The Transition to Parenthood and Marital Quality

Lynn K. White · ALAN R. BOOTH

105 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Family Issues

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Family Dynamics and Relationships Attachment and Relationship Dynamics Marriage and Family Dynamics

Abstract

An extensive literature demonstrates a negative correlation between the presence of children and marital quality. Few of these studies are designed to test the reasons for this relationship. Using a national panel study, we examine two possible paths: that people who choose to have children differ from those who do not in ways that affect marital quality, and that having a child changes marital structure and process. The results of the analysis support neither hypothesis. Although marital quality deteriorated over the three-year period, the transition to parenthood does not seem to affect changes in marital happiness, interaction, disagreements, division of labor, satisfaction with division of labor, or number of marital problems. Having a child did, however, seem to deter divorce and permanent separation.

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References

1934Handbook of Child Psychology 1957Parenthood as Crisis 1970Marital Satisfaction over the Family Life Cycle 1982Children and Marital Happiness: A Further Specification of the Relationship 1974Marital Satisfaction over the Family Life Cycle: A Reevaluation 1970Correlates of Dissatisfaction in Marriage 1977The effect of children on marital dissolution 1976Transition to Parenthood: A Decade Replication

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2006Promoting healthy beginnings: A randomized controlled trial of a preventive intervention to preserve marital quality during the transition to parenthood.1998Patterns of marital change during the early childhood years: Parent personality, coparenting, and division-of-labor correlates.2009Examining the Relations of Infant Temperament and Couples' Marital Satisfaction to Mother and Father Involvement: A Longitudinal Study 2010The transition to parenthood and well-being: The impact of partner status and work hour transitions.2001Marital Quality Ten Years After the Transition to Parenthood: Implications of the Timing of Parenthood and the Division of Housework

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