Transition to Parenthood Research Papers (original) (raw)

Selbst junge Erwachsene, die noch keine Kinder haben, sind durch traditionelle Familienbilder geprägt, wie eine vom Schweizerischen Nationalfonds unterstütze Studie zeigt. Gleichzeitig haben sie moderne Ansichten von Gleichberechtigung, beruflichem Engagement und Kinderbetreuung. Das bringt nicht nur die jungen Frauen, sondern auch die jungen Männer bereits früh in eine Zwickmühle.

- by
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- Gender Equality, Ideologies of Motherhood, Family Sociology, Work Life Balance

Drawing on the relational turbulence model, this study queries whether it is the amount of relational uncertainty and partner interference in a relationship, or the magnitude of an increase in these mechanisms over time, that accounts for decreased relationship satisfaction for new parents. To test these competing hypotheses, a longitudinal study of 78 couples was conducted in which both partners completed surveys about their relationship at 4 time points during the transition to parenthood. Multilevel modeling revealed that the amount and the increase of relational uncertainty and partner interference were negatively associated with relationship satisfaction when considered separately, but when evaluated in combination, the magnitude of an increase in these variables was the stronger predictor of relationship satisfaction.

- by Jennifer Theiss
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- Marital research, Marital Satisfaction, Transition to Parenthood

Expectations of the transition to parenthood often bear little resemblance to parents’ lived experiences, yet shape parents’ emotional responses. Drawing on concepts of intensive mothering, emotion work, and maternal ambivalence, this chapter explores the turbulent emotions of the transition to parenthood through an analysis of interviews with new parents in Australia. It argues that the emotion work enacted by parents in an effort to perform appropriate modes of parenting, constitutes an additional drain on exhausted parents’ emotional resources. Analysis reveals that early parenthood in Australia remains deeply gendered, and that the gap between expectation and experience results not just from an absence of prior knowledge, but from a dynamic process of knowledge-sharing, silence, denial, and refusal to know.

- by Leah Williams Veazey
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- Emotions, Transition to Parenthood

Nel presente contributo, si intende dimostrare quanto la dimensione lavorativa - essere o meno entrati nel mercato del lavoro, ricoprire una posizione professionale più o meno qualificata, poter contare su un determinato livello di reddito - continui a rivestire un peso cruciale nella transizione alla vita adulta delle giovani generazioni, influenzando le opportunità e i vincoli di social attainment, in relazione alle disuguaglianze di partenza. A questo scopo, per cinque paesi europei, tra cui l’Italia, si valuta se e quanto le diseguaglianze nelle origini sociali, mediate dai titoli di studio ottenuti e dalle occupazioni raggiunte, incidono sul completamento della transizione, ovvero sulla convivenza neolocale e sulla genitorialità considerate congiuntamente. Il lavoro si basa sui dati internazionali OECD-PIAAC, per la popolazione di età tra i 30-39 anni (considerando questa fascia come ‘young-adults’), operando una comparazione tra Italia, Francia, Germania, Polonia e Spagna.

- by Orazio Giancola and +1
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- Educational Inequalities (class; race; gender etc), Social Stratification, Social Inequality, Transition to Adulthood

The purpose of the current study was to briefly explore what creates a better adjustment for men’s transition to fatherhood in terms of expectations of the division of tasks, feelings of appreciation, feelings of support, and communication with spouse. The perceptions of marital satisfaction across the transition to fatherhood of 54 Brigham Young University (BYU) students were surveyed using an online questionnaire. Significant differences were found between fathers’ expected division of child care tasks and how tasks were actually divided. Feelings of appreciation were related to fathers’ involvement in childcare tasks. Communication and quality time with spouse were found to be the greatest determinants of marital satisfaction. It is concluded that communication is the greatest predictor of marital satisfaction in first-time fathers.

- by Brandon McDaniel and +2
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- Undergraduate Research, Fatherhood, Fatherhood, fathering and fathers, Marital Satisfaction

For many individuals, becoming a parent is an important milestone. The current study examined attitudes and beliefs about parenting among a sample of 196 self identified bisexual, lesbian, and heterosexual women. Results showed no differences by sexual orientation for women's desires and intentions to have children, their idealization of parenthood, and perceptions of their parental self-efficacy (i.e., their ability to care for a child). In contrast, differences did emerge by sexual orientation in aspects such as partner expectations as well as professional intentions (i.e., wanting a permanent position before becoming a parent). Bisexual women tended to anticipate lower partner support compared to heterosexual women. Lesbian women, however, had a greater preference to work full-time during parenthood and wanted a permanent position before becoming a parent compared to both bisexual and heterosexual women. Implications are discussed of how bisexual women's perceptions of parenthood are both similar to and distinct from lesbian and heterosexual women.

