Changes in relationship satisfaction across the transition to parenthood: A meta-analysis.

Various studies have demonstrated associations between personality disorders and relationship satisfaction. The authors examine the associations between attention seeking and grandiosity, both features of narcissistic personality disorder, and relationship satisfaction before and after the transition to parenthood. The authors then expand their analysis to parental satisfaction and postpartum depression (PPD). Nonclinical couples (N = 103 couples) expecting their first child completed measures of grandiosity, attention seeking, and relationship satisfaction before birth, and of relationship satisfaction, parental satisfaction, and PPD symptoms 3 months afterward. Attention seeking was associated with less parental satisfaction and more PPD symptoms, and with less prepartum relationship satisfaction for participants' partners. For men, attention seeking was also associated with prepartum relationship satisfaction. Grandiosity was associated with a decrease in relationship satisfaction after birth, although, surprisingly with fewer PPD symptoms for participants’ partners. The authors discuss how these findings might be related to changes in social support and work–life balance during the transition to parenthood.

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Insecure attachment and relationship satisfaction: A meta-analysis of actor and partner associations

Personality and Individual Differences ◽

10.1016/j.paid.2019.04.037 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 147 ◽

pp. 190-199 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Octav-Sorin Candel ◽

Maria Nicoleta Turliuc

Keyword(s):

Relationship Satisfaction ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Insecure Attachment

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Understanding in transition: The influence of becoming parents on empathic accuracy

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships ◽

10.1177/0265407520924124 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 37 (8-9) ◽

pp. 2366-2385

Author(s):

Jerica X. Bornstein ◽

Eshkol Rafaeli ◽

Marci E.J. Gleason

Keyword(s):

Relationship Satisfaction ◽

Transition To Parenthood ◽

Negative Mood ◽

Empathic Accuracy ◽

Relationship Functioning ◽

Major Life ◽

Daily Diary Study ◽

First Child ◽

Relationship Partners ◽

Life Stressor

Empathic accuracy (EA), the ability to understand a close other’s thoughts and feelings, is linked to relationship satisfaction. Yet, it is unclear whether stress interferes with relationship partners’ ability to be empathically accurate. The present study investigates whether a major life stressor, the transition to parenthood (TTP), interferes with EA between partners. In a daily diary study of 78 couples expecting their first child, couples reported on their own and their partners’ daily mood for 3 weeks during three separate time periods across the TTP: pregnancy, infancy, and toddlerhood. Both mothers and their partners demonstrated EA across the TTP. However, there was evidence that the transition interfered with EA: Partners’ ability to track mothers’ negative mood dropped significantly during infancy and remained low in toddlerhood, whereas mothers’ ability to track their partners’ positive mood dropped significantly in infancy and recovered in toddlerhood. This suggests that one way in which a major life stressor, in this case, the TTP, may interfere with relationship functioning is by decreasing couples’ understanding of each other’s mood states.

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