The Moderating Roles of Parenting Self-Efficacy and Co-parenting Alliance on Marital Satisfaction Among Chinese Fathers and Mothers

Parenting stress has been found to negatively predict marital satisfaction for both fathers and mothers. While marital satisfaction was found to affect individual mental health, family functioning and child development, the various parenting correlates may buffer the association between parenting stress and marital satisfaction. This study aims to examine the relationship among the parenting correlates, namely parenting stress, parenting self-efficacy, co-parenting alliance, and marital satisfaction. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with a sample of 2029 fathers and 1430 mothers of children aged two to six recruited from 48 nurseries in Hong Kong. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that fathering self-efficacy and fathers’ co-parenting alliance moderated the effect of fathering stress on fathers’ marital satisfaction. However, there was no such moderating effect for mothers. Findings support the gender role model of the fathers being less of child carers than the mothers. The absence of such an effect for the mothers can be explained by their attainment of marital satisfaction from factors other than parenting.