Motivation and Selection Processes in a Biographical Transition: A Psychological Mixed Methods Study on the Transition Into Fatherhood

Abstract

This article addresses the question of how developmental psychology could benefit from mixed methods research to better explain individual differences in biographical transitions. An event history analysis of 117 young men’s transitions to first-time parenthood is integrated with a qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews on parenthood aspirations that were conducted with 12 childless participants from the same survey. The juxtaposition of both (sub)sampling and results shows, on the one hand, that men’s causal motivated actions to enter into fatherhood can be concluded by combining both qualitative and quantitative interpretations. On the other hand, causal effects on the transition to first-time fatherhood due to partnership selectivity can be concluded from quantitative factors that do not have a qualitative equivalent.