The Coparenting Relationship Scale (CRS)

Abstract

The Coparenting Relationship Scale (CRS) is a comprehensive 35-item, self-report instrument designed to assess the quality of the coparenting relationship between two parents regarding their child. Developed based on the conceptual framework established by Feinberg (2003), the CRS is structured around four core, overlapping domains: childrearing agreement, co-parental support/undermining, division of labor, and joint management of family dynamics. The instrument utilizes seven distinct subscales to capture this complexity: Coparenting Agreement, Coparenting Closeness, Exposure to Conflict, Coparenting Support, Coparenting Undermining, Endorse Partner Parenting, and Division of Labor. The CRS serves as an invaluable tool for researchers and clinicians seeking to examine the role of coparenting in diverse family contexts and its relationship with overall parenting quality.

Keywords

Coparenting Relationship Scale, CRS, coparenting quality, parental agreement, division of labor, family dynamics, childrearing, self-report measure, psychological assessment.

Authors

Feinberg, M. E., Brown, L. D., Kan, M. L.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the CRS is to provide a detailed, multi-faceted measure of the quality and functioning of the coparenting relationship within a family unit. It was specifically designed to move beyond simple assessments of conflict or agreement to capture the complexity of how parents coordinate and collaborate (or fail to collaborate) in their shared child-rearing responsibilities.

The scale’s comprehensive structure is ideal for identifying specific strengths and weaknesses in the co-parental dynamic, making it highly applicable for both academic research and clinical interventions. It is frequently employed to study the impact of coparenting on child outcomes, marital stability, and individual parenting quality across various family structures, including married, cohabiting, and separated parents.

Construct

The CRS measures the psychological construct of coparenting, defined as the cooperative or non-cooperative nature of the relationship between two individuals in their roles as parents to a shared child. This construct, foundational to the work of Feinberg (2003), emphasizes the inter-parental subsystem, which is conceptually distinct from the romantic relationship or individual parenting skills.

The measure operationalizes the coparenting construct across four primary domains of interaction:

• Childrearing Agreement: The level of consensus between parents regarding rules, values, goals, and routines for the child.
• Co-parental Support/Undermining: The behaviors related to validating, supporting, or actively criticizing and disrupting the other parent’s authority and decisions.
• Division of Labor: The perceived equity and distribution of childcare tasks and responsibilities.
• Joint Management of Family Dynamics: The collective ability of parents to manage family transitions, stress, and overall functioning as a unit.

Validity

Information on the psychometric properties of the CRS, including validity, is comprehensively detailed in the 2012 publication by Feinberg and colleagues. The scale demonstrates strong construct validity, as its seven subscales align directly with the multi-domain conceptual framework proposed by Feinberg (2003), ensuring that the instrument accurately captures the distinct facets of the coparenting relationship.

Content validity was established through the careful selection of items, many of which were drawn from existing, established measures of parental interaction and conflict, supplemented by original items to ensure complete coverage of the conceptual domains. The structure allows for the measurement of both positive dimensions (e.g., Closeness, Support) and negative dimensions (e.g., Conflict, Undermining) of the coparenting process.

Reliability

The developers, Feinberg, Brown, and Kan (2012), provided evidence supporting the reliability of the CRS. Reliability typically refers to the stability and internal consistency of the measurement. Given the rigorous scale development procedures, the CRS is expected to exhibit high internal consistency (measured via Cronbach’s alpha) across the total scale and its individual subscales, confirming that items within each factor reliably measure the intended underlying dimension of the coparenting relationship.

Factor Analysis

The factor structure of the CRS resulted in the identification of seven distinct factors (subscales), confirming the multi-domain nature of the scale as originally conceptualized. This factor analysis, detailed in the 2012 article, supports the structural integrity of the instrument, allowing researchers to analyze specific dimensions of coparenting rather than relying solely on a single global score. The seven empirically supported factors are:

1. Coparenting Agreement
2. Coparenting Closeness
3. Exposure to Conflict
4. Coparenting Support
5. Coparenting Undermining
6. Endorse Partner Parenting
7. Division of Labor

Instrument

Test Type: Psychological self-report measure / Quantitative rating scale

Format: 35 items, typically rated on a 7-point Likert-type scale, where anchors range from 0 (“Not true of us” or “Never”) to 6 (“Very true of us” or “Very Often”).

Language Available: Original English.

Population Group: Adult parents or primary caregivers involved in a coparenting relationship.

Age Group: Adults.

Population Details: Suitable for parents in various relationship statuses, including married, cohabiting, separated, or divorced dyads, across different stages of child development.

Test Methodology: Respondents complete the scale individually, providing their subjective assessment of how they and their partner function together as parents.

