| Abstract: | The authors performed a cluster analysis on data from 270 divorced or separated parents to classify their perceived coparental relationship with their ex‐spouse and test if parents' perceptions of their children's postdivorce adjustment differed based on their perceptions of their postdivorce coparental relationship. The cluster analysis resulted in three types of coparenting relationships: cooperative and involved, moderately engaged, and infrequent but conflictual. Despite the expectation that children fare better if their divorced parents' develop a cooperative coparenting relationship, the authors found that parents' reports of their children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors and their social skills did not significantly differ by type of postdivorce coparental relationships. Results, therefore, suggest that the direct influence of postdivorce coparenting on children's adjustment may not as robust as predicted in the literature. |
