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The effect of the transition to parenthood on relationship quality: An 8-year prospective study.
Open accessAbstract
This longitudinal study examined the effect of the birth of the 1st child on relationship functioning using data from 218 couples (436 individuals) over the course of the first 8 years of marriage. Compared with prebirth levels and trajectories, parents showed sudden deterioration following birth on observed and self-reported measures of positive and negative aspects of relationship functioning. The deterioration in these variables was small to medium in size and tended to persist throughout the remaining years of the study. Mothers and fathers showed similar amounts of change after birth. The amount of postbirth deterioration in relationship functioning varied systematically by several characteristics of the individual, the marriage, and the pregnancy itself. In a group of couples who did not have children, results indicated more gradual deterioration in relationship functioning during the first 8 years of marriage without the sudden changes seen in parents, suggesting that the results seen in the parent sample may be due to birth.
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“On average, couples’ relationship quality declines across the transition more than it does for couples who do not have children (Doss et al. 2009; Lawrence et al. 2008), and rates of relationship conflict and distress increase (Slep and O’Leary 2005).”
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ResultMarital Quality over the Transition to Parenthood as a Predictor of Coparenting
Christopher, C., Umemura, T., Mann, T., Jacobvitz, D. B., & Hazen, N. L. (2015) · Journal of Child and Family Studies · doi:10.1007/s10826-015-0172-0 · Cited by 194
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“Despite this, some couples actually become more satisfied during the transition (Doss et al., 2009).”
InfluentialShorey, S., Ng, Y. P. M., Ng, E. D., Siew, A. L., Mörelius, E., Yoong, J., & Gandhi, M. (2019) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/10816 · Cited by 97
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van Scheppingen, M. A., Denissen, J. J. A., Chung, J. M., Tambs, K., & Bleidorn, W. (2018) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/pspp0000156 · Cited by 107
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“Across the transition into parenthood, married heterosexuals report declines in marital satisfaction (Belsky & Kelly, 1994; Doss et al., 2009; Lawrence, Rothman, Cobb, Rothman, & Bradbury, 2008; Mitnick, Heyman, & Smith Slep, 2009) and more frequent marital conflicts (Kluwer & Johnson, 2007; Cowan…”
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“Third, longitudinal studies on parents are at risk to mistake age-graded maturation for the effects of childbirth (Doss et al., 2009).”
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“For instance, compared to those with planned pregnancies, women who reported their pregnancies were unplanned also reported greater deterioration in relationship functioning in some (e.g., Cox, Paley, Burchinal & Payne, 1999; Lawrence et al., 2008) but not all studies (e.g., Doss et al., 2009).”
BackgroundResultInfluentialSelf-citationThe Role of Religion in Parenting Satisfaction and Parenting Stress Among Young Parents
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BackgroundGender, Emotion Work, and Relationship Quality: A Daily Diary Study
Curran, M. A., McDaniel, B. T., Pollitt, A. M., & Totenhagen, C. J. (2015) · Sex Roles · doi:10.1007/s11199-015-0495-8 · Cited by 65
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Prevention of Mental Health Difficulties for Children Aged 0–3 Years: A Review
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“…of Sociology, Kent State University, P.O. Box 5190, 215 Merrill Hall, Kent, OH 44242, USA and Mickelson 2011a, b), there is a burgeoning literature on the transition to fatherhood that shows the importance of understanding these processes for men (Doss et al. 2009; Knoester and Eggebeen 2006).”
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Holmes, E. K., Sasaki, T., & Hazen, N. L. (2013) · Family Relations · doi:10.1111/fare.12041 · Cited by 56
Quality of the intimate and sexual relationship in first-time parents – A longitudinal study
Hansson, M., & Ahlborg, T. (2011) · Sexual & Reproductive Healthcare · doi:10.1016/j.srhc.2011.10.002 · Cited by 56
“In the American study of Doss [15] relationship quality is defined as relationship functioning measured by the first item of Marital Adjustment Test (MAT), observed marital communication, relationship confidence, relationship dedication and poor conflict management (communication).”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialThe influence of partnership quality and breastfeeding on postpartum female sexual function
Matthies, L. M., Wallwiener, M., Sohn, C., Reck, C., Müller, M., & Wallwiener, S. (2018) · Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics · doi:10.1007/s00404-018-4925-z · Cited by 55
Patterns of marital relationship change across the transition from one child to two.