- by Samantha Tornello and +1
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- LGBT parenting, Parenthood, Transition to Parenthood

Childbearing has cross-culturally and historically been considered a time of vulnerability and transition for new mothers and their babies, as reflected in the existence of ritual postpartum practices. The decline of ‘lying-in’ or confinement practices in Australia has, together with large-scale socio-cultural and demographic changes, led to many new parents, particularly mothers, finding themselves isolated and unsupported in the early postnatal period. This chapter explores how a diverse group of new parents in Australia felt and thought about social support in early parenthood, and the support they experienced. Based on an in-depth engagement with parents’ narratives, it argues that understanding emotional responses to experiences of support in early parenthood is impossible without an appreciation of both expectations of support, and the factors influencing such expectations.

- by Kate Johnston-Ataata and +1
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- Social Support, Emotions, Transition to Parenthood, Perinatal mental health

This booklet was produced by Tracy Morison and Ingrid Lynch as part of a joint initiative between the Human Sciences Research Council, Triangle Project and Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action (GALA), with funding support largely from the Ford Foundation and additional funding from the Open Society Foundation SA. The information included in this booklet stems from a research project conducted with South African gay and bisexual men, around their parenthood decision-making and experiences.

- by Tracy Morison and +1
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- Family studies, Sexual and Reproductive Health, Gender and Sexuality, Genders and Sexualities

I modi in cui diventiamo adulti influenzano che tipo di genitori siamo? Il libro vuole comprendere come itinerari diversi di transizione all’età adulta condizionino le modalità di esperire la genitorialità, nonché le concezioni stesse dell’età adulta. Essere un genitore prossimo ai trentacinque anni, con alle spalle un percorso di transizione prolungato nel tempo, non implica soltanto diventare genitore più tardi, ma può significare attribuire a quelle responsabilità un senso diverso da chi è diventato genitore “precocemente”, percorrendo quindi la sequenza tipica della transizione (conclusione dell’iter formativo, ingresso nel mondo del lavoro, abbandono della famiglia di origine, costruzione di un nucleo familiare autonomo) ad un ritmo più sostenuto della media. L’attribuzione di questi significati può, inoltre, essere differente per chi è entrato nei ruoli parentali pur non avendo superato ancora tutte le altre tappe della transizione all’età adulta. Questi giovani, più che essere fuori tempo rispetto al calendario sociale della procreazione, appaiono piuttosto sospesi tra due mondi, il mondo delle responsabilità di chi diventa genitore e il mondo giovanile, con i suoi riti comunicativi e di consumo: catapultati in un universo adulto, questi genitori giovani ne trasformano i confini, nonché il senso stesso.

- by Sveva Magaraggia
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- Gender Studies, Parenthood, Transition to Parenthood

A project such as this would not be possible without the involvement of women who are willing to share their lives and experiences therefore I wish to firstly thank the participants who took part in this research project. My supervisor Dr Helen Keane allowed me the scope to attempt this ambitious project while providing much needed critique along the way. I also thank Dr Joanna Sikora who managed to tell me a lot in a very short period of time and the administrative staff of the Centre for Cultural Inquiry, including Margaret Brown, Raewyn Arthur and Judi Crane were helpful and cheery along the way. And I bid farewell to the postgraduates who were fellow travellers over this long journey. My life partner Barry York was always wonderfully supportive and I thank him and my two children Hannah Garvan and Joseph York for their love and encouragement. There are many friends who have also helped, sometimes practically, and always with encouragement. I would like to thank

- by Joan Garvan
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- Sociology, Gender Studies, Castoriadis, Public Health

La famiglia è stata riconosciuta quale utile entità concettuale a partire dalla quale analizzare l’esperienza migratoria di donne e uomini che articolano il proprio ciclo di vita e scelte riproduttive tra contesti culturali differenti. Nel discorso pubblico, le pratiche delle famiglie migranti sono spesso costruite come minaccia alla coesione sociale dei paesi d’approdo in quanto ricondotte a sistemi valoriali giudicati incompatibili con la “modernità occidentale”. A partire dai dati raccolti in un’etnografia realizzata a Ravenna, il contributo indaga l’evoluzione dei ruoli di genere e di cura all’interno delle famiglie migranti. Focalizzando lo sguardo, in particolare, sui modi in cui padri e madri rinegoziano – in un più ampio processo di riconfigurazione delle rappresentazioni delle relazioni di coppia e di genitorialità – norme, visioni e pratiche legate alla cura dei figli, il saggio mira a restituire il carattere dinamico dei ruoli familiari che il discorso pubblico tende ad oscurare.

