A Role Model of the Transition to Parenthood

Abstract

A factor analysis of a large pool of items dealing with the transition to parenthood yielded a 25-item measure consisting of three distinct, internally consistent, and reliable dimensions which were labeled as Parental Responsibilities and Restrictions (PRR), Parental Gratifications (PG), and Marital Intimacy and Stability (MIS). A causal model offive antecedents of the degree ofdifficulty of the transition to parenthood was developed and tested using path analysis on data collected from interviewing 54 white married couples whosefirst child was three to five months old. Sex had a significant positive direct effect on PRR; while anticipatory socialization, role clarity and role conflict had significant negative direct effects on PRR. Education had a significant negative direct effect on PG, and role clarity had a significant positive direct effect on PG. Role clarity had a significant positive direct effect on MIS and sex had a significant negative direct effect on MIS. Females had a higher level of anticipatory socialization and role clarity than males, and higher educated persons had a lower level of role clarity than their lesser educated counterparts. The proposed model was more successful in explaining the variance in PRR than in PG or MIS. An elaborated model to which the variables ofplanfulness, value ofchildren, and length of marriage were added increased the explained variance in PG and clarified the relationships between sex, education, anticipatory socialization and transition difficulty.