What is maternal gatekeeping?
Maternal gatekeeping refers to a mother’s protective beliefs about the desirability of a father’s involvement in their child’s life, and the behaviors acted upon that either facilitate or hinder collaborative childrearing (often called “shared parenting” or “co-parenting”) between the parents. While each parent undoubtedly serves as a gatekeeper of his or her child’s safety and optimal development throughout the child’s life, maternal gatekeeping toward fathers has been the subject of research and the focus of concern among divorced families, for the reasons explained above. Maternal gatekeeping occurs regardless of whether parents are married, divorced or unmarried, and regardless of the parents’ satisfaction with the relationship between them.