This qualitative study explores perspectives towards motherhood of young Millennial women for preconception care purposes. The findings highlight the specific views that Millennial women have of motherhood: Mental mood boards portray both realistic and idealistic images of childbearing and motherhood. Preconditions to consider before becoming a mother, involve security related to the current world's safety. Personal memories and experiences, the social environment, including the large impact of social media and their self-image of becoming a Millennial parent-all influencing and framing Millennial women's thoughts about motherhood. Healthcare providers, maternity services in particular, should be aware of these perspectives because these offer points of discussion during psychosocial transitional preconception services for the Millennial generation of women and potential future mothers.

- by Yvonne Kuipers
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- Transition to Parenthood

Investing in parents is important because their well-being is
positively related to the development and well-being of their
children. This study investigated which factors predict two
types of parents’ well-being: individual well-being and parenting-
related well-being. Participants were 416 parents (90
fathers, 326 mothers) of a baby (younger than age 1 year
old), both first-time parents and not-first-time parents.
Relationship quality, life skills, parenting skills, and social support
were taken into account. Results show that both types of
well-being have different main predictors. Self-esteem, selfmanagement,
and interpersonal relationship skills contribute
to both types of well-being, suggesting that interventions
aimed at improving these skills could be very beneficial for
parents in their transition to parenthood. Fathers and mothers
differ significantly on several predictors—for example, selfesteem,
self-management, parenting behavior, and empathy
—suggesting they might have different needs for support in
the transition to parenthood. Finally, results show that, though
parents get better at providing basic care for their children,
regarding well-being and relationship quality, not-first-time
parents are not better off then first-time parents. Therefore,
interventions aimed at easing the transition to parenthood
should not only be aimed at first time parents, they might be
more effective for parents who already have children.

- by Margot Verschuur and +1
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- Life Skills, Parenting programs, Transition to Parenthood, Parental Well-Being

This study explored the use of dynamical systems modeling techniques to evaluate self-and co-regulation of affect in couples' interactions before and after the transition to parenthood, and the impact of the Family Foundations program on these processes. Thirty-four heterosexual couples, randomized to intervention and control conditions, participated in videotaped dyadic interaction tasks at pretest (during pregnancy) and posttest (1 year after birth). Husbands' and wives' positivity and negativity were micro-coded throughout interactions. Individual negativity set-points, self-regulation, and partner co-regulatory processes during interactions were examined using a coupled oscillators model. Regarding self-regulatory processes, men exhibited amplification of negativ-ity at the prenatal assessment that did not change at the post-natal assessment; women demonstrated no significant damping or amplification at pretest and a marginally significant change towards greater amplification at the postnatal assessment. In terms of partner-influenced regulatory dynamics, men's positive behaviors changed from damping to amplifying women's negative behaviors in the control group following the transition to parenthood, but exerted an even stronger damping effect on women's negative behaviors in the intervention group. The study highlights the advantages of dynamic modeling approaches in testing specific hypotheses in the study of self-and co-regulatory couple dynamics and demonstrates the potential of studying dynamic processes to further understanding of developmental and intervention-related change mechanisms.

- by Mengya Xia and +1
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- System Dynamics Modeling, Couples Relationships, Transition to Parenthood

This article reports on a qualitative study about male involvement in parenthood decision making (i.e., decisions related to becoming a first-time parent) in which the focus was on White, heterosexual men. Little is known about the roles and involvement of these men in decision-making processes. They comprise an invisible norm in research as heteronormative assumptions about parenthood cause them to be overlooked. This oversight-exacerbated by the pervasive problem perspective in social science-forms the research rationale. Conducted within a gender-relational framework, the study included 23 heterosexual, White South African women and men with a view to exploring how gender constructions influence this process and affect the gender power relations. Interviews with participants were analyzed using a narrative-discursive method and the findings show how an assumption of childbearing shaped the data and may have implications for female-male power relations in reproductive partnerships.

The transition to parenthood (TTP) is a stressful life event for most couples. Therefore, the way both partners jointly cope with stress (i.e., dyadic coping) is important for the prevention of individual adjustment problems (e.g., depression). For dyadic coping to be effective in reducing depressive symptoms, efforts of both partners should be equal. However, many couples experience a decrease of equity in task division within the domestic sphere across the TTP. The current study investigates the equity of a specific skill within the 'relationship sphere', because similarly to a decreased equity in household and childcare, a decreased equity of dyadic coping is likely to be associated with poorer individual adjustment. We collected longitudinal self-report data on dyadic coping and depressive symptoms from 104 mixed-gender first-time parents (n = 208 individuals) from pregnancy until 40 weeks postpartum. We created an equity score for men and women that measured their perceived difference between received and provided dyadic coping. On average, women reported providing more and receiving less dyadic coping than men. While both genders agreed on this distribution, men did perceive a higher equity of dyadic coping than women. Furthermore, the decrease of equity perceived by women across TTP was not visible in men. In line with our assumptions based on the equity theory, perceived equity of dyadic coping was associated with depressive symptoms in a curvilinear manner: Decreases in women's perceived equity in either direction (over-or underbenefit) were associated with more depressive symptoms in women and their male partners. This association was found above and beyond the beneficial effect of dyadic coping itself. This implies that not only how well partners support each other in times of stress, but also how equal both partners' efforts are, is important for their individual adjustment across TTP.

