Parenting Coordinators' Practices Recommendations: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

This qualitative study used a phenomenological approach to understand the experiences of seven parenting coordinators in using parenting coordination practices that they have found to be effective and would recommend to other parenting coordinators to achieve the following goals: educating parents, increasing the quality of parenting and co-parenting, managing conflict, and involving children and other family members in the process of parenting coordination. Data were collected with semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic coding. Initial findings suggest that there exists useful practice techniques toward achieving these goals, and supports a practice model informed by the evaluation by parenting coordinators of the efficacy of their chosen methods in the context of their practices. Participants report promoting cooperative co-parenting, stress parental autonomy, and supported parental decision making over parenting coordinator recommendations. Practical implications are discussed.