COPARENTING DYNAMICS IN HIGH-CONFLICT DIVORCE: AN INTEGRATIVE REVIEW OF PSYCHOSOCIAL MECHANISMS, PARENTING STYLES, AND CHILD ADJUSTMENT
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22551/MSJ.2026.03.18Abstract
High-conflict divorce represents a major ecological transition with profound implications for parents and children. Although coparenting has been widely examined, contemporary literature underscores the need for an integrative understanding of how relational dynamics, parental functioning, and children’s psychosocial adjustment interact during and after separation. Materials and methods: This integrative review synthesizes empirical and theoretical work published between 2000 and 2024, with emphasis on mechanisms linking coparenting quality to children’s emotional, behavioral, and social outcomes. Results: Drawing on family systems theory, emotional security theory, and multidimensional co-parenting models, the review identifies four core processes-emotional security, emotion regulation, social-cognitive processing, and parent-child relational functioning-as central pathways explaining how coparenting affects child adjustment. Parenting styles, parental stress, and burnout are examined as mediating and moderating variables that either amplify or buffer risk in high-conflict contexts. Conclusions: The study proposes a multi-level conceptual model illustrating how coparenting structures, psychosocial mechanisms, and contextual moderators unfold within the divorce process. Implications for clinical practice, family interventions, and forensic psychological evaluation are discussed, emphasizing the relevance of coparenting processes for determining the best interests of the child.
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