LA CO-GENITORIALITÀ OLTRE LA PERCEZIONE DEI SOLI GENITORI: VALIDAZIONE DI UN NUOVO STRUMENTO PER BAMBINI E ADOLESCENTI E ANALISI DEL SUO IMPATTO SUL FUNZIONAMENTO FAMILIARE

Co-parenting is a multidimensional construct that refers to parents' ability to coordinate and share parenting responsibilities, characterized by agreement, solidarity, and mutual support, or, conversely, by antagonism, conflict, and child triangulation efforts. Extensive empirical evidence establishes supportive co-parenting as a protective factor against children's psychological maladjustment, while dysfunctional co-parenting emerges as a risk factor predicting internalizing and externalizing problems. Despite extensive literature on the role of co-parenting in family dynamics, measures predominantly capture parents' behaviors and perceptions, revealing a critical gap: the absence of specific measures assessing children's and adolescents' subjective appraisals of the co-parental relationship in married or cohabiting families. Furthermore, theoretical and empirical evidence have demonstrated that conflictual co-parenting can negatively affect children's psychological adjustment through different linking mechanisms. On the one hand, child-centered models— Cognitive-Contextual Model (Fosco & Grych, 2008; Grych & Fincham, 1990), Emotional Security Hypothesis (Cummings & Davies, 2002; Davies & Cummings, 1994), and Triangulation Hypothesis (Bowen, 1978; Minuchin, 1974) —consider children's cognitions, emotions, and behaviors in explaining the associations between negative co-parenting and child adjustment. Conversely, the Spillover Hypothesis (Hinde & Stevenson-Hinde, 1989; Erel & Burman, 1995) highlights parenting and parental practices as possible linking mechanisms through which co-parenting relationships may affect children's adjustment. Grounded in this evidence (elaborated in Chapter 1), this Ph.D. dissertation defined four aims across five studies. These studies assessed co-parenting, parenting behaviors, children’s cognitions, emotions and adjustment through self-report measures administered to both parents and children. Study 1 (Chapter 2) is the validation of the Coparenting Relationship Scale for Children and Adolescents (CRS-C; Camisasca & Feinberg, 2020) with Italian families. This measure has been developed from the CRS for parents (Feinberg et al., 2012) to assess the child/adolescent perspectives on co-parental relationships in intact families. Study 2 (Chapter 3) examines the effects of negative co-parenting (based on both parents’ and children’s perspectives) on children's adjustment, considering children's cognitions, and behaviors as potential linking mechanisms. Study 3 (Chapter 4) explores the associations between combined parenting styles (the combination of authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive styles of mothers and fathers), co-parenting, maternal and paternal parenting stress, and children's psychological adjustment. Study 4 (Chapter 4) analyzes the predictive role of co-parenting on maternal/paternal parenting stress in the presence of children perceived as more or less problematic. Study 5 (Chapter 5) tests an integrated model that simultaneously considers children’s cognitive-emotional processes and parenting factors as mechanisms linking co-parenting to child adjustment. Indeed, there is a paucity of studies in literature exploring both aspects (parents’ and children’s cognitions and behaviors) within a single integrated analytical model. In conclusion, the five studies in this Ph.D. dissertation help advance knowledge about the effects of co-parenting relationships on family dynamics and children’s psychological adjustment. Findings also have important implications for assessment, prevention, and intervention programs aimed at promoting adaptive family relationships and supporting children’s developmental trajectories.