Fathers' Perspectives of Their Co-Parental Relationships Postdivorce: Implications for Family Practice and Legal Reform.

The article discusses the quality of co-parental relationships after divorce. Research on the effects of divorce indicates that the relationship between ex-spouses is a crucial, albeit often overlooked. The degree of interdependence is a central concept in understanding the way relationships are constructed and maintained and is based on mutual contingency. Innovations in custody arrangements and increasing involvement of fathers in child rearing serve as links requiring divorced parents to engage in frequent interactions. Research focusing on the co-parental relationship from the noncustodial father's perspective is relatively sparse in the divorce literature. Information about noncustodial fathers is all too often obtained from mothers and may not accurately describe fathers' postdivorce experiences. Fathers' perceptions about the quality of their relationship with their children was hypothesized to be relevant to the quality of their co-parental relationships. Information about the father-child relationship also reflects systemic properties about the self in relation to others. (Author abstract)