Maternal partnership instability and coparenting Maternal Partnership Instability and Coparenting among Fragile Families

Data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 2,725) are used to examine associations between mothers? partnership instability and coparenting over the first five years after a nonmarital birth, differences between coresidential and nonresident, dating transitions and variation by maternal race and child gender. Both coresidential and dating transitions are significantly associated with lower quality coparenting at child age 5, but the association is stronger for coresidential transitions than dating transitions. The negative association between coresidential transitions and coparenting quality is stronger for White parents than for Black parents and for mothers of sons than for mothers of daughters. Robustness checks suggest that at least part of these associations is causal. Implications for parenting and child well-being in the context of Fragile Families are discussed.