The experience of divorce can be a complex and challenging experience, particularly for families with minor children. Divorce intrinsically facilitates several related transitions that can include changes in financial circumstances, residence or geographic location, and various interpersonal relationships. Among the most drastic changes in relationships during this time can be the relationship between former spouses. Divorce may terminate the romantic relationship among partners, but for those with shared children, the joint responsibility in childrearing remains. How parents relate to each other in the capacity of childrearing is what is referred to as the co-parenting relationship. Within the divorce literature, limited research exists which considers comprehensive parent-reports of a range of co-parenting behaviors that are typical within the literature on co-parenting among continuously married intact families. This dissertation built upon this gap in the literature to advance understanding of a new measure of co-parenting behaviors among parents who have experienced a relationship dissolution. This measure, the Multidimensional Co-parenting Scales for Dissolved Relationships (MCS-DR), consists of four scales: (1) support, (2) overt conflict, (3) internally-regulated covert conflict, and (4) externally-regulated covert conflict. Support and overt conflict are commonly assessed dimensions within the divorce literature. However, internally-regulated covert conflict and externally-regulated covert conflict represent an understudied set of behaviors that distinguish between actions that an individual parent controls themselves and behaviors that fall outside of their control. Using this measure as a vehicle, the two studies herein sought to better understand (1) the utility of measuring covert co-parenting conflict in the divorce literature, (2) how physical custody status, a critical component of the post-divorce experience, can influence or shape the experience of co-parenting, and (3) what leverage points exist that can help to alleviate the impact of post-divorce stress on individual wellbeing. Study 1 involved the assessment of the MCS-DR for measurement equivalence across three distinctive physical custody statuses. Results indicated that nonresident parents and parents who shared joint custody demonstrated similar measurement related to factor loadings and intercept-levels across all four scales of the MCS-DR. Post-hoc tests were conducted to examine measurement equivalence between resident parents and a combined group of nonresident parents and joint custody parents. Findings suggested that although factor loadings were similar across all constructs, only internally-regulated covert conflict demonstrated similar intercept-levels across each custody group. Study 2 involved the assessment of competing models, comparing the well-established Quality of Coparental Communication Scale (QCCS) and the MCS-DR in predicting a latent variable of adverse mental health symptomology. Using a stress process approach, each model considered dimensions of co-parenting as sources of chronic stress manifesting in the form of adverse mental health symptomology, with self-efficacy acting as a mediator. Results indicated that the MCS-DR predicted a significantly greater proportion of the variance in self-efficacy, and three indicators of adverse mental health symptomology compared to the QCCS. Indirect effects were found in both models from a single dimension of co-parenting to adverse mental health symptomology through self-efficacy. Taken together the results of these studies provide further support for the utility of the MCS-DR, the value of assessing covert co-parenting conflict following divorce, and contextual considerations in studying divorcing families. Suggestions for future research, divorce education programming, and intervention are presented.
