There is ample evidence that the parents' couple relationship and their coparenting are pivotal predictors of family functioning and children's well-being. The parental relationship quality and coparenting are mutually interdependent. Distressed couples, rather than cooperating tend to be ineffective in working as a team in child-rearing. Parents with high levels of relationship quality, conversely, likely provide mutual support in parenting-related topics and display less coparenting conflict. However, given the different family relations and systems, the association between relationship quality and coparenting may differ between nuclear families, separated/divorced families, and stepfamilies. A growing number of studies have addressed the interrelation between the parental couple relationship and coparenting behavior, but little headway has been made so far to investigate whether the association varies between different family forms. Therefore, the goal of this systematic review was to summarize previous studies on the association between relationship quality and coparenting and to examine whether the associations differ between nuclear families, separated families, and stepfamilies. On the basis of defined inclusion and exclusion criteria, we found 23 empirical studies that have examined associations between relationship quality and coparenting among parents including k = 25 mean effects (k = 9 in nuclear families, k = 9 in separated families, and k = 7 in stepfamilies). Descriptive comparisons suggested there are scarcely any differences in the strength of associations between relationship quality and coparenting in nuclear families compared with separated families, while the association seemed less strong in stepfamilies. Among stepfamilies, descriptive findings indicated a stronger association between biological parents than between stepparents. However, the mean values of these associations were not significantly different between family forms based on a variance analysis. Furthermore, in studies of separated couples, the quality of the parental relationship was operationalized more often by negative aspects (e.g., conflict, distress, hostility) in comparison with the literature on nuclear families. The article emphasizes the role of the interparental relationship and successful coparenting across different family types and discusses the significance of this interplay for children's well-being. It might therefore be wise to strengthen this core relationships in universal prevention programs and in selective prevention targeted at separated parents and stepfamilies as a potential leverage point to positively affect children's healthy development.

There is ample evidence that the parents' couple relationship and their coparenting are pivotal predictors of family functioning and children's well-being. The parental relationship quality and coparenting are mutually interdependent. Distressed couples, rather than cooperating tend to be ineffective in working as a team in child-rearing. Parents with high levels of relationship quality, conversely, likely provide mutual support in parenting-related topics and display less coparenting conflict. However, given the different family relations and systems, the association between relationship quality and coparenting may differ between nuclear families, separated/divorced families, and stepfamilies. A growing number of studies have addressed the interrelation between the parental couple relationship and coparenting behavior, but little headway has been made so far to investigate whether the association varies between different family forms. Therefore, the goal of this systematic review was to summarize previous studies on the association between relationship quality and coparenting and to examine whether the associations differ between nuclear families, separated families, and stepfamilies. On the basis of defined inclusion and exclusion criteria, we found 23 empirical studies that have examined associations between relationship quality and coparenting among parents including k = 25 mean effects (k = 9 in nuclear families, k = 9 in separated families, and k = 7 in stepfamilies). Descriptive comparisons suggested there are scarcely any differences in the strength of associations between relationship quality and coparenting in nuclear families compared with separated families, while the association seemed less strong in stepfamilies. Among stepfamilies, descriptive findings indicated a stronger association between biological parents than between stepparents. However, the mean values of these associations were not significantly different between family forms based on a variance analysis. Furthermore, in studies of separated couples, the quality of the parental relationship was operationalized more often by negative aspects (e.g., conflict, distress, hostility) in comparison with the literature on nuclear families. The article emphasizes the role of the interparental relationship and successful coparenting across different family types and discusses the significance of this interplay for children's well-being. It might therefore be wise to strengthen this core relationships in universal prevention programs and in selective prevention targeted at separated parents and stepfamilies as a potential leverage point to positively affect children's healthy development.