Husbands' And Wives' Adjustment to Pregnancy And First Parenthood

Abstract

There are conflicting reports regarding type and extent of the change in couples' lives due to the arrival of a first baby. The present short-term longitudinal study of 39 volunteer couples had two major objectives: (1) to examine changes in couples' division of labor during the transition to parenthood, and (2) to investigate husband-wife differences in the associations between indices of marital and parental adjustment during the early postpartum months. Individual questionnaires and interviews were administered in couples' homes on three occasions: early pregnancy, late pregnancy, and 3-4 months postpartum. Repeated measure analyses of changes in feminine and masculine household tasks did not confirm a linear shift toward more sex-typed arrangement but rather demonstrated a curvilinear pattern with the least sex-typed arrangements occurring in late pregnancy. These results indicate that the pregnancy period needs to be viewed as a time of changes in instrumental roles. There were several wife-husband differences in associations between marriage quality and parenting in the postpartum period. Notably, greater involvement with the baby was positively associated with paternal adjustment but negatively related to wives' marital adjustment. These findings underscore the complex associations among husbands' and wives' household roles, marital adjustment, involvement with baby, and adjustment to parenthood.

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