- by Guy Bodenmann
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- Depression, Dyadic Coping, Parenthood, Transition to Parenthood

This study evaluated the effects of expected and perceived division of childcare and household labor on mothers' relationship satisfaction during their transition to pa-renthood. Mothers were administered a questionnaire during their third trimester of pregnancy and received a follow-up phone interview three months postpartum. During the second wave of data collection, all mothers in this study were at home with their child. Findings indicated that mothers with lower prenatal expectations about postnatal division of labor had greater relationship satisfaction three months postpartum. Additionally, mothers also had greater relationship satisfaction at three months postpartum when they reported receiving more help with childcare from their partner than they had expected during their pregnancy.

- by Anthony B Walker and +1
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- Motherhood, Relationship Satisfaction, Transition to Parenthood, Division of Household Labour

Comment JE deviens PARENT: Articulation entre le parcours et le récit de parentalité? Notre communication portera sur l’articulation et la comparaison des données produites par le récit biographique d’un parent avec les indicateurs issus de la description de son parcours de vie. Au-delà de l’autobiographie, nous articulons les épreuves spécifiques du parent signalées par l’analyse cinétique et les indicateurs chronologiques de son parcours de vie. Le discours des parents est souvent négligé dans les travaux et écrits autour de la parentalité, ce qui nous a conduit à faire appel au cadre théorique et méthodologique des recherches biographiques en formation des adultes afin de faire émerger le récit des parents sur la parentalité. La première étape de notre parcours d’analyse nous a amené à observer l’omniprésence dans le discours des parents d’une chronologie standard qui semble contraindre le récit de parentalité. L’analyse du récit de nombreux parents nous conduit progressivement et au-delà du schéma habituel de la déstandardisation sociale, à lire la biographie parentale comme inscrite dans une matrice de contraintes et de repères très forts que nous avons nommés les épreuves standard du parcours de parentalité. Nous cherchons dans cette communication à rendre plus intelligible et à vérifier l’articulation entre les expériences individuelles ou épreuves spécifiques du parent et ce que nous avons nommé les épreuves standard. En effet, les discours des parents semblent s’inspirer ou faire écho aux discours des professionnels et c’est finalement à un jeu de traduction et de médiation des discours des parents et des discours des professionnels que nous conduit l’analyse des récits parentaux. Les discours et les professionnels en tant qu’actants prennent beaucoup de place dans les récits de parentalité de notre étude. Notre communication aura pour objet de présenter certains aspects en lien avec ces constatations, qui nous interrogent. Mots Clés: Parentalité, Biographie, Parcours de vie, Formation des adultes. How I Become PARENT: Articulation between the course and the story of parenting? Our communication will focus on the articulation and comparison of data produced by the biographical narrative of a parent with indicators from the description of his life course. Beyond autobiography, we articulate the specific events reported by the parent throught the kinetic analysis and historical indicators of the life course. The voice of parents is often overlooked in research and writings about parenthood, which convinced us to use the theoretical and methodological framework of biographical research in adult learning to explore the story of parents and emerging parenthood. The first step in our path analysis has led us to observe the omnipresence in the discourse of parents of a standard chronology that seems to impose certain constraints on the narrative of parenthood. Our analysis leads us gradually beyond the usual pattern of social destandardization, to understand parenting biography as recorded in a matrix of constraints and powerful markers that we have called here the standard ordeal of parenthood. We seek in this paper to make more intelligible and to verify the relationship between individual experiences or specific events of the parent and what we have called the standard ordeal. Indeed, the discourse of parents often seems to be inspired or to echo the discourse of professionals and it is seem to be ultimately a game of translation and mediation between parents’ discourse and professionals’ discourse that we have discovered in our analysis of paths of parenting. The Professional Discourse and Actors take up a lot of space in the stories of parenthood in our study. Our communication aims to present some aspects related to these findings and that we find challenging. Keywords : parenting, biography, life course, adult education .

- by Pierre-Alain Luthi
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- Parenting, Parenthood, Transition to Parenthood, Parentalité

This study focuses on the changes in perception of dyadic adjustment following childbirth and on the role of attachment (as a risk or protection factor) in the way partners adjust to this stressful event. Four attachment configurations were analyzed which emerged from the concordance or discordance between the ''generalized'' and the ''specific'' states of mind in the individual, and a longitudinal and cross-sectional study on N = 206 participants (104 ''new-parents'' and 102 ''nonparents by choice'') was then implemented. These results showed that individuals who became parents had lower dyadic adjustment levels than nonparents (Lrtest = 395.03; p < .001). This decline in values seemed to be more pronounced for the ''affectional expression'' subscale (b = À3.69) and suggests that in our sample the expression of love toward a partner might be particularly subject to stress due to the arrival of a child. Considering the role played in the attachment configuration of each individual, a significant effect upon Insecure GEN /Insecure SPEC individuals was found (p = .015). This then would seem to indicate that these individuals might be more vulnerable to perceiving worse adjustment levels during the transition to first-time parenthood.