Keywords

Co-parental conflict, family systems theory, psychological assessment, relationship dynamics, parenting agreement, psychometrics, scale development.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in source content.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not provided in source content.

Correspondence Address: Not provided in source content.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Coparenting Relationship Scale (CRS) was introduced and validated in 2012. Researchers and clinicians interested in utilizing the scale should consult the primary reference (Feinberg, Brown, & Kan, 2012) for usage guidelines. Permissions and any associated fees should be directed to the primary author, Dr. Mark E. Feinberg, or the journal publisher.

Reference’s

• Feinberg, M. E., Brown, L. D., & Kan, M. L. (2012). A multi-domain self-report measure of coparenting. Parenting, 12, 1-21.
• Feinberg, M. E. (2003). The internal structure and ecological context of coparenting: A framework for research and intervention. Parenting: Science and Practice, 3, 95-131.

Items of the The Coparenting Relationship Scale (CRS)

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

For each item, select the response that best describes the way you and your partner work together as parents:

0		1	2	3	4	5	6
Not true of us			A little bit true of us		Somewhat true of us		Very true of us
1	I believe my partner is a good parent.
2	My relationship with my partner is stronger now than before we had a child.
3	My partner asks my opinion on issues related to parenting.
4	My partner pays a great deal of attention to our child.
5	My partner likes to play with our child and then leave dirty work to me. (R)
6	My partner and I have the same goals for our child.
7	My partner still wants to do his or her own thing instead of being a responsible parent. (R)
8	It is easier and more fun to play with the child alone than it is when my partner is present too.
9	My partner and I have different ideas about how to raise our child. (R)
10	My partner tells me I am doing a good job or otherwise lets me know I am being a good parent.
11	My partner and I have different ideas regarding our child’s eating, sleeping, and other routines. (R)
12	My partner sometimes makes jokes or sarcastic comments about the way I am as a parent.
13	My partner does not trust my abilities as a parent.
14	My partner is sensitive to our child’s feelings and needs.
15	My partner and I have different standards for our child’s behavior. (R)
16	My partner tries to show that she or he is better than me at caring for our child.
17	I feel close to my partner when I see him or her play with our child.
18	My partner has a lot of patience with our child.
19	We often discuss the best way to meet our child’s needs.
20	My partner does not carry his or her fair share of the parenting work. (R)
21	When all three of us are together, my partner sometimes competes with me for our child’s attention.
22	My partner undermines my parenting.
23	My partner is willing to make personal sacrifices to help take care of our child.
24	We are growing and maturing together through experiences as parents.
25	My partner appreciates how hard I work at being a good parent.
26	When I’m at my wits end as a parent, partner gives me extra support I need.
27	My partner makes me feel like I’m best possible parent for our child.
28	The stress of parenthood has caused my partner and me to grow apart. (R)
29	My partner doesn’t like to be bothered by our child. (R)
30	Parenting has given us a focus for the future.

These questions ask you to describe things you do when both you and your partner are physically present together with your child (i.e. in the same room, in the car, on outings).

Count only times when all three of you are actually within the company of one another (even if this is just a few hours per week).

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Never Sometimes Often Very Often (once or twice a week) (once a day) (several times a day)

	How often in a typical week, when all 3 of you are together, do you:
31	Find yourself in a mildly tense or sarcastic interchange with your partner?
32	Argue with your partner about your child, in the child’s presence?
33	Argue about your relationship or marital issues unrelated to your child, in the child’s presence?
34	One or both of you say cruel or hurtful things to each other in front of the child?
35	Yell at each other within earshot of the child?

(R) = Reverse score the item

Scale creation:

• Coparenting Agreement = Items 6, 9, 11, 15
• Coparenting Closeness = Items 2, 17, 24, 28, 30
• Exposure to Conflict = Items 31-35
• Coparenting Support = Items 3, 10, 19, 25, 26, 27
• Coparenting Undermining = Items 8, 12, 13, 16, 21, 22
• Endorse Partner Parenting = Items 1, 4, 7, 14, 18, 23, 29
• Division of Labor = Items 5, 20

Brief Measure of Coparenting:

• Items 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 16, 20, 22, 24, 25, 27, 33, 34

Sources of items:

• Abidin & Bruner, 1995: 1, 4, 6, 17, 23
• Cordova, 2001: 10, 12, 16
• Frank et al., 1988: 5, 7, 13, 18, 24, 25, 26, 27, 30
• Margolin, 1992: 3, 15, 22, 29, 34
• McHale, 1997: 31, 32, 33
• Original: 2, 8, 9, 11, 18, 19, 20, 21, 28, 35