. Toward this end, the articles in this special section mark a watershed moment of sorts for the field of coparenting research. Family scientists from one northern European (England) and three Western European (France, Germany, and Switzerland) countries have organized to provide sightings of mother–father coparenting in four different European nations. While certainly not the first or only studies of coparenting completed in the individual countries, each article does afford a snapshot of a ‘moment in time’ that highlights issues thought by the authors to hold special salience for understanding mother–father coparenting in their country. This commentary integrates topics highlighted in the articles of this special section within a broader discussion of conceptual and methodological decision points crucial for assuring additional, generative progression of the coparenting field.

Keywords:

• coparenting
• family systems
• family diversity
• family measurement

Notes

1. Thanks to Jason Baker and to Michael Coovert for their assistance with these analyses.

Additional information

Funding

Work described in this article was supported in part by the National Institute of Child Health and Development grants [KO2 HD047505], [R01 HD42179], ‘ Prebirth predictors of early coparenting’, and National Institute of Child Health and Development [R29 HD37172], ‘Coparenting and family-level dynamics during infancy and toddlerhood’.