Face Concerns and Facework Strategies in Maintaining Postdivorce Coparenting and Dating Relationships

After divorce, coparents struggle with coping with the divorce, parenting, maintaining contact with one another, and developing dating relationships. They find challenge in maintaining multiple relationships, but we know little about how coparents manage face threats in light of these challenges. Thirty-five coparents who dated after divorce took part in interviews regarding facework in their coparenting relationships. Coparents experienced positive face threats related to their parenting and familial responsibilities. Negative face threats included being constrained in parenting choices and replaced by coparents' dating partners. Coparents employed multiple facework strategies, including decreasing communication with one another, confronting one another, and communicating through e-mail.