Becoming a parent

Question 1

when does the transition to parenthood start?

Answer 1

The transition itself is a specific period but thinking about parenting is something that happens a long time before we become parents

Question 2

maternal age- ONS UK data

Answer 2

• Clear progressive increase in age of child bearing- including first child bearing
  
  • The space between the various children a woman may have has reduced considerably with pregnancy becoming closer and closer
    See that the percentage of people under 30 has been steadily decreasing

Question 3

becoming a parent

Answer 3

• Age increase troubling
  
  • Negative female age - fertility relationship (ESHRE Capri Workshop Group, 2005)
  • Starts falling at 30, then sharp decrease after 35
  • This drop cannot be compensated through IVF (Leridon, 2004)
  • The age factor is important- female age is negatively related to fertility rates. The decrease starts being statistically visible around 30 and a very clear sharp drop around the age of 35 with the age of 38 being the age where fertility is very low
  • This cannot be compensated for by IVF- this is psychologically very exhausting and does not create fertility
• Age increase at first-born
  
  • May leave fewer child-bearing years, leading to shorter birth intervals
  • Potential increase in adverse perinatal and infant outcomes (Conde-Agudelo et al., 2006, 2012)
  • Being older at first born leaves fewer years for being a parent which can have some effects of the child but also reduces the window of childbearing- decreases the time between pregnancies (if you want more children) and shorter windows are shown to have worse perinatal and infant outcomes. Having more time for childbearing prevents this
• Notably, parenthood is important for young adults
  
  • ~90% state parenthood as a desired life-goal (Lampic et al., 2006; Peterson et al., 2012; Prior et al., 2017)
  • Young adults, in Western contexts, especially with higher education
    (Lampic et al., 2006; Peterson et al., 2012)
• Childbearing barriers
  
  • Achievement of career and educational goals, and of relationship and economic stability
  • Low awareness of age-related female-fertility decline
  • Plan childbearing at ages when fertility has started declining, increasing risk of childlessness
• Young adults have low awareness of the details of how fertility and their rates work and how they may be impacted by inevitable things such as age- they end up trying to have children later in life which is functionally more difficult to obtain (chances of remaining childless will increase)
• Data on young adults’ fertility knowledge available from many countries
• Not much is known about UK young adults’
• We conducted a study, to investigate in young adults in higher education:
  
  • Fertility knowledge
  • Intentions towards parenthood
    Barriers perceived against it

Question 4

study method

Answer 4

• Sample
  
  • 1943 university students (1439 female; 504 male)
  • Aged 18 to 24 (mean age: 19.91)
  • 80.65% white ethnic background
  • THESE ARE ALL LIMITATIONS
• Online questionnaire
  
  • Swedish Fertility Awareness Scale (Lampic et al., 2006)
    ○ Childbearing intentions and plans (e.g., age, number of children, plans in case of infertility)
    ○ Expectations for life changes brought by parenthood
    ○ Personal and societal barriers perceived for childbearing
    Fertility issue awareness (e.g., age-related fertility changes, pregnancy likelihood, IVF success rates).

Question 5

results: wanting to become parents

Answer 5

• They want children and having them is important (0-100)
  
  • Females: ~88% [importance ~79 on average]
  • Males: ~88% [importance ~78 on average]
• They want multiple children
  
  • Females: 2.61 on average (4 or more: ~12%!)
    Males: 2.46 on average (4 or more: ~7%!)

