47-4 When the First Baby Arrives: Parental Involvement and Marital Satisfaction among New Parents
This study investigated changes in marital satisfaction in the transition to parenthood for newlywed couples over the first 3 years of marriage. In addition, this study examined the relationships among parental involvement, couples' intimate interaction, and marital satisfaction before and after the first baby arrived, as well as spousal influences in such relationships. The sample included 71 couples, 50 who became parents during the second year of marriage and 21 who became parents during the third year. Findings showed that during the transition to parenthood, both husbands and wives experienced declines in marital satisfaction. Marital satisfaction before the first child arrived was significantly associated with husbands' involvement in child care, but not related to wives' involvement. Husbands' involvement in child care was not associated with their perceptions of intimate interaction and marital satisfaction after the birth of the child. However, wives' involvement in child care indirectly influenced their marital satisfaction after the birth of the child through intimate interaction. Not only did wives' involvement in child care directly affect husbands' marital satisfaction after the birth of the child, but it also indirectly affected husbands' marital satisfaction after the birth of the child through intimate interaction. These results showed an actor effect indicating a spillover between marital and parent-child subsystems, as well as a partner effect indicating a crossover from wives' parent-child subsystem to husbands' marital subsystem.
Keywords
couples' intimate interaction ； marital satisfaction ； new parents ； parental involvement
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