- by Patrizia Velotti and +1
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- Psychology, Cognitive Science, Attachment Theory, Marital Satisfaction

In diesem Artikel möchte ich einen spezifischen Aspekt der Debatte um den Geburtenrückgang aufnehmen und versuchen, damit einen Beitrag zu einem geschlechtersensiblen Ver- ständnis des demografischen Wandels zu leisten. Mein Fokus richtet sich dabei auf die jungen Erwachsenen. Im Zentrum steht die Frage, wie das Kinderhaben von jenen Personen diskutiert wird, von denen wir erwarten, dass sie in den nächsten Jahren Kinder kriegen? Wie tritt die Kinderfrage in ihren Lebensentwürfen auf? Auf welche Normen und Leitbilder zu Elternschaft und Familiengründung nehmen sie Bezug? Welche Diskurse übers Kinderkriegen zeigen sich in ihren Erzählungen?

- by Karin Schwiter
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- Discourse Analysis, Sociology, Gender Studies, Youth Studies

To have a mother is to be in perpetual deficit of thanks toward her.

Este estudo tem como objetivo realizar uma revisão integrativa de artigos nacionais e internacionais sobre o tema da transição para a paternidade publicados entre 2006 e 2014. Foram consultadas as bases de dados EBSCO, PsycINFO, SciELO Regional e PEPSIC, resultando em 25 artigos indexados, que foram analisados em relação ao ano de publicação, país, metodologia, temática e resultados. Os resultados foram agrupados em quatro grandes grupos, intitulados: “o pai consigo mesmo”, “o pai, a mãe e o bebê”, “o pai e a rede de apoio formal” e “o pai, o trabalho e a sociedade”. No grupo, “o pai consigo mesmo”, destaca-se a vivência da paternidade como uma revolução interna, acompanhada de intensa sobrecarga emocional, ambivalência, solidão e idealização da relação pai-bebê. No grupo, “o pai, a mãe e o bebê”, percebe-se uma intensa transformação na vida conjugal, no qual o pai tende a ser mais ativo na relação com o bebê, porém modulado pela presença materna. No grupo “o pai, o trabalho e a sociedade”, percebemos a falta de preparo dos profissionais para lidar com as demandas paternas, bem como a inexistência de políticas sociais e de saúde voltadas à relação pai-bebê. No grupo “o pai, o trabalho e a sociedade”, destacamos o uso de redes informais de apoio e o surgimento de modelos horizontais de identificação paterna. Foram discutidos tendências e hiatos nas pesquisas atuais no campo da transição para a paternidade, no sentido da constituição de um novo pai.
Palavras-chave: Paternidade; revisão de literatura; contemporaneidade.

- by Jennifer Theiss and +1
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- Psychology, Marital research, Personal Relationships, Marital Satisfaction

- by Tania Granato
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- Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Hermeneutics and Narrative, Fatherhood

Selbst junge Erwachsene, die noch keine Kinder haben, sind durch traditionelle Familienbilder gepragt, wie eine vom Schweizerischen Nationalfonds unterstutze Studie zeigt. Gleichzeitig haben sie moderne Ansichten von Gleichberechtigung, beruflichem Engagement und Kinderbetreuung. Das bringt nicht nur die jungen Frauen, sondern auch die jungen Manner bereits fruh in eine Zwickmuhle.

- by Diana Baumgarten
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- Gender Equality, Ideologies of Motherhood, Family Sociology, Work Life Balance

Abstract. This study focuses on the changes in perception of dyadic adjustment following childbirth and on the role of attachment (as a risk or protection factor) in the way partners adjust to this stressful event. Four attachment configurations were analyzed which emerged from the concordance or discordance between the ‘‘generalized’’ and the ‘‘specific’’ states of mind in the individual, and a longitudinal and cross-sectional study on N = 206 participants (104 ‘‘new-parents’’ and 102 ‘‘nonparents by choice’’) was then implemented. These results showed that individuals who became parents had lower dyadic adjustment levels than nonparents (Lrtest = 395.03; p < .001). This decline in values seemed
to be more pronounced for the ‘‘affectional expression’’ subscale (b = 3.69) and suggests that in our sample the expression of love toward a partner might be particularly subject to stress due to the arrival of a child. Considering the role played in the attachment configuration of each individual, a significant effect upon InsecureGEN/InsecureSPEC individuals was found (p = .015). This then would seem to indicate that these individuals might be more vulnerable to perceiving worse adjustment levels during the transition to first-time parenthood.

