Evaluating psychometric properties of the Coparenting inventory with Turkish mothers and fathers of preschool children

Abstract

The qualities of coparenting is important for children's development. Mothers and fathers may differently perceive their coparenting behaviors. In the present study, we investigated the psychometric properties of the Coparenting Inventory with Turkish mothers and fathers. The sample of the current study was 1566 parents of preschool-aged children (1249 mothers and 317 fathers). Confirmatory factor and measurement invariance analyses were used to test the structure of the inventory for both mothers and fathers. Additionally, we used marital satisfaction with subsample to test the criterion validity. The results confirmed the triad structure of the inventory: cooperation, conflict, and triangulation. Measurement invariances of the subscales were partially supported. All subscales were significantly associated with marital satisfaction for both mothers and fathers within the same family (n = 249), indicating the criterion validity of the measure. Overall results suggest that the researchers and practitioners may use this measure to reliably assess coparenting qualities of parents of preschool-aged children.