Marital Quality and Conflict Across the Transition to Parenthood in African American and White Couples

Abstract

Changes in marital quality and marital conflict are explored in a longitudinal study of White and African American couples making the transition to parenthood within the first 2 years of marriage (38 White, 27 African American) and a group of couples who remained childless (75 White, 31 African American). Results show that White and African American spouses who become parents report lower marital happiness and more frequent conflicts after the transition than before. White parents also report higher marital tension and a greater likelihood to become quiet and withdrawn during conflict after the birth of their child. For new mothers and fathers, conflict behaviors predict marital happiness in similar ways--attacking the spouse and leaving the scene of the conflict predicted lower marital happiness, and becoming quiet and withdrawn predicted higher marital happiness. These patterns are similar for both African American and White spouses. Key Words: African Americans, marital conflict, marital quality, parenthood, race. The transition to parenthood is one of the most challenging and difficult transitions of the family life cycle with a high potential for both personal and marital change (Michaels & Goldberg, 1988). Adding a third member to a prexisting dyad necessarily changes the social organization of the family (Mattessich & Hill, 1987), and having a child can influence the division of domestic labor, power, communication, and conflict within the marital system (Cowan & Cowan, 1988). However, we know little about how the process of conflict resolution actually changes for new parents or how their behaviors during conflict relate to their marital happiness. Moreover, much of the research on the transition has documented changes in marital quality for White, middle-class couples. We do not know how marital quality changes for African American couples. This study investigates changes in marital quality and marital conflict that occur across the transition to parenthood in a sample of White and African American couples. Specifically, this study explores changes in spouses' feelings about their marriages and behaviors during conflict and examines the relationship between conflict behaviors and marital happiness. CHANGES IN MARRIAGE WITH THE TRANSITION TO PARENTHOOD A wide variety of changes in marital relationships occurs after childbirth. After the birth of the first child, marital relationships tend to be characterized by more frequent negative interactions and fewer positive ones than they are prebirth (Belsky, Lang, & Rovine, 1985). And new parents report increased conflict and disagreement in their marriage (Cowan et al., 1985). Gender roles become more traditional because women become more psychologically and physically involved in their parental role than men (Cowan et al., 1985; McHale & Huston, 1985; Thompson & Walker, 1989). In general, wives assume more household chores after the transition than before, and they also perform the primary duties of parenthood. Couples experience less leisure time together, sexual relationships decline, and patterns of intimacy and communication often are disrupted due to increased time constraints and the demands of the infant (Belsky, Spanier, & Rovine, 1983; Belsky et al., 1985; Cowan et al., 1985). Consequently, one of the most consistent findings in the literature is that there is a slight, but reliable, decrease in marital quality for first-time parents (Belsky & Pensky, 1988; Cowan & Cowan, 1988). Although changes in communication, conflict, and marital quality have been documented for first-time parents, little attention has been explicitly given to how styles of communication and conflict change when spouses become parents and how these styles are linked to marital quality. In one exception that focused on changes in conflict behaviors, the Cowans (1988) reported that couples exhibited more goal-oriented, efficient behaviors during conflict 6 months after the birth of their child than they did during the stages of late pregnancy. …