- by Giulio Cesare Zavattini
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- Psychology, Cognitive Science, Attachment Theory, Marital Satisfaction

Les parents sur le chemin de l'école: de l'espace privé à l'espace public Notre communication portera sur l'analyse d'un espace de transition entre l'espace public et l'espace privé dans les récits de parentalité et la manière dont les parents mobilisent celui-ci dans leur récit. Dans les épreuves spécifiques que relatent les parents durant la scolarisation, le chemin de l'école est une référence spatiale récurrente entre espace privé et espace publique. Cet espace intermédiaire manifeste les enjeux entre ces deux sphères d'influences mobilisées par le récit de parentalité. Notre corpus est constitué des récits autobiographiques de parent ayant participé à un dispositif de soutien parental suisse nommé « Histoires de PARENTS ». L'étude porte sur le discours des parents en réponse à la question : Comment JE deviens PARENT ? Plus spécifiquement nous cherchons dans notre étude à éclairer ce que nous apprend la recherche biographique du devenir parent? Quels récits, quelles scènes, quelles temporalités, quelles valorisations, quelles ressources individuelles ou collectives, quels actants, quelles contraintes sociales émergent des discours des parents. De quelle manière se construit, au travers de l'expérience, la parentalité? Quelles épreuves, initiations, rencontres, références sociales, culturelles les parents mobilisent-ils dans leurs discours, sur la manière, dont se construisent leurs choix, leurs convictions? Nous avons décidé dans notre recherche de mettre en lumière tant les dimensions sociales du parcours de vie qui contraint le récit de parentalité, que le récit d'expériences individuelles des parents. Cela nous permet de dépasser la simple addition des expériences spécifiques inscrites dans le récit autobiographique des parents. Notre recherche a fait apparaître des étapes contraignantes, que nous avons décrites au travers du concept d'Horloge de la parentalité. Ce cadran temporel étant constitué de 5 épreuves standard: : la conception, l'autorisation, la scolarisation, l'individualisation et l'émancipation. C'est en articulant les épreuves standards du parcours de parentalité et les épreuves spécifiques décrites par les parents, que nous produisons notre analyse des récits autobiographiques. Ainsi, les récits parentaux s'inscrivent dans des dimensions plus générales qui relèvent d'un contexte, de temporalités, d'espaces et de configurations d'acteurs récurrents. Cette scénographie constitue une structure très contraignante de l'expérience de la parentalité contemporaine. Nous illustrerons cette articulation dans notre communication en nous centrant sur un espace intermédiaire apparaissant dans les récits de parentalité durant « la scolarisation ». Le chemin de l'école est un espace urbain qui marque une étape du processus d'autonomisation de l'enfant cher aux sociétés occidentales. Le processus de séparation, qui du cisaillage du cordon ombilical à l'émancipation conduit les parents à se séparer progressivement de leur enfant constitue un fil rouge implicite des récits de parentalité. C'est la convocation sociale au rendezvous du premier jour d'école qui au-delà de son côté folklorique souligne le transfert d'une partie du pouvoir parental, au réseau scolaire et participe par l'étayage public à l'émergence d'un citoyen autonome. L'anonymat de cette convocation et l'obligation pour le parent de parcourir le chemin de l'école sont révélateurs de processus de socialisation fondamentaux à l'oeuvre aujourd'hui et que permet de cerner l'approche autobiographique.

- by Pierre-Alain Luthi
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- Parenthood, Transition to Parenthood, Parentalité

This poster presentation (November 2015, www.ncfr.org 2015 conference, Vancouver, Canada) offers an account of literature review (till 2015) on transition to parenthood (TtP), a demanding and complex life experience for couples who set a goal for a quality relationship. This work uses family theories and describes issues couples face in TtP, based on demographic and relationship characteristics. Marital quality (MQ) in couples’ relationship over time is viewed via current research of couples in the U.S.A. and European countries. The scholarship is unanimous that MQ declines in up to 70% of couples postpartum (Gottman & Notarius, 2000; Kluwer, 2010; Kluwer & Johnson, 2007; Mitnick et al., 2009). Therefore, the goal of the poster was to highlight the issues in the problem and show how couples could increase their capacity to overcome hardships of TtP by engaging in educational interventions that were found to be more effective when they incorporate prenatal and postnatal components, last more than five sessions, and had professional personnel leading the training versus semiprofessionals (Halford et al., 2010; Pinquart & Teubert, 2010a, 2010b; Schulz et al., 2006). Such interventions according to empirical evidences (Pinquart & Teubert, 2010a) build up capacity against relationship decline in TtP.

