Critical Review of Research Evidence of Parenting Coordination’s Effectiveness

Parenting coordination (PC) has been in use since the mid-1980s, but research on its effectiveness is sorely lacking. We review the extant research organized by three themes: (1) parenting coordinators’ perceptions of their role and function; (2) professionals’ and parents’ views and perceptions of PC; and (3) outcomes of PC, including some measures of effectiveness of the PC process. While these studies provide some insight into PC effectiveness, there is still a lack of research that uses objective out- come measures of efficacy and that considers characteristics of the co-parent dyad, personality difficulties, or the professional discipline of the parenting coordinator. Future research recommendations are discussed.
Key Points for practitioners
• While parenting coordination (PC) is perceived by professionals to be effective, the research on PC effectiveness is limited by a small number of studies of variable quality; therefore there is no robust evidence of its effectiveness in practice.
• There is a need for research on PC effectiveness that considers parent engagement, conflict level, and personality variables as well as professional discipline of the parenting coordinator.
• While the Association for Family and Conciliation Courts and the American Psychological Association guidelines provide a model for PC practice, there is a distinct lack of theoretical underpinning of the PC practice.
• It is imperative for professionals and researchers to collaborate toward the development of a unified theoretical model to inform the PC role and practice, which in turn will allow objective assessment of its effectiveness.