Question 6

results- childbearing age

Answer 6

• The average age of first child was found to hover around 28-29 mark- percentages on chart on left will see that 30% of women participants indicated they wanted to have their first child past 30 which is a 3rd of participants panning to have a child at an age where fertility rates aren’t great
  Clearly a shift towards older ages than we have seen in previous historic years

Question 7

results- what to do in case of childlessness

Answer 7

• Most selected option is IVF- this depends on fertility rates and psychologically exhausting
  The option of remaining childless was selected the least

Question 8

results- perceived consequences of parenthood

Answer 8

• When looking at the consequences of coming parents the majority of the participants viewed this positively
• Rosy view about parenting
• Idea that there is an element of chronological progression that can affect these decisions was not on the radar of participants- at least there was an idea that current societal positions there is a need for stability and maturity but also accomplishment in terms of career goals

Question 9

conclusions from the study

Answer 9

• Young adults completing higher education in the UK
  
  • See parenthood as desirable and important, personally and relationally enriching
  • Perceive attainment of educational, and professional goals, and personal and relational stability as barriers to childbearing
  • Often plan to have children at ages when fertility has declined
  • Hope in IVF in case of childlessness (but overestimate its success)
  • This is reflected in their poor awareness of fertility issues
    Considerable risk of involuntary childlessness

Question 10

implications of the study

Answer 10

• No easy answers
  
  • Provide education, but then what?
  • What about society’s
  • Approach to personal and professional achievements?
  • Approach and support towards parenthood, especially if achieved “earlier”?
  • What about young adults’ actual values, opinions, and desires, and solutions?
    Multidisciplinary and inclusive discussion needed

Question 11

the transition to parenthood

Answer 11

• It refers to the period (traditionally starting in pregnancy) when individuals prepare
  
  • Psychologically
  • Emotionally
  • Socially for becoming parents
• Everything that functioned before from all points of view needs to be reformulated in terms of the child- goals, roles and expectations change or create new ones that become dominant
• All relationships are completely re-negotiated
• Even our relationship to ourselves changes as our priorities and goals shift
• Researchers have focused on this transition and the parental role in general for decades.
• Multiple factors at play in this delicate and complex phase of an individual’s, and often a couple’s life
• Useful models:
  
  • Biopsychosocial model
    (Engel, 1977)
  • Bioecological model
    (Bronfenbrenner, Morris, 2007)

Question 12

hormonal changes

Answer 12

• hCG: Once egg meets sperm, hCG stimulates production of estrogen and progesterone. It also suppresses the immune system to support the growing baby.
• Estrogen: Helps the uterus grow, regulates the production of other key hormones, and triggers the development of baby’s organs
• Progesterone: encourages breast tissue growth and later helps soften ligaments and cartilage to prepare for labour.
• Relaxin: Relaxing muscles, bones, ligaments and joints later in pregnancy in preparation for labour.
• Oxytocin: Stimulating labour
  Prolactin: Causes breasts to increase in size and eventually produce milk.

Question 13

Key biological changes- Early pregnancy (first trimester 1-12 weeks)

Answer 13

• Nausea and vomiting is experienced by 70-85% of pregnant woman (ACOG, 2004)
  
  • On a spectrum from mild to severe (hyperemesis gravidarum)
  • Thought to be a direct effect of HCG
  • Typically stabilises at 3-4 months
• Fatigue experienced by 96.6% of first trimester mothers (Zib, Lim & Walters, 1999)
  Contributing factors include increased oxygen consumption, metabolic changes and estrogen/progesterone (Bialobock & Monga, 2000)

Question 14

key biological changes post partum

Answer 14

• Recovery from birth generally takes 6 weeks
  
  • Huge drop in all pregnancy hormones
  • Potential explanation for ‘baby blues’
• Newborns wake every 2-3 hours in the night so sleep quality is poor postpartum
  Most common complaints 3 months after birth were fatigue (67%), back pain (47%), breast problems (37%), and urinary incontinence (29%) (Woodland et al. 2013)

Question 15

biological changes in men

Answer 15

• Less is known about biological changes in fathers during this transition
• Men experience hormonal changes similar to those in mothers, during the perinatal period, if they are cohabiting with the mother (Storey et al., 2001; Wynne-Edwards, 2001)
  
  • Increases in estradiol and oxytocin during pregnancy
  • Increases in prolactin and cortisol just before the birth
  • Reductions in cortisol in the post-birth
• Postnatally, and more specific to men:
  
