Addressing Coparenting in the Delivery of Psychological Services to Children

In this article we highlight recent changes in fathers’ roles and argue that research on parenting has focused disproportionately on the role of mothers. We then describe ways that fathers may be overlooked in psychological services providing parent training and summarize preliminary evidence that the inclusion of fathers may enhance long-term effectiveness of parenting interventions. Compared to intact couples, separated and divorced parents may require additional support in working together to address children’s problems. We outline a strategy inspired by mediation that is designed to promote coparenting in separated and divorced families and illustrate it with a case example.