Relationship Dissolution Among Unmarried Parents

Today, I present a long summary of an interesting article. Duncan, Zhang, Futris & Sims (2024) published “Examining Predictors of Relationship Dissolution among Unmarried Parents: Applying the vulnerability–stress–adaptation framework” in Journal of Family Psychology. Here’s some highly edited information from the article:

Prior research has established that parents who are in a relationship, yet unmarried at the time of their child’s birth, are at an increased risk of relationship instability. However, the processes that may lead to the dissolution of these unmarried parents’ couple relationships are less clear. Guided by the vulnerability–stress–adaptation model, the present study examined data from a sample of 1,575 mother and father dyads who participated in the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study over a 9-year period. A mixed effects Cox regression model was used to investigate how unmarried parents’ reports of enduring vulnerability (depressive symptoms) over time influenced the onset of relationship dissolution between the time their focal child was 1- and 9-years old. Further, the potential mediating effect of mothers’ and fathers’ reports of stressful events (parenting stress) and adaptive processes (couple relationship interactions and coparenting behaviors) on the association between depressive symptoms and relationship dissolution by the 9-year follow-up were also examined. Results indicated that mothers’ and fathers’ reports of experiencing depressive symptoms over time were associated with relationship dissolution. Further, perceptions of couple interactions emerged as a significant mediator at the 3- (mothers) and 5- (mothers and fathers) year follow-up. Coparenting behaviors were a significant mediator for mothers and fathers at the 3- and 5-year follow-up. These results highlight how experiencing depressive symptoms over time, as well as perceptions of couple interactions and coparenting behaviors throughout the early years of parenting, are salient factors in the instability of unmarried parents’ relationships.

Recent trends suggest a “decoupling” of marriage and childbirth in the United States. Though couples are delaying marriage, trends suggest that couples are not delaying having children at the same rate. In fact, nonmarital births have steadily increased over time, with approximately 41% of children in the United States being born to unmarried parents in 2020, compared to 28% in 1990. Though unmarried, the majority of parents report being in a romantic relationship with one another at the time of their child’s birth. Although these parents have positive views of marriage and have intentions of marrying their current partner, many of these relationships dissolve by the time their child is 5 years old. Such family instability has been shown to negatively affect child well-being.

Though unmarried parenting couples have consistently been found to have a high likelihood of dissolution, the potential causes for this instability have been relatively understudied. Research examining predictors of instability has mostly focused on between-group comparisons of unmarried and married parenting couples. Findings from these studies highlight how factors such as relationship quality, socioeconomic status (SES), and cohabiting experience differentially contribute to the instability of married and unmarried parents. While understanding these between-group differences is of importance, understanding what contributes to within-group variations in the instability of unmarried parents’ relationships is also of value. In fact, recent critiques suggest the need to center structurally diverse families, such as unmarried and cohabiting families, in family research. From a practical standpoint, identifying and understanding the potential unique factors and processes that influence instability among unmarried parents can help to inform policy and interventions to support healthy relationship functioning among these families. Guided by the vulnerability–stress–adaptation (VSA) model (Karney & Bradbury, 1995), the present study examines the longitudinal effects of enduring vulnerability (depressive symptoms), stressful life events (parenting stress), and adaptive processes (couple relationship interactions and coparenting behaviors) on the likelihood of relationship dissolution.

According to the VSA [vulnerability-stress-adaptation] model, three key factors influence relationship outcomes: enduring vulnerabilities, stressful events, and adaptive processes. Enduring vulnerabilities refer to the personality traits, psychopathology, or experiences that occur at the individual level. Stressful events are conceptualized as the challenging events couples face (e.g., developmental transitions, acute and chronic circumstance, etc.). Finally, adaptive processes are conceptualized as the dyadic processes that couples engage in when navigating relational challenges or transitions. The model posits that these three factors work in conjunction to influence relationship quality and stability (or instability) over time.

The present study examined how enduring vulnerability (i.e., depressive symptoms), stressful events (i.e., parenting stress), and interpersonal adaptive processes (i.e., couple relationship interactions and coparenting behaviors) influenced the relationship dissolution of unmarried parents during the first 9 years of their child’s life. In addition to testing the direct effects of experiencing depressive symptoms, mothers’ and fathers’ reports of parenting stress, couple relationship interactions, and coparenting behaviors were examined as mediators of the association between depressive symptoms and relationship dissolution. The results indicated that, for mothers, couple relationship interactions and coparenting behaviors at Y3 and Y5, were significant mediators in the association between their reports of experiencing depressive symptoms and relationship dissolution. For fathers, coparenting behaviors at Y3 and couple interactions and coparenting behaviors at Y5 emerged as significant mediators. Parenting stress did not emerge as a significant mediator at any timepoint for mothers or fathers. 

