Transition to Motherhood and Relationship Quality

Abstract

Despite the fact that many women in remarriages give birth to their first child, studies on the transition to motherhood do not acknowledge the impact of higher-order unions and vice versa. Currently, it is unknown how the relationship functioning of women undergoing the transition to motherhood is influenced by the new couples' divorce or separation history. The aim of this study is to address this gap in the literature by examining the trajectory of 140 women, all expecting the birth of their first child, in function of the fact that they are, or not, in higher-order unions. Women completed, along with a demographic questionnaire, a measure of dyadic adjustment during the third trimester of their pregnancy and at six months postpartum. Results show that, as predicted, women whose partners are in higher-order unions experience a more important decline in relationship functioning following the birth of their first child than women whose partners are in first unions. These differences are largely independent of demographic variables differentiating higher-order unions from first unions, such as age of partners and length of relationship. The current study confirms that higher-order unions have the potential to be associated with relational difficulties even when no child was born from prior relationships.