Volling, B. L., Oh, W., Gonzalez, R., Kuo, P. X., & Yu, T. (2015) · Couple and Family Psychology Research and Practice · doi:10.1037/cfp0000046 · Cited by 54
“A third pattern describing sudden and persistent change (Doss et al., 2009), or what we refer to as the crisis model, reflects a pattern of sudden decline that persists over the year following the birth and indicates that couples are unable to adjust and return to pre-birth levels (see Figure 1).”
InfluentialHagemeyer, B., & Neyer, F. J. (2011) · Psychological Assessment · doi:10.1037/a0024822 · Cited by 53
McKenzie, S., & Carter, K. N. (2012) · Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health · doi:10.1136/jech-2012-201765 · Cited by 53
Retirement is associated with change in self-esteem.
Bleidorn, W., & Schwaba, T. (2018) · Psychology and Aging · doi:10.1037/pag0000253 · Cited by 53
Alipour, Z., Kazemi, A., Kheirabadi, G., & Eslami, A. A. (2020) · Reproductive Health · doi:10.1186/s12978-020-0877-4 · Cited by 53
“Physical and psychological changes in women during pregnancy and the transition to the parenthood period pose new challenges and may be followed by poor relationship between the spouses and may reduce the quality of marital relationship [1, 2].”
BackgroundUnintended fertility and the stability of coresidential relationships
Guzzo, K. B., & Hayford, S. R. (2012) · Social Science Research · doi:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2012.03.002 · Cited by 52
“Relationship quality generally declines after a birth (Belsky and Rovine 1990; Doss et al. 2009), and the decline is most sizeable among those with unintended fertility (Cox et al. 1999; Lawrence et al. 2008).”
BackgroundLönnqvist, J., Leikas, S., & Verkasalo, M. (2017) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2017.08.019 · Cited by 52
Castellano, R., Velotti, P., Crowell, J. A., & Zavattini, G. C. (2013) · Journal of Child and Family Studies · doi:10.1007/s10826-013-9757-7 · Cited by 51
Sex through a sacred lens: Longitudinal effects of sanctification of marital sexuality.
Hernandez, K. M., & Mahoney, A. (2018) · Journal of Family Psychology · doi:10.1037/fam0000392 · Cited by 51
Pathways to a Stable Union? Pregnancy and Childbearing Among Cohabiting and Married Couples
Lichter, D. T., Michelmore, K. M., Turner, R. N., & Sassler, S. L. (2016) · Population Research and Policy Review · doi:10.1007/s11113-016-9392-2 · Cited by 51
Matthies, L. M., Müller, M., Doster, A., Sohn, C., Wallwiener, M., Reck, C., & Wallwiener, S. (2019) · Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics · doi:10.1007/s00404-019-05402-7 · Cited by 51
Cao, H., Fine, M. A., & Zhou, N. (2022) · Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review · doi:10.1007/s10567-022-00379-3 · Cited by 94
Galatzer‐Levy, I. R., Mazursky, H., Mancini, A. D., & Bonanno, G. A. (2011) · Journal of Family Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0023759 · Cited by 54
Perceived Fairness and Relationship Satisfaction During the Transition to Parenthood
Chong, A., & Mickelson, K. D. (2013) · Journal of Family Issues · doi:10.1177/0192513x13516764 · Cited by 48
Maternal Stress Predicts Postpartum Weight Retention
Whitaker, K. M., Young-Hyman, D. L., Vernon, M., & Wilcox, S. (2014) · Maternal and Child Health Journal · doi:10.1007/s10995-014-1470-7 · Cited by 47
“While becoming a first time parent is typically a positive experience, it is also life altering and has been found to be associated with higher perceived stress [32], reduced marital satisfaction [33, 34], and higher rates of depression [35, 36].”
Relationship Satisfaction and Dyadic Coping in Couples with a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Chamberlain, A., Cordier, R., Vaz, S. M. A., Parsons, R. W., & Falkmer, T. (2017) · Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · doi:10.1007/s10803-017-3275-1 · Cited by 59
“The transition to parenthood is commonly associated with decreased relationship satisfaction (Doss et al. 2009; Keizer and Schenk 2012; Mitnick et al. 2009); however, couples appear to be at a greater risk if they have a child with ASD (Sim et al.”