We hypothesized that experiencing depressive symptoms would have a direct effect on relationship dissolution. Our results supported this hypothesis, in that experiences of depressive symptoms over time were associated with the likelihood of relationship dissolution among unmarried parents. This finding is particularly relevant as it highlights how depressive symptoms are a salient contributing factor to relationship dissolution among unmarried parents, who are already at an increased risk of experiencing depressive symptoms. Another important point to consider is the context of the low SES of our study sample. Lower SES has consistently been linked to the increased likelihood of experiencing depressive symptoms. As 18.5% of adults report experiencing symptoms of depression in the United States, this increased likelihood was also evident in our sample with mothers’ reports of experiencing depressive symptoms ranging from 21.3% to 29.8% over time, and fathers’ reports ranging from 19.3% to 25.8%. Though mothers’ and fathers’ reports of education and income were not significantly associated with relationship dissolution in this study, this low SES context could still inform why experiencing depressive symptoms was a key factor in relationship dissolution among the unmarried parents in this sample.

Largely consistent with the prior research, experiencing symptoms of depression were associated with parenting stress, couple relationship interactions, and coparenting behaviors at all timepoints. However, only couple relationship interactions (Y3 for mothers; Y5 for mothers and fathers) and coparenting behaviors (Y3 and Y5 for mothers and fathers) were associated with relationship dissolution. In line with the VSA model, these findings reinforce the susceptibility of stressful events and adaptive couple and coparenting processes to enduring vulnerability (i.e., depressive symptoms) and how this influence can persist over time. As suggested in prior research, couples are already at risk for deleterious effects on their relationships following the birth of their child and experiencing depressive symptoms can further inhibit these processes. As unmarried, low SES parents are already susceptible to increased depressive symptoms, these findings further illuminate how this experience of enduring vulnerability not only affects their likelihood of relationship dissolution, but also permeates throughout their relationship processes and how they experience stress.

These findings also highlight the salience of coparenting behaviors for unmarried parents. Though both couple relationship interactions and supportive coparenting were significant mediators, only supportive coparenting emerged as a significant mediator at both observed time points for both mothers and fathers. It is possible that, for unmarried parents, the nature of the coparenting relationship is more salient than the couple relationship over time. . . . For unmarried parents, it is possible that, they are simultaneously building the foundation for their couple relationship and navigating coparenting. Because the demands of parenting are especially high during the early years of a child’s life, for unmarried parents, our findings suggest that feeling respected and supported in their parenting role by their coparent is especially important to the stability of their continued romantic relationship.

While couple relationship interactions emerged as a salient factor for relationship dissolution for mothers at both observed timepoints, interestingly, the same was not consistently observed for fathers. Prior research suggests that it is possible that, in light of enduring vulnerability, mothers may perceive fathers to be more difficult and negative in their couple relationship interactions, which in turn affects their reports of relationship distress. In this same study, a similar association was also not seen for fathers. Our findings also support prior research on low-income fathers that suggests these fathers may “de-centralize” the couple relationship in order to focus on their coparenting/parenting role, especially when experiencing enduring vulnerabilities (i.e., economic barriers). Thus, the nature of the couple relationship may be less salient for unmarried fathers in the early years of parenting as their efforts are directed at navigating their parenting/coparenting roles. It is possible that, as the couple relationship persists, fathers become more susceptible to couple relationship dynamics. As indicators of couple relationship quality (such as couple interactions) have been found to be important for fathers in relation to other family relationship outcomes (e.g., father involvement, parent–child relationship), it is worth further exploration in future research to examine the specific role of couple relationship interactions in the association between enduring vulnerability and relationship dissolution for fathers.

Last, parenting stress did not emerge as a significant mediator for mothers or fathers. While parenting stress has been identified as being influenced by depressive symptoms and as influencing couple relationships, it appears that it may not link these variables through mediation. It is also of note that parenting stress could be considered an individual and internal process as compared to the other proposed mediators (couple relationship interactions and coparenting behaviors) which are dyadic and behavioral in nature. Thus, it is possible our results highlight how a greater synergy may exist between individual and dyadic processes in the influence on relationship outcomes than between multiple indicators of individual processes. It is also worth noting that the majority of mothers and fathers in this study reported having at least one other child in addition to the focal child. Though there is some research suggesting that first-time parents and those having their second child experience similar levels of parenting stress, it is possible that the parenting stress measure used in this study did not capture the ways in which these more experienced parents experience parenting stress. Therefore, future research may explore alternate pathways in which parenting stress may influence relationship dissolution through dyadic processes.

Findings indicated that experiencing depressive symptoms over time was associated with relationship dissolution. Further, our findings indicated that, for unmarried parents, the quality of their coparenting relationship may be more consistently salient to the stability of their relationship. These findings reinforce how the transition to parenthood and the early years of parenting may be critical times for parents to receive services, such as couple and relationship enrichment programs, that focus on improving skills to enhance the dyadic relationship. For unmarried parents, a focus on providing the knowledge and enhancing skills to maintain a healthy coparenting relationship may help to increase relationship stability.

The authors identify as limitations their failure to assess depression at the outset, a shift from a 2-year to a 4-year separation in data collection, possible differences between those who stayed and those who left the project, and possible cohort differences given first data collection was in 1998. I found it interesting that parenting stress was not a significant mediator and that it was coparenting stress more than relationship quality that influenced depression. It’s not surprising but I find it intriguing that “for unmarried parents, our findings suggest that feeling respected and supported in their parenting role by their coparent is especially important to the stability of their continued romantic relationship.”