Sexual satisfaction is an important contributor to relationship functioning that is not well understood among first-time parents, at a time when relationship functioning is important for the well-being of parents as well as the child. The current study examined how several dimensions of individual and relationship functioning among first-time parents (coparenting, division of household and paid labor, parenting stress, and role overload) at 6 months postbirth predicted multiple domains of sexual satisfaction at 12 months postbirth, in a sample of heterosexual first-time parents. Role overload, work hours, and division of household labor each predicted at least one domain of sexual satisfaction for both mothers and fathers, whereas parenting stress was a unique predictor for mothers only. The implications of these results for first-time parents are discussed.

- by Brandon McDaniel
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- Sex and Gender, Sexuality, Sexual Satisfaction, Passion

The word of parents face disciplinary interpretations. Our communication aims at outlining the disciplinary issues we face today in a research built around what parents say about parenthood. What can we learn through biographical research about becoming a parent? What stories, what scenes, what temporalities, what valorisations, what resources individual or collective, which agents, what constraints emerging from the social discourse of parents in response to the question: How "I" become a parent? How is parenthood constructed through experience? What experiences, initiations, meetings, social and cultural references, do parents mobilize in their discourse on the way their choices and their beliefs are determined? What cultures, knowledge, are landmarks or compasses helping the parent to determine his or her natural expertise as an educator?

- by Pierre-Alain Luthi
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- Parenting, Parenthood, Transition to Parenthood
- by Tracy Morison
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- Heteronormativity, South Africa, Transition to Parenthood
- by Roudi Nazarinia Roy
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- Psychology, Scientific publishing, Motherhood, Relationship Satisfaction

- by Andrea Maihofer
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- Gender Equality, Ideologies of Motherhood, Family Sociology, Work Life Balance

- by Samantha Tornello
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- LGBT parenting, Parenthood, Transition to Parenthood

This study aims to conduct an integrative review of national and international articles on the subject of the transition to fatherhood published between 2006 and 2014. EBSCO, PsycINFO, SciELO Regional and PEPSIC databases were consulted resulting in 25 indexed articles, which were analyzed in relation to year of publication, country, methodology, thematic and results. The findings were grouped in four major groups, entitled: "the father with himself", "the fathe r, the mother and the baby", "the father and formal support network" and "the father, the work and the society". In the group "the father with himself", there is fatherhood experience as an internal revolution, accompanied by intense emotional overload, ambivalence, solitude and idealization of the parent-child relationship. In the group "the father, the mother and the baby" is perceived an intense transformation in married life, where the father tends to be more active in relation to the baby, but modulated by the maternal presence. In the group "the father, and the formal support network", we see the lack of preparation of professionals to deal with parental demands, and the absence of social and health policies for the parent-child relationship. In the group "the father, the work and the society", we highlight the use of informal support networks and the emergence of horizontal patterns of paternal identification. We discussed the main trends and gaps in the research on transition to fatherhood, towards the constitution of a new father.

In this article we examine the relationship between various biographical transitions of young adulthood and the structure of social networks. We ask how personal networks change in size and composition over the course of family formation or expansion, and due to other biographical transitions. We use data from an exploratory longitudinal study that uses mixed methods of social network analysis. We were able to reconnect with 29 of 98 young adults who were interviewed from 2004 to 2006, and conducted detailed qualitative interviews with 18 of them in 2011. Our findings suggest that biographical transitions do rather have an effect on the composition than on the size of personal networks. Biographical transitions do not necessarily lead to a decrease in network size due to network partners dropping out. These network partners often get substituted by new network partners that match changing priorities in different life stages. Particularly important transitions are the interviewees’ own parenthood, as well as the parenthood of their network partners. Transitions in relationship status, relocations, and job changes were also identified as relevant biographical transitions.

- by Andreas Klaerner
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- Sociology, Social Networks, Mixed Methods, Qualitative methodology

Objective: 1) To explore the psychological processes that develop in women and men during their first pregnancy obtained with assisted reproduction treatment; 2) to individuate the main plot that women and men use to recount their transition to parenthood. Methods: A face-to-face semi-structured autobiographical interview was administered. The interview was aimed to investigate the story of pregnancy. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed in order to merge principal themes. Participants: 15 Italian couples waiting for the first child after a conception with assisted reproductive technologies. Results: Medically assisted pregnancy constitutes an extremely stressful, highly medicalised experience, that the couple, however, narrated according to a basic plot consisting in four phases: doubt, final sentence, victory, monitoring. Conclusions: Results suggest that physicians can benefit from knowing the phases that infertile couples experience during pregnancy because these can serve as a framework to use in monitoring their transition to parenthood and in planning psychological support and health interventions for them. J Matern Fetal Neonatal Med Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by 95.234.123.201 on 02/01/13 For personal use only. J Matern Fetal Neonatal Med Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by 95.234.123.201 on 02/01/13 For personal use only.