BackgroundGambrel, L. E., & Piercy, F. P. (2014) · Journal of Marital and Family Therapy · doi:10.1111/jmft.12065 · Cited by 53
Najman, J. M., Khatun, M., Mamun, A. A., Clavarino, A. M., Williams, G. M., Scott, J. G., O'Callaghan, M. J., Hayatbakhsh, M. R., & Alati, R. (2013) · Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology · doi:10.1007/s00127-013-0749-0 · Cited by 48
“Studies which examine marital quality and match by duration of marriage suggest the decline in marital quality is greater for those couples that have children [12, 14].”
BackgroundPetch, J. F., Halford, W. K., Creedy, D. K., & Gamble, J. A. (2012) · Family Process · doi:10.1111/j.1545-5300.2012.01420.x · Cited by 45
Hagemeyer, B., Neberich, W., Asendorpf, J. B., & Neyer, F. J. (2012) · Journal of Personality · doi:10.1111/jopy.12016 · Cited by 46
Single Parents, Unhappy Parents? Parenthood, Partnership, and the Cultural Normative Context
Stavrova, O., & Fetchenhauer, D. (2014) · Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology · doi:10.1177/0022022114551160 · Cited by 50
Marital satisfaction across the transition to parenthood: Three eras of research.
Lawrence, E. E., Rothman, A. D., Cobb, R. J., & Bradbury, T. N. (2010) · American Psychological Association eBooks · doi:10.1037/12058-007 · Cited by 45
Schönbrodt, F. D., & Asendorpf, J. B. (2011) · Psychological Assessment · doi:10.1037/a0021049 · Cited by 46
“As previous research indicates that single items can provide a pure and valid measure of relationship satisfaction (Doss, Rhoades, Stanley, & Markman, 2009), relationship satisfaction to the real-world partner was assessed with the following single item on a 11-point Likert scale ranging from 0 (…”
MethodXiao, X., & Loke, A. Y. (2021) · International Journal of Nursing Studies · doi:10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2021.103951 · Cited by 47
Family sense of coherence and family and marital functioning across the perinatal period
Ngai, F., & Ngu, S. (2015) · Sexual & Reproductive Healthcare · doi:10.1016/j.srhc.2015.11.001 · Cited by 44
“[6] found that the delivery of a newborn child had an adverse effect on marital relationship, and that the changesweremore suddenandpersistent amongparents than non-parents.”
BackgroundResultThe Spillover of Child‐Related Stress into Parents' Relationship Mediated by Couple Communication
Zemp, M., Nußbeck, F. W., Cummings, E. M., & Bodenmann, G. (2017) · Family Relations · doi:10.1111/fare.12244 · Cited by 56
Metadata
- Authors
- Doss, B. D., Rhoades, G. K., Stanley, S. M., & Markman, H. J.
- Affiliations
- Texas A&M University (US)
- University of Denver (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- Published
- 2009-03
- Volume
- 96
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 601-619
- ISSN
- 0022-3514 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1315
- PMC
- PMC2702669
- OpenAlex
- W2098223435
- Cited by
- 656
- References
- 89
- Citations by year
- 2026: 28 · 2025: 36 · 2024: 26 · 2023: 28 · 2022: 48 · 2021: 59 · 2020: 58 · 2019: 60 · 2018: 41 · 2017: 43 · 2016: 49 · 2015: 34 · 2014: 34 · 2013: 28 · 2012: 43
- FWCI
- 36.42
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (5-R01-MH35525-12, R01MH035525)
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD053314, R03HD051695, R01HD047564)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Demography › Family Dynamics and Relationships
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Work-Family Balance Challenges
- Keywords
- transition to parenthood, relationship quality, marital functioning, couples, pregnancy characteristics, parents
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Adult, Communication, Conflict, Psychological, Family Relations, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Marriage, Parents, Personal Satisfaction, Prospective Studies, Self Disclosure, Sex Factors, Social Adjustment, Stress, Psychological
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