Prenatal Version of the Coparenting Relationship Scale Among Finnish Couples Expecting Their Firstborn

Abstract

Although coparenting has been widely studied, research on what expectant couples think about their future coparenting is limited. Our aim was to examine the psychometric properties of the Prenatal Version of Coparenting Relationship Scale among Finnish couples expecting their first child. We were also interested in the associations between couples’ expectations of coparenting and couple relationship quality. Expectants and partners (N = 157 Finnish couples expecting their first child; 156 in a heterosexual and 1 in a same-sex relationship) individually completed the questionnaires 1–3 months before childbirth. We used Exploratory Factor Analysis and Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling. The results showed that both expectants’ and partners’ expectations of coparenting were very positive. Two dimensions, Expectations of cooperative coparenting and Expectations of coparenting conflict, were found for both expectants and partners, and both dimensions were largely invariant across spouses. The two dimensions were associated with each other. Expectations of cooperative coparenting were positively associated with prenatal couple relationship quality in both expectants and partners, thus confirming concurrent validity between these measures. Support for the discriminant validity of coparenting conflict in relation to couple relationship quality was found for both spouses whereas the discriminant validity of cooperative coparenting was confirmed for partners only. Our results indicate preliminary support for the validity and reliability of the Finnish version of the Coparenting Relationship Scale—Couples’ Prenatal Version (CRS-CPV) for assessing coparenting expectations, especially among heterosexual couples.