Conflict and tension in the couple relationship transfers to the parent–child relationship, amplifying the stress parents experience while parenting young children. Pinpointing moderating and individual‐level factors that exist in this spillover process may identify both couple and individual areas where spillover might be mitigated. This study used a within‐couple approach to test for gender differences in marital‐to‐parenting spillover and to examine the moderating roles of gender, parental identity, and the emotion regulation strategy cognitive reappraisal in the linkages between marital–parenting spillover. From a larger study of parenting experiences, 96 mother–father couples of young children (mean age = 3.22 years) reported on measures of marital satisfaction, cognitive reappraisal, parenting identity, and parenting stress. Using path model comparisons, we found more similarities than differences between mothers and fathers and, contrary to the hypothesis, that mothers experienced greater spillover between marital satisfaction and parental distress than fathers. Results differed between outcome measures, suggesting that parents experience more spillover from marital satisfaction to parenting in the context of parental distress than in dysfunctional interactions with their child. Importantly, we found that higher parental identity strengthened marital‐to‐parenting spillover for mothers in contrast to expectations based on theoretical assumptions, whereas cognitive reappraisal weakened marital‐to‐parenting spillover, supporting the broader emotion regulation literature. These results signify the importance of situating the marriage to parenting transfer in the context of affective experiences and intensified parenting expectations, wherein flexibility in role identity may help alleviate parenting stress.

ObjectiveWe tested whether cognitive reappraisal and coparenting quality moderate marital to parent–child spillover in mothers and fathers.BackgroundThe influence of marital relationship quality on parent–child relationships, referred to as the spillover effect, is well documented. Factors that may attenuate the occurrence of spillover, however, remain unclear. Cognitive reappraisal, an emotion regulation strategy that promotes the reframing of emotional situations as neutral or positive, and coparenting—the intermediate subsystem between the marital and parent–child relationships—may buffer the effects of marital to parent–child spillover.MethodUsing daily diary data from mother–father couples (N = 96) of young children (Mage = 3.22 years), we investigated coparenting quality and cognitive reappraisal as moderators of marital and parent–child spillover within and between days.ResultsDyadic multilevel models revealed within‐day spillover of marital emotional climate and parent–child emotional climate for both mothers and fathers. Whereas cognitive reappraisal moderated spillover for fathers, no significant moderators emerged for mothers. Fathers also experienced next‐day associations between marital emotional climate and parent–child emotional climate the following day, whereas mothers did not. Coparenting quality accounted for next‐day associations between fathers' marital emotional climate and parent–child climate.ConclusionOverall, our results evince that although spillover can be attenuated by both cognitive reappraisal and coparenting quality for fathers, the same is not true for mothers.ImplicationsThese results signify the importance of considering mother and father differences in empirical investigations of spillover effects and processes within the family system, and the clinical implications recommended to marriage and family therapists.

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While parenting children with difficult behaviors can intensify stress within the entire family system, families may lean on other familial relationships to mitigate that stress. The coparenting relationship is known to play a key role within the family system for child outcomes and familial interactions, but it is not clear whether it eases the stress and challenge of raising a difficult child, nor how that plays out differently for mothers versus fathers. Ninety‐six couples (89.7% married) parenting young children (Mean age = 3.22 years) were included in this study. Using cross‐sectional and aggregated daily response data, actor–partner interdependence models were used to examine how mothers' and fathers' perceived coparenting support lessened or intensified parenting stress and/or daily problems with their child/children—for themselves or their parenting partner. We found that greater coparenting support reported by mothers coincided with stronger links between the mother's report of child difficulty and daily problems encountered by both mothers and fathers. In contrast, when fathers reported greater coparenting support, the intensity between reported child difficulty and daily problems decreased for mothers, and fathers reported lower parenting stress. Coparenting support also moderated associations between parents' perception of child difficulty and daily problems with their children. These results suggest that mothers incur heightened coparenting support from fathers when experiencing more difficult child behavior and that coparenting support experienced by fathers may alleviate parenting challenges for mothers. These findings further contribute to the literature by emphasizing distinct differences between mothers and fathers in coparenting associations within the family system.