- by martina smorti
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- Clinical Psychology, Pregnancy, Narrative Based Medicine, Transition to Parenthood

Sad and anxious feelings are known to increase in the immediate postpartum period, whereas studies on new mothers' other emotional qualities such as anger are scarce. In laboratory studies, attachment security was found to be associated with effective emotion regulation in challenging situations. This study investigated attachment representations of experiences with parents and of current experiences with the partner as predictors of sad, anxious, and angry feelings across the transition to motherhood. Seventy-seven pregnant women in their third trimester were administered the Adult Attachment Interview and the Current Relationship Interview. The Differential Emotions Scale was given in pregnancy and at the infant's ages of 2 weeks, 2, 4, and 6 months, asking both mothers and fathers about maternal emotional experience. Sadness and anxiety increased 2 weeks postpartum and returned to below baseline over the following months, while anger did not change. Contrary to mothers with an insecure representation of their couple relationship, those with a secure representation reported and displayed increased sadness and anxiety 2 weeks after giving birth, from which they quickly recovered. For mothers secure in their representation of past attachment relationships with parents, an increase of low-level anger emerged 4 months postpartum, which did not occur in insecure participants and receded quickly. It can be concluded that secure representations of current and past attachment relationships help new mothers express and recover from negative emotions. These findings further elucidate the associations between attachment status and emotion regulation while adding a couple perspective.

- by Johanna Behringer and +1
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- Clinical Psychology, Emotion Regulation, Adult attachment, Attachment
- by Maja Damkjær
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- Media Sociology, Media Studies, New Media, Internet Studies
- by Guy Bodenmann
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- Psychology, Depression, Medicine, Multidisciplinary

- by Sylvia Keim
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- Sociology, Social Networks, Mixed Methods, Qualitative methodology

The aim of this paper is to investigate how various aspects of the economic uncertainty generated by the Great Recession combined and affected fertility behavior among American couples, focusing particularly on the transition to the first birth. The theoretical argument followed here points at the manifest growing difficulties in the labor market during the period 2008-2010 in the US, and at how different employment dynamics within couples produced heterogeneous consequences in terms of childbearing decisions. The couple perspective, with respect to the existing literature, is the first important innovation of this paper. The second distinguishing feature of the paper is that it also addresses the interplay between individual- and aggregate-level labor market conditions in shaping the probability of having children, testing the existence of a multiplicative or moderating effect of contextual conditions on top of individual-level circumstances. Results show that dual-earner couples tend to have a higher probability of parenthood compared to other employment status combinations between partners, especially during periods of greater labor market uncertainty.

- by Chiara Ludovica Comolli
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- Fertility, United States, Great Recession, Couples Relationships

There is little South African research on gender and sexual minorities’ reproductive decision-making and, to date, no published work explicitly focused on gay men. Motivated by the virtual absence of gay men in research, as well as their marginalisation more generally, we undertook a qualitative investigation of gay men’s thoughts, feelings and perspectives of fatherhood, fatherhood decisions, and experiences of pathways to parenthood. Framed by a reproductive justice perspective, the aim of the study was not only to generate new knowledge, but also to inform policy, services, and advocacy. In this paper we present some of the findings from our discursive analysis of participants’ accounts of their own experiences of the pathway to parenthood or remaining ‘childfree’. We locate our analysis within the broader South African context and show how the entanglement of various social identity markers—particularly gender, race, and class—come to bear on participants’ experiences.

- by Tracy Morison
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- Queer Studies, Family studies, Children and Families, Gender and Sexuality

The transition to parenthood can be stressful for new parents, as parents must learn to take on new roles and responsibilities. Sleep disruption—which has been linked in prior research to parent distress and fatigue—is common in the early months. The current study is the first to our knowledge to examine infant sleep and its potential indirect influence on parents’ perceptions of coparenting quality at 1 and 3 months of infant age. Participants included 150 families. Mothers reported more night waking, poorer sleep quality, more depressive symptoms, and worse perceptions of coparenting quality as compared with fathers. We tested a structural model of infant and parent night waking and sleep quality as predictors of parent distress and coparenting using maximum likelihood estimation. The frequency of infant night waking predicted father and mother night waking, which in turn predicted parent sleep quality. Poor parent sleep quality predicted elevated depressive symptoms, and finally depressive symptoms were negatively related to perceptions of coparenting quality. Significant indirect effects between infant night waking and parent depression and coparenting quality were found. In summary, both mothers’ and fathers’ perceptions of coparenting were related to the unfolding parental dynamics that take place surrounding infant sleep difficulties. This held true even after controlling for parent education, family income, and infant temperament. Therefore, parenting may indirectly benefit from interventions targeting infant sleep difficulties.

- by Brandon McDaniel
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- Marital research, Depression, Coparenting, Infant Sleep Development