Coraline's attitude about family is complex. Her parents, who are peripheral characters in the novel, are too busy with work to pay much attention to Coraline. Their interactions with her are short, and consist of coming up with things she can do to keep herself busy. This doesn't mean that they don't love her, however. In fact, the defining quality of Coraline's family is their respect for each other as individuals, and their commitment to each other. When her parents mysteriously disappear, Coraline remembers the time her father sacrificed himself to save her from a wasp's nest, and knows that she similarly has to go back to the other world to save them.

It's telling that the parents have so little agency in the book. You can understand the Other Mother as a reimagining of Coraline's real mother; while in real life Coraline craves attention, the Other Mother gives Coraline too much attention, and her motives for doing so are to possess Coraline in a way that is terrifying and dangerous. While Coraline's real parents understand her as an individual and grant her quite a bit of freedom, the Other Mother sees Coraline as an object to possess. Coraline's quest to free her parents is in this sense also an assertion of her individuality and independence.