The Family System Over time: Mother-Grandmother and

1. ABSTRACT The Family System Over time: Mother-Grandmother and Mother-Father Coparenting among Mexican-origin Adolescent Mothers and Families The current study examined the associations between mother-father and mother-grandmother coparenting interaction and conflict from 10 months through 36 months postpartum. Participants were 160 Mexican-origin adolescents who reported on their coparenting interaction and conflict with their child’s biological father and grandmother. Findings from cross-lagged models indicated that mother-grandmother coparenting interaction at Time 2 (T2) was positively associated with mother-grandmother conflict at Time 3 (T3), whereas mother-father conflict at T2 was positively associated with mother-grandmother conflict at T3. At T3, mother-father conflict was positively associated with mother-father interaction and negatively associated with mother-grandmother conflict at Time 4 (T4). Further, mother-grandmother interaction at T3 was positively associated with mother-grandmother conflict at T4. Findings highlight the importance of grandmothers in maintaining positive coparenting relationships over time, as well as the dynamic nature of the mother-father coparenting relationship and its influence on the family system as a whole. Chelsea L. Derlan, Adriana J. Umaña-Taylor, Kimberly A. Updegraff, Laudan B. Jahromi, & Amy B. Guimond MEASURES • Mothers’ reports of mother-father coparenting interaction (e.g., “How often • do you talk to child’s biological father about daily decisions regarding your child’s life?”) and mother-father conflict(e.g., When you and your child’s biological father discuss parenting issues how often does it result in an argument?”) were assessed using Ahrons’ (1981) coparenting scales. Alphas were .89 for interaction and .90 for conflict. • Mothers’ reports of mother-grandmother coparentinginteraction (e.g., “How • often do you talk to your mother about daily decisions regarding your child’s life?”) and mother-grandmother conflict (e.g., When you and your mother discuss parenting issues how often does it result in an argument?”) were assessed using the same measures (Ahrons, 1981). Alphas were .89 for interaction and .90 for conflict. BACKGROUND & SIGNIFICANCE • Coparenting is the process of two or more adults together assuming responsibility for the care and upbringing of a child (McHale, Lauretti, Talbot, & Pouquette, 2002). • Coparenting has been associated with positive adjustment for both children (e.g., Teubert & Pinquart, 2010) and coparents (e.g., Solmeyer & Feinberg, 2011) when this relationship is positive, and associated with maladjustment when this relationship is negative (e.g., Caldera & Lindsay, 2006). • Little is known about whether coparenting relationships remain stable over time, or how coparenting between different sets of coparents influence each other over time, especially in families of Mexican-origin teenage mothers. • A focus on coparenting processes among Mexican-origin teenage mothers, fathers, and grandmothers is warranted because (a) the number of births to Latina adolescents is still more than double those to non-Latina black adolescents, and almost triple those to non-Latina white adolescents (Martin et al., 2011), and (b) foreign-born households are more likely to be multigenerational and include grandparents who may be serving a co-parenting function (U.S. Census, 2012). • Guided by systems theory (Minuchin, 1974), the current study • examined the associations between mothers’ and fathers’ coparenting interaction and conflict, and between mothers’ and grandmothers’ coparenting interaction and conflict from 10 months through 36 months postpartum. RESULTS • The hypothesized model was tested with a cross-lagged panel design model • via structural equation modeling using Mplus version 6.1 (Muthén & Muthén, 2010). Constraints were imposed on paths to test equality across time. Missing data were handled using multiple imputation, with 20 imputed datasets, as recommended by scholars (Schafer & Graham, 2002). • Fit indices for the final partially constrained model (see Figure 1) indicated a • good fit [χ2 (96) = 97.66, p >.05; CFI = 1.0; RMSEA = .01 (.00 - .04); SRMR = .06]. DISCUSSION Figure 1. Final partially constrained cross-lag model. T1 = Time 1 (prenatal), T2 = Time 2 (10 months Postpartum), T3 = Time 3 (24 months Postpartum), T4 = Time 4 (36 months Postpartum). The following were specified in the model but are not diagramed for ease of illustration: T1 Mothers’ Nativity and T1 Age predicting all T2 variables, and Mother-Grandmother Co-residency and Mother-Father Co-residency as covariates predicting all co-parenting variables at their respective time