Co-Parenting of Adolescent Children, Parenting Stress, Marital Problems, and Parents' Mental Health

The purpose of this study is to answer the call for studies on the well-being of parents with adolescents and to gain further understanding of its influential mechanisms in family systems. Guided by family systems theory (Minuchin, 1974) and the ecological model of co-parenting (Feinberg, 2003), I proposed a conceptual path model linking co-parenting, parenting stress, marital problems, and parents' mental health problems. Using a sample of 116 parents of adolescents from cross-sectional data (Parenting and Adolescents' Well-Being project), I conducted Structural Equational Modeling to test the hypothesized model. Results supported my hypothesis that lower co-parenting quality was positively associated with parents' mental health problems through parenting stress and marital problems. This study contributed to the field by raising awareness of parents' psychological well-being, emphasizing the central role of co-parenting of adolescents in its relation to parents' mental health problems, and examining parenting stress and marital problems as essential linking mechanisms. The findings from the present study could inform clinicians and therapists regarding the design of prevention and intervention programs aiming to promote better psychological health of parents of adolescent children.