Abstract

Starting from a study of Fivaz-Depeursinge and colleagues (Fivaz-Depeursinge, Lopes, Python and Favez, 2009), this study aims to operationalize coparenting style and the corresponding toddler's interactive styles in a sample of 52 families and to define different types of family coalitions. Families (from two types of contexts: treatment and evaluation) were observed through the clinical Lausanne Trilogue Play procedure (LTPc: Malagoli Togliatti and Mazzoni, 2006). The results confirm the usefulness of a systematic investigation of triangular configurations among mother, father and child, in order to help the clinician and the consultant to identify the rigid relational patterns characteristic of dysfunctional families.