This study examines the efficacy of a prenatal intervention designed to promote healthy coparenting relationships in families where low-income, unmarried mothers and fathers were expecting a first baby together. One hundred thirty-eight Black and mixed-race mother-father dyads participated. Coparent dyads were randomly assigned to either a treatment as usual (TAU) group, receiving referrals and navigation support to existing community services (control), or to TAU plus invitation to a series of six dyadic Focused Coparenting Consultation (FCC) sessions led by a male-female mentor team (intervention). Seventy-one percent of those prenatally assessed were later reassessed at 3 months postpartum. Both mothers and fathers contributed reports of coparenting, father engagement, physical and psychological intimate partner violence (IPV), and depressive symptoms. Intent-to-treat analyses indicated: (a) some evidence that mothers in the intervention group reported more positive coparenting communication at 3 months postpartum than did control group mothers; (b) mothers in the intervention group reported significantly more time spent by fathers with the child than did control group mothers; (c) parents in the intervention group had significant reductions in psychological IPV compared to parents in the control group; and (d) both mothers and fathers showed reductions in self-reported depression over time, with no differential impact of group. Findings suggest that the FCC intervention may produce modest but important benefits for unmarried, low-income Black coparents in the transition to parenthood.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify recurring themes about impending coparenthood common among prenatal dyadic conversations shared between unmarried parents. Forty Black mothers and fathers expecting a first baby together met with a male-female mentor team for facilitated dialogues six times during the pregnancy, with sessions audiotaped and transcribed. Guided by basic elements of grounded theory, coders identified five cross-cutting themes discussed by coparents relevant to their coparenting expectancies: establishing the baby’s family system, supports and threats to coparenting efforts, reflecting on fatherhood—Connecting past with future father legacies, acculturating the child/handling parenting differences, and effects of relationship status on coparenting. These themes underscored a common commitment fathers and mothers shared in figuring circumstances out for their child. Analyses portray a rich, generative, and introspective set of dialogues reflecting shared deliberation about family dynamics after the baby’s arrival. This study’s findings address a significant gap in the literature and highlight the value of narrative methodologies to understand joint narratives of unmarried Black coparents more thoroughly as they transition to new parenthood.

This chapter is concerned with within-family coparenting, the communication, support, and solidarity between any two or more adults responsible for the care and upbringing of children for whom they share responsibility. Coparenting is a child-centered construct best understood through the eyes and experiences of children themselves. The authors (a) offer a brief history of formative ideas and theoretical perspectives influencing studies of coparenting; (b) review influential research on mother-father coparenting, beginning with early studies of mother-father coparenting in co-residential, largely White families; (c) bridge to emerging scholarship on mother-father coparenting in Black families and the fresh insights such work provides; and (d) close by briefly discussing coparenting beyond mother-father-child triangles – that is, in family systems where individuals besides just the child’s mother and father play a formative role in the child’s socialization and acculturation. Such families represent a major, rising groundswell of all families worldwide, and conceptualizations of family communication around child-rearing must begin taking such family structures and their interior dynamics into fuller account.