  • Significant reductions in testosterone (Storey et al., 2000)
  • Stronger reduction in men who spend substantial time with their infants (Gettler et al., 2011)
• Literature shows that after the perinatal period a lot of hormonal changes in a men’s body
• Changes in hormones that are similar to those that we see in a pregnant woman e.g. increases in oxytocin (caregiving hormone) and prolactin and cortisol just before birth- mirroring the lady
• Specific to man- reductions in testosterone especially when they spend time with infants

Question 16

hormonal changes in men and women

Answer 16

• These hormone concentrations are:
  
  • similar across mothers and fathers
  • correlated between individual partners
• Either/or (Gordon et al., 2010):
  
  • Mothers and fathers influence each other’s physiological reactions to the pregnancy, childbirth, and early caregiving
  • Mothers and fathers have similar physiological systems that respond to the experience of preparing for parenthood
• Either way:
  
  • Hormonal changes in parents during this transition do not exclusively reflect the experience of pregnancy
• In fact, these hormonal changes seem to
  
  • Not only accompany pregnancy and childbirth
  • Also regulate the motivational, affective, and cognitive aspects of parents’ adjustment
    -E.g.,Higher levels of oxytocin predict increased (Feldman, 2011; 2012; Atzil et al., 2011; Gordon et al., 2010):
  • Parent-infant affection
  • Parent-infant gaze
  • Joint attention
  • Sensitive parenting
  • Secure attachment
    There is a biological mechanism underpinning early parenting behavior, common to both parents during pregnancy, which underlies the psychological changes of the transition to parenthood

Question 17

brain structures

Answer 17

• Hormonal increases and alterations coincide with changes in the structure/architecture of parents’ brains
• From pregnancy to just after birth
  
  • Hoekzema et al., 2017 found:
    ○ Reductions in gray matter volume in brain regions implicated in early caregiving
    ○ Reductions predicted maternal postnatal attachment scale scores
    ○ These reductions reflect synaptic pruning, or increased efficiency, in key brain regions- pruning is followed by increase in grey mastter volunes
• During and throughout the postpartum period
  
  • Kim et al., 2010 found:
    ○ Increasing gray matter volume increases in same brain regions- speaks to the idea that when the transition is kicking in there is a consolidation. Then expanision of key brain regions (preparation to enter new role)
• Reductions in gray matter during pregnancy precede increases in gray matter volume postpartum:
  Parents’ brains first consolidate in preparation for and then expand in execution of caregiving

Question 18

brain functioning

Answer 18

• Differences in how parents vs. nonparents respond to auditory and visual infant stimuli
• Differences in how parents respond to their own vs. other infants
• Differences involve specific brain regions: a global “parental caregiving” network
  (Lambert & Kinsley, 2012)
  
  • Primed by the pregnancy hormones oxytocin and prolactin (Feldman, 2015)
  • Subserves human capacities for empathy, mentalizing (theory-of-mind), and emotion regulation
    (Bethlehemet al., 2013; Meyer-Lindenberget al., 2011; Feldman, 2015)
  • All skills new parents require when attempting to understand and care for newborns
• Potent hormonal characteristics of pregnancy and transition to parenthood
  
  • Trigger unique neural pathways and responses that support parents’ capacities to care successfully for their infants (Lambert and Kinsley, 2012)
• Atypical neural activity in transition to parenthood underlie parenting difficulties
  
  • Depressed mothers: significantly less reactivity in response to fearful and angry faces than nondepressed mothers (Moses-Kolko et al., 2010)
  • Postpartum depression may affect important circuits for sensitively responding to infants’ cues and developing secure mother-infant attachment relationships
    (Feldman, 2012)

Question 19

Key social transitions: from woman to mother (Emmanuel & St John, 2010)

Answer 19

• Emmanuel & St John (2010) suggest becoming a mother encompasses several psychosocial challenges:
  
