Changes in the marital relationship during the transition to first time motherhood: Effects of violated expectations concerning division of household labor.

Abstract

This research combined cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses to evaluate the hypothesis that violated expectations with respect to sharing child care and housekeeping responsibilities contribute to women's dissatisfactions with their marital relationships after the birth of their first child. The cross-sectional sample consisted of 670 women who completed questionnaires at one of six phases in relation to birth. The longitudinal sample consisted of 48 women who filled out questionnaires late in pregnancy and at three periods postpartum. The results showed, consistent with previous findings, that women reported less positive feelings about their husbands during the postpartum period than during pregnancy, and that women reported doing much more of the housework and child care than they had expected. Moreover, regression analyses indicated, as predicted, that violated expectations concerning division of labor were related to negative feelings postpartum concerning some aspects of the marital relationship. Additional findings suggested that the negative implications of the birth of a baby for the marital relationship may not be as great as has been emphasized in previous literature, and that expectancy violations affect some parts of the relationship but not necessarily the core affective feeling.