Child-related bliss and couples' partnership satisfaction in the early parenthood period: A longitudinal dyadic perspective.

Abstract

This research investigates the impact of parents' feelings of fulfillment and joy aroused by their infant and parenthood-referred to as child-related bliss-on their partnership satisfaction in the early period of parenthood between 6 and 24 months postpartum. In addition, the influence of partnership satisfaction during pregnancy and after childbirth on child-related bliss is investigated. Guided by family systems theory, we assumed both parents' child-related bliss to be positively associated with individual (i.e., spillover effects) as well as the spouse's partnership satisfaction (i.e., crossover effects). Longitudinal dyadic data from N = 135 heterosexual couples were analyzed using the actor-partner interdependence model, which takes interdependencies between couples into account. Taken as a set, the findings suggest that fathers' child-related and partnership-related perceptions are more closely linked than is the case for mothers. Fathers' child-related bliss 6 months postpartum positively influenced their partnership satisfaction at that time, and at 12 and 24 months postpartum. For mothers, in contrast, such spillover effects were not detected. Most importantly with respect to interdependencies between couples, the results indicate crossover effects from fathers to mothers, that is, fathers' child-related bliss positively contributed to mothers' partnership satisfaction in the postnatal period. In contrast, mothers' bliss did not influence fathers' partnership satisfaction. The study demonstrates that fathers' parental feelings of fulfillment and bliss contribute to their individual and to mothers' partnership satisfaction. This highlights gender-specific couple dynamics, that is, an influence of fathers' blissful child-related feelings on mothers' partnership satisfaction in the postnatal period. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).