  • Changing from a known to an unknown reality
  • Taking on a new maternal identity, with associated feelings, behaviours, and skills
  • Renegotiating prior social roles, such as employment, relationship with partner, and wider family roles
  • Balancing multiple demands
  • Experiencing losses, such as loss of control, sleep, freedom, and sense of self
    Normal adaptation to these changes can encompass both emotional challenges and personal growth

Question 20

Psychological adjustments (Contrasting theories and longitudinal studies)

Answer 20

• Contrasting theories and expectations:
  
  • Evolutionary psychology: becoming a parent fulfils a fundamental human need, thus it should provide parents with a sense of life satisfaction
  • Family stress model: becoming a parent lowers parents’ subjective well-being, at least temporarily, because parents are adjusting to major changes in their daily lives, roles, and relationships, and with change comes stress
• Longitudinal studies:
  
  • New parents’ subjective well-being, or overall life satisfaction is particularly high just after the birth, but it declines in the succeeding months
    (Luhman et al., 2012)

Question 21

Psychological adjustments (variety in findings and new parents wellbeing)

Answer 21

• Variety in findings on life satisfaction in the transition to parenthood:
  
  • Clark et al., 2008: it declined significantly to below pre-pregnancy level, and stayed low for at least 4 years
  • Dyrdal and Lucas (2013) found a return to pre-pregnancy levels after 2 years
  • Galatzer-Levy et al., (2011) found that only a small subset of parents declined significantly (7%), whereas that vast majority (84%) remained relatively stable
• Whether new parents experience declines or stability in well-being
  
  • Parents generally experience lower levels of subjective well-being than nonparents during the intensive childrearing years
  • Parenthood may represent a fundamental psychological need according to evolutionary theory, BUT
  • Fulfilling that need does not unequivocally benefit parents’ psychological adjustment, at least not in the short term.
• Subjective well-being in the transition to parenthood is lower:
  (Galatzer-Levy et al., 2011; Nelson et al., 2014; Luhmann et al., 2012; Lachance-Grzela & Bouchard, 2009)
  
  • In the absence of a partner
  • In younger individuals
  • When the pregnancy is unplanned
    These findings are likely to be related

Question 22

key social transitions- relationships and sexual functioning

Answer 22

• Common belief that parenthood is central to a fulfilling romantic relationship (Hansen, 2012)
• Relationship satisfaction and sexual functioning decline moderately among men and women from pregnancy to the child’s first birthday (Mitnick, 2009)
• Increased marital conflict in the postpartum compared to during pregnancy (Hanington et al. 2012)
• Twenge et al. (2003) meta analysis of 90 studies comparing parents to childless individuals (n=30,000)
  
  • Parents experience lower levels of relationship satisfaction than non-parents
  • Parents of infants report lower levels of relationship quality than childless individuals or parents of older children
    Key predictors of relationship quality include pre-pregnancy quality and duration, planned pregnancy, parents relationship status, and mental health status

Question 23

relationship adjustments

Answer 23

• Unsurprisingly, one of the most studied areas in the transition to parenthood
• The introduction of a child into a couple’s life requires change in couples’ roles and responsibilities as a dyadic relationship becomes a triadic system
• Family systems theory:
  
  • This shift will affect the functioning of both parents and their relationship
• Consistent finding in literature:
  
  • Couples’ relationship satisfaction declines from the child’s birth over the first 6 months of life, as interpersonal conflict increases
    (Bower et al., 2012; Cox et al., 1999; Doss et al., 2009; Elek et al., 2003; Kluwer, 2010; Mitnick et al., 2009; Wallace & Gotlib, 1990; Doss et al., 2009; Gottman, 1994; Nomaguchi & Milkie, 2003)

Question 24

Relationship adjustments- Reasons why transition strains couples’ relationships (likely obvious to anyone who has cared for a newborn):

Answer 24

• Couples get to spend less time together
  
  • Dew and Wilcox (2011)
    
