The Transition to Coparenthood: Influences on the Development of the Parenting Partnership
Schoppe-Sullivan, Sarah Jane
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/82050
Description
Title
The Transition to Coparenthood: Influences on the Development of the Parenting Partnership
Author(s)
Schoppe-Sullivan, Sarah Jane
Issue Date
2003
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Mangelsdorf, Sarah C.
Department of Study
Psychology
Discipline
Psychology
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Psychology, Developmental
Language
eng
Abstract
This study investigated factors that contribute to the development of parenting partnerships across the transition to parenthood. The potential roles of expectant parents' personal characteristics, relationship characteristics, and beliefs and expectations about parenthood were examined in relation to parents' perceptions of the quality of their parenting alliance and the quality of observed coparenting behavior. Thirty-nine expectant couples expecting their first child together completed questionnaires and were observed interacting together during the third trimester of the pregnancy; the same couples completed additional questionnaires and were observed interacting together with their infants when they were 3.5 months old. The results of this study point to several important and unique harbingers of the quality of developing parenting partnerships: expectant fathers' personalities, expectant parents' perceptions of childhood relationships with their own mothers, partners' prebirth projections about their parenting alliance, and partners' agreement/disagreement about plans for childcare and paternal role investments, as well as qualities of the preexisiting couple relationship. Importantly, the predictors of perceptions of parenting alliance and coparenting behavior were somewhat different. Taken together, these findings highlight the complex nature of parenting partnership development during the period of early family formation.
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