To have a child is among individuals' most important and meaningful decisions, with far-reaching implications. Despite evidence linking this decision to a wide variety of consequences, little is known about what motivates people to have children, and even less so about the long-term effects of different childbearing motivations on parenting and child adjustment. This study took a self-determination theory (SDT) perspective, examining how prenatal maternal autonomous and controlled childbearing motivations are related to child behavior problems through parenting styles. The rationale was that prenatal autonomous (sense of volition and self-fulfillment) and controlled (feeling pressured) childbearing motivations would shape later parental styles (autonomy-supportive vs. controlling, respectively) and, consequently, child adjustment. Over a period of 2 years beginning at pregnancy, 326 Israeli mothers reported their prenatal childbearing motivations, as well as parental styles and child behavior problems 20 months postpartum. Results of a path analysis revealed that prenatal autonomous childbearing motivation predicted autonomysupportive parenting, yet the latter was not associated with children's behavior problems. Prenatal controlled motivation predicted controlling parenting, which, in turn, predicted children's internalizing and externalizing problems. No direct effects of childbearing motivation on children's behavior problems are observed, suggesting that childbearing motivation is a distal antecedent operating through more proximal factors such as parenting style. Findings were robust to children's temperamental tendencies and sociodemographic risk factors such as maternal age, high-risk pregnancy, and preterm birth. These findings have theoretical and practical implications for the discourse on motivations underlying the childbearing decision and their effects on parenting and child adjustment.

The findings highlight the importance of dyadic prenatal motivational processes as antecedents of PDS.

ObjectiveGuided by Self‐Determination Theory, the study explored how maternal and paternal prenatal childbearing motivations relate to toddlers' adjustment via parental competence and parenting style.BackgroundAlthough considerable research shows consistent effects of parenting styles on child adjustment, why some parents adopt any specific style is unclear. To explore this, two broad types of childbearing motivations (autonomous and controlled) were conceptualized as early markers of parental competence, specific parenting styles, and subsequent child adjustment.MethodOne‐hundred and fifty‐five married, heterosexual, Israeli couples (N = 310) participated in a 2‐year longitudinal study from pregnancy through 20 months postpartum. Childbearing motivations were measured during pregnancy (T1), parental competence at 4 months postpartum (T2), and parenting styles and child behavior problems at 20 months postpartum (T3).ResultsA dyadic longitudinal path model revealed that childbearing motivations of both parents were positively associated with an adaptive, authoritative parenting style via parental competence. Moderate indirect effects of controlled childbearing motivations on toddlers' behavior problems were evident through the less adaptive—authoritarian and permissive—parenting styles.ConclusionThis study underscores the importance of childbearing motivations as early indicators of future parenting styles and child adjustment and sheds light on parenting as a complex dyadic process.