    • Declines in amount of time together explained a large proportion of the decline in marital satisfaction during the first year of parenthood
    • With less time for themselves, couples report fewer leisure activities together and decreases in sexual intimacy
• Lack of sleep
  
  • New parents’ sleep (quantity, quality, and consistency) can be disturbed for weeks or months after a baby is born
    (Bayer et al., 2007; Gay et al., 2004; Hiscock & Wake, 2001; Lee et al., 2000)
  • Sleep deprivation and disruption (Medina et al., 2009)
    
    • Predict greater negative mood and less positive mood
    • Can undermine cognitive functioning in ways that could undermine marital quality
  • An overtired parent (Kahn-Greene et al., 2006)
    
    • Reacts more negatively to minor problems
    • Brings weaker problem-solving skills and more blaming responses to those problems
  • Significant link between sleep disruption and fatigue and lower relationship satisfaction
    (Condon et al., 2004; Meijer & van den Wittenboer, 2007)

Question 25

Relationship adjustments- DISAGREEMENT OVER OR DISSATISFACTION WITH HOUSEHOLD ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES (BIG ONE!)

Answer 25

• The introduction of a child into a family adds a new responsibility into a household that previously only managed paid work and household chores
• CHILDCARE
  
  • For many couples, this new responsibility creates role conflict, as one or both parents feel overwhelmed at managing more demands on their time (Cowan & Cowan, 2000; Twenge et al., 2003)
  • Most often, the transition shifts roles toward more gender-traditional arrangements, with women increasing work at home and men increasing or not changing work outside home
    (Katz-Wise et al., 2010; Yavorsky et al., 2015)
  • Not surprisingly, mothers with less traditional gender role beliefs report being more dissatisfied with this shift than those with more traditional gender ideals (Belsky et al., 1986)
  • Both mothers and fathers, report greater declines in relationship satisfaction and greater increases in conflict when their pre-birth expectations for division of labour are violated (Grote & Clark, 2001; Holmes et al., 2013)
    Unsurprisingly, greater father involvement in baby’s daily care is associated with greater maternal marital satisfaction after birth, except for women with highly traditional gender role beliefs (Hackel & Ruble, 1992)

Question 26

Relationship adjustments- parents expectations about experience and infant temperament

Answer 26

• Parents’ expectations about the parenting experience and their parental self-efficacy
  
  • When experiences are negative relative to expectations, relationship adjustment tends to suffer (Harwood et al., 2007; Lawrence et al., 2007)
  • Negative expectations themselves predict lower warmth between partners (McHale et al., 2004)
• Infant temperament (Bates et al., 2019; Putnam et al., 2002)
  
  • Temperamentally difficult infants (high negative emotionality and low sociability)
    
    • More difficult to care for
    • Can place additional strain on new parents
      This strain is associated with higher reported levels of parent conflict in the first year (Belsky & Rovine, 1990; Holmes et al., 2013)

Question 27

social adjustments

Answer 27

• Fewer empirical studies that systematically explore the social consequences of the transition to parenthood
• Because of the new responsibilities, duties and time constraints, this transition leads to intense renegotiations and redefinitions of previously established social roles and priorities:
  
  • Work roles and relationships
  • Family relationships
  • Family relationships
    Other social roles and relationships

Question 28

social adjustments- policy

Answer 28

• Policy:
• Parents necessarily engage with and are affected by a vast number of policies
• These affect their healthcare and social opportunities
• Policies are subject to frequent change, that is or is perceived as being out of personal control
• E.g.,
  
  • Parental leave
  • Child benefits
  • Childcare support
    School-life organisation

Question 29

social adjustments- social support

Answer 29

• Social support
  
  • Both quality and quantity of connections
  • From both family and social network
  • buffers against negative psychological effects of a challenging transition
  • (Crnic & Greenberg, 1990; Koeske & Koeske, 1991)
• Parents’ social networks get smaller in number (Bost et al., 2002; Wellman et al., 1997)
  
  • Ties with close family and friends with children get stronger
    Parents adapt their social networks across transition and optimize effectiveness of available social support

Question 30

challenges of theoretical models

Answer 30

• The theoretical models mentioned provide useful perspectives for investigating and explaining the nature and challenges of the transition to parenthood
• There is however:
  
  • Relative poor balance in quantity of research devoted to the different levels
  • Difficulty in formulating and testing hypotheses that clearly relate and/or contrast effects found at different levels
  • The interplay between levels is also rarely explored longitudinally
    These gaps limit the range of conclusions we can draw, and potentially limit the formulation of forms of support.