points. Grey dashed lines indicate non-significant paths, and black solid lines indicate significant paths. All path estimates are unstandardized. * p < .05. ** p < .01. *** p < .001 DISCUSSION • Consistent with scholars’ recommendations to follow different sets of coparents over time (e.g., Jones & Lindahl, 2011), the current study examined how features of adolescent mothers’ coparenting • relationship with the biological father of their child and with their mother figures informed one another over time. The current findings provide important information regarding coparenting relationships in families of teenage mothers, as these young mothers often rely heavily on their own mothers during the transition to parenthood (Brooks-Gunn & Chase-Lansdale, 1995) but may simultaneously be negotiating the process of family formation with the father of their child. Given the limited research in which multiple sets of coparents have been examined simultaneously, and especially the limited research on coparenting among teenage mothers (Pittman & Coley, 2011), the current findings significantly expand the prior literature. • Consistent with family systems theory (Minuchin, 1974), which posits that changes in one family subsystem influence changes in another family subsystem, findings indicated that the mother-father • coparenting relationship appeared to be driving changes in the mother-grandmother relationship. Specifically, higher mother-father conflict when the child was 10 months old was associated with increases in mother-grandmother conflict one year later. Interestingly, higher mother-father conflict when the child was 24 months was associated with decreases in mother-grandmother conflict one year later. It is not clear why conflict in one coparenting dyad may lead to increases in conflict in a different dyad at one point, but decreases in the same dyad at a different point. The limited research examining dynamics across sets of coparenting dyads makes it difficult to draw conclusions regarding the processes at work; however, it is possible that the impact the mother-father coparenting relationship has on the mother-grandmother relationship changes as the adolescent transitions from adolescence to young adulthood. • Regarding the mother-father coparenting relationship, findings indicated that higher conflict at T2 was associated with increases in mother-father interaction at T3. Family systems theory (Minuchin, 1974) • suggests that increased interactions between individuals in a subsystem provide more opportunities for feedback, which influences the relationship. Consistent with these ideas, high levels of conflict may be providing feedback to mothers and fathers that they do not agree with one another with regard to parenting issues; as a result, they may be increasingly less willing to let the other parent make parenting decisions on their own. Thus, high levels of conflict may be leading to greater coparenting interaction, simply because the coparents are less willing to adopt a hands-off approach. Given that this was the first study to examine this relation over time, future work is warranted. • In terms of the mother-grandmother coparenting relationship, findings indicated that high levels of mother-grandmother interaction were associated with decreases in mother-grandmother conflict consistently • over time. Given that conflictualcoparenting has been linked to negative outcomes for teen mothers and their children (Teubert & Pinquart, 2010), an important focus for interventions may be to increase coparenting interactions between mothers and grandmothers, as greater coparenting interaction may serve to reduce coparenting conflict in these dyads. PROCEDURE & PARTICIPANTS • Self-report data came from 160 Mexican-origin adolescent mothers • who were participating in an ongoing longitudinal study of Mexican-origin adolescent mothers. • Interviews were conducted in participants’ preferred language, and took place when the adolescent’s child was 10 months old (T2), 24 months old (T3), and 36 months old (T4). Mothers received $30 for participation at T2, $35 at T3, and $40 at T4. • At T1, a majority of mothers (Mage = 16.27 years; SD = .98) were in school (64%) and U.S.-born (68%); fathers (Mage = 18.65 years; SD = 2.81) were mostly of Mexican-origin (87%) and U.S.-born (51%); most grandmothers (Mage = 41.26 years; SD = 6.85) were of Mexican-origin (91%) and born in Mexico (73%). ACKNOWLEDGMENT This research was supported by funds from the Departmentt of Health and Human Services (APRPA006011; PI: Umaña-Taylor), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD061376; PI: Umaña-Taylor), and the Cowden Fund to the Sanford School at Arizona State University. For more information: cderlan@asu.edu