Role attitudes and marital satisfaction during the transition to parenthood: Primiparous/multiparous mothers and early/late pregnancy

The purpose of this study was to examine differences in attitudes, values, and marital satisfaction for primiparous/multiparous mothers and mothers experiencing early/late pregnancy. The sample consisted of 101 pregnant women who were recruited from the greater Atlanta area and a mid-sized university community. The investigator distributed questionnaires at participating doctors' offices and prenatal classes at a local hospital.; A set of questionnaires used in the study covered: traditional role attitudes, values of children, burdens of childrearing, marital satisfaction, information about children, family of origin, and personal data. These questionnaires were taken from a larger international study originally conducted in Germany.; Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to confirm factors obtained in the Attitude Questionnaire and the PFB Partnership Questionnaire and to assess scale validation. Hypotheses were tested by using 2 (58 primiparous/43 multiparous) x 2 (50 early/51 late pregnancy) MANOVAS. MANOVAS were used to test group mean differences on several dependent variables (traditional role attitudes, egalitarian role attitudes, value of children, and burdens of child rearing) and marital satisfaction. Correlations were computed between the dependent variables attitudes and marital satisfaction.; Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted for all scales, and it was concluded that CFA was premature for these measures. Because more factor analytic work is needed, this study relied on results from exploratory analyses.; Results indicated multiparous mothers evidenced a higher mean score than primiparous mothers on distal values (values of tradition--having children to improve the partnership and to gain family respect) and traditional role attitudes. Primiparous mothers evidenced a higher mean score than multiparous mothers on home/work attitudes. Finally, primiparous mothers evidenced a higher mean score than multiparous mothers on marital satisfaction measures. No significant differences were found between early and late pregnancy.; The findings from this study for primiparous mothers appear to be consistent with the literature. Results from this study supported that roles are more traditional and marital satisfaction is less for multiparous mothers when compared to primiparous mothers. A longitudinal study would need to be conducted to assess developmental change. To detect differences between women experiencing early pregnancy and those experiencing late pregnancy, a more extreme selection should be done (second, third month of pregnancy versus eighth and ninth month).