Marriage, Adult Adjustment, and Early Parenting

Abstract

The impact of parents' marriages, measured prenatally, on their parenting of firstborn, 3-month-old infants was assessed. Though the association between marriage and parenting was the focus, adult psychological adjustment was measured also to rule out the alternative hypothesis that psychological adjustment relates to both marital quality and parenting quality and accounts for any association between them. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses in which parental adjustment was entered first as a covariate were used to test the relation between close/confiding marriages and parenting of 3-month-old infants. From the findings, it was concluded that even when differences in individual psychological adjustment are taken into account, mothers are warmer and more sensitive with their infants and fathers hold more positive attitudes toward their infants and their roles as parents when they are in close/confiding marriages. It is asserted that qualities of marriage play an important part in the development of parent-child relationships.

Family relationships during infancy and later mother and father vocabulary use with young children

“…Existing research suggests that the quality of early family relationships, including the motherfather-child relationship as well as the mother-father relationship may impact the way parents interact with their children Brody et al, 1986;Cox et al, 1989;Grych, 2002;Lindahl et al, 1997;Pratt et al, 1992;, however, it is necessary to extend this research to specifically consider the vocabulary used by parents in interactions with their younger language-learning children.…”

“…Cox et al (1989) found that when parents were in close/confiding marriages prenatally, mothers were warmer and more sensitive in interactions with their three-month old infants and fathers held more positive attitudes toward infants and their roles as parents. Volling and Belsky (1991) found that fathers who reported more marital conflict prenatally were less responsive and stimulating in interactions with their infants one year later.…”

“…It has been well-documented that mothers and fathers in more harmonious, satisfied, and low-conflict marriages during children's infancy have more positive attitudes toward their children, participate in more caregiving activities, report greater satisfaction in parenting, and demonstrate more engagement, responsiveness, warmth, and support in parent-child interactions in dyadic and triadic family contexts (Belsky, Youngblade, Rovine, & Volling, 1991;Cox, Owen, Lewis, & Henderson, 1989;Feldman, Nash, & Aschenbrenner, 1983;Goldberg & Easterbrooks, 1984;Grych, 2002;Kitzmann, 2000;.…”

Infant irritability: The impact of fetal alcohol exposure, maternal depressive symptoms, and low emotional support from the husband

“…The most important source of social support for women after the birth of a child is a supportive marital relationship (M.J. Cox, Owen, Lewis, & Henderson, 1989). Mothers with higher levels of support from their husbands reported more subjective well-being and better adjustment to motherhood (M.J. Cox et al, 1989).…”

Evolution of Paternal Investment

“…Social Correlates The quality of the spousal relationship is related to the ways in which both mothers and fathers interact with their children (Amato & Keith, 1991;Cox, Owen, Lewis, & Henderson, 1989;Davies & Cummings, 1994;Howes & Markman, 1989), but "paternal parenting is more dependent on a supportive mar-ital relationship than maternal parenting" (Parke, 1995, p. 37). Observational studies have found that ʺthe quality of the marital dyad, whether reported by the husband or wife, is the one most consistently powerful predictor of paternal involvement (with his infant) and satisfaction (with the parenting role)" (Feldman, Nash, & Aschenbrenner, 1983, p. 1634; see also Belsky, Gilstrap, & Rovine, 1984).…”