Declines in Marital Satisfaction Among New Mothers: Broad Strokes Versus Fine Details

Abstract

Key Words: life events and/or transitions, National Survey of Families and Households, parenthood, wives' employment. Dew and Wilcox (2011), in this issue, provide important insights into the family and marital changes that may accompany the transition to motherhood for American women. Using the first two waves of National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH; Sweet, Bumpass, & Call, 1988), Dew and Wilcox examined 569 married women, 347 of whom became mothers for the first time between Wave 1 and Wave 2. Consistent with previous research (e.g., Belsky, 1985; Cowan et al., 1985), women who became mothers were more likely to experience a decline in self-reported marital satisfaction, a decline in time spent with their spouses, and increased perceptions of inequality of housework than were women who did not become mothers. Dew and Wilcox also found support for a mediated model in which the decline in new mothers' marital satisfaction could be attributed to accompanying changes in spousal time and perceived unfairness in housework. Also consistent with previous research (e.g., Belsky & Rovine, 1990), Dew and Wilcox (2011) report that marital satisfaction did not decline for all new mothers. Strikingly, the proportions of mothers whose marital satisfaction remained stable or increased over time were not different from those of women who did not have children. In fact, becoming a mother was directly related to marital satisfaction in only two of the six models that Dew and Wilcox examined. In models that included changes in spousal time, housework, and/or unfairness, the transition to parenthood no longer accounted for unique variance in satisfaction. Dew and Wilcox (2011) succeed in beginning to address the social and psychological complexity of changes that accompany the transition to parenthood. We were particularly intrigued with findings suggesting that, for many women, feelings of social isolation may accompany new motherhood. For example, new mothers spent less time with their spouses, less time in paid employment, and more time in housework, and in turn they were less satisfied in their marriage. Findings also indicated that women's interpretations of household changes were important to consider. Specifically, new mothers' increased time spent on housework was associated with increased feelings of unfairness in the division of household labor, and that perceived unfairness was linked to decreased marital satisfaction. Thus, the broad strokes of the Dew and Wilcox (2011) study both replicate and extend existing research. They addressed interesting questions about the factors contributing to self-reported marital decline for new mothers; however, although the study offers a broad perspective on this significant area of research, we found important details and complexities to be blurred. We were particularly concerned about details in three areas: the nature of the study sample, the measurement of key constructs, and the statistical analysis of change processes. SAMPLE LIMITATIONS The replication of key findings from the transition to parenthood literature in a larger, more representative sample has the potential to extend the literature. Much of the early research was rooted in samples that were primarily European American, well educated, and middle to upper class. In contrast, the NSFH was designed to be nationally representative, and it oversampled both African American and Mexican American participants. Unfortunately, the current subsample of the NSFH was both more homogeneous than the larger sample and more similar to previous samples than would be ideal. As a result of both attrition and inclusion criteria, Dew and Wilcox (2011) examined a subsample that was 90% European American, had higher incomes, worked more, were older, had more education, spent more time with their husbands, and had greater marital satisfaction than did the women lost to attrition or divorce. …