Question 31

the intergenerational transmission of parenting

Answer 31

• The idea that parenting is passed down through the generations
• All things being equal, parents treat their children the way their parents treated them
  or
• At least parenting in one generation is a reaction or is related to the parenting that was present in the previous generation
• It is methodologically very challenging to research empirically, due to
  
  • Vast spans of time involved
  • Multiple influencing (biopsychosocial and historical) factors between generations
• It is important to investigate
  
  • e.g., for understanding the use of harsh and/or abusive parenting
• Several theoretical approaches. We will focus on:
  
  • Attachment theory
    Social learning theory

Question 32

attachment theory

Answer 32

• Parenting behaviours that contribute to insecure, secure, and disorganized attachment are transmitted across generations.
• E.g., children whose parents are unresponsive, rejecting, or abusive may (Raby et al., 2015)
  
  • Become insecurely attached to them
    (Cummings & Warmuth, 2019; Egeland & Sroufe, 1981; Schneider-Rosen & Cicchetti, 1984)
  • Develop an insecure attachment representation that is maintained into adulthood
    (van IJzendoorn, 1995)
  • Enact internalised behaviors (unresponsive, rejecting, abusive) toward their own offspring
    (Main and Goldwyn, 1984)
• Regarding positive attachments, children who experience sensitive parenting may
  
  • Develop into parents with secure (autonomous) attachment representations
  • Promote secure attachment in their own children by their increased sensitive parenting
    Perpetuate these parenting behaviors across generations

Question 33

challenges of attachment theory

Answer 33

• There is limited fully prospective research on this topic
• Meta-analyses (van IJzendoorn, 1995; Verhage et al., 2016)
  
  • Cross-generation similarities in attachment, BUT
  • Sensitive parenting does not seem to adequately explain them
    This casts doubts on the idea that attachment theory may explain stability in parenting behaviours between generations

Question 34

social learning theory

Answer 34

• Predominant (although not mutually exclusive) theory
• Children acquire parenting behaviours from their parents through modelling and social reinforcement.
• When they become parents, they (Garbarino & Gilliam, 1980; Patterson, 1982)
  
  • Generalize from their childhood behavioural learning histories
    or
  • Recall explicit episodic memories of how they were treated by their parents
    And
  • Enact similar behaviours with their own children
• E.g., parents may have learned to deal with problematic child behaviour by:
  
  • Scolding and spanking
  • Structuring the situation to avoid problem behaviour (e.g., providing colouring books and crayons so their child will not be bored in a restaurant)
• This theory also predicts indirect transmission pathways
• Harsh and negative parenting may transfer via coercive relationship dynamics (e.g., parents’ and children’s mutual reinforcement and escalation of each other’s aversive behaviors) (Snyder, 2016)
  
  • These experiences socialize children to use aggressive methods to get their way in a variety of situations outside the home, and may lead them to:
  • Recreate high-conflict family contexts in adulthood (Rothenberg et al., 2016)
    Repeat coercive processes with their own children (Dishion & Patterson, 2016; Thornberry et al., 2003).

Question 35

challenges of social learning theory

Answer 35

• There is again limited fully prospective research on this topic
• Considerable methodological issue emerge
  
  • Difficulties in objectively representing and measuring parenting behaviours across vast gaps of time
  • Differing manifestations of values and attitudes
• Could rely on retrospective self-reported accounts
  Vulnerable to considerable bias.