PSYCO223 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Parental Leave
6 Dec 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
BECOMING PARENTS
Methods
• Research designs:
o Correlational
o Experimental
o Quasi-experimental
o Observational
• Developmental research designs
o Longitudinal
o Cross-sectional
o Sequential
Becoming parents
• Parenting is a cultural life script event
• Most middle-aged and older adults are parents
• 70% of married couples have children
o 1.8 children/couple
o transition into parenting is often challenging but a relatively minor blip for couples
BACKGROUND
How does parenting affect a relationship?
• One problem w/ figuring this out is that time negatively affects a relationship
• Some studies have shown that, controlling for time, relationships DECLINE in quality when
couples become parents
Why?
• Heavy workload at home
• Men and women may experience different workloads b/c they experience parenthood
differently (women’s satisfaction w/ relationship decreases more than men’s after becoming
parents).
This study
• Took place in Sweden, where there is support for parental leave & daycare
• Participants
o 258 indivs. : 128 mothers and 123 fathers
o babies 2-20 weeks old
o ½ of participants had one child; 38% had 2; the remaining had more than 2
• Measures
o Questionnaire (32 questions) rating couple satisfaction
o Questionnaire (5 questions) about household work
o Also measured about stress, how difficult their child was, and perceived social support
• Results
o Showed a link b/tween the quality of women’s couple relationships and their experience
of household work (especially for first-time mothers)
o Positive link for fathers too, but weaker correlation
o Women more satisfied w/ partners = more content w/ household chores
