Husbands' relationship anxiety a chief cause of marital dissatisfaction for new parents
Male insecurity is one of the main causes of declining marital satisfaction among new parents, according to a University of Queensland study.
The study found that wives' perceptions that husbands were not doing enough housework or bearing their fair share of baby minding were other main reasons for declining marital satisfaction.
UQ School of Psychology senior lecturer Dr Judith Feeney and Professor Pat Noller conducted the $135,000, Australian Research Council-funded study with Griffith University researcher Dr Lydia Hohaus.
The longitudinal study is believed to be the first in Australia to examine security issues among husbands and wives during the transition to parenthood.
The study questioned around 100 married couples about their marital satisfaction at three points during the transition to parenthood - in the second trimester of pregnancy, when the infant was six-weeks-old and six-months-old.
An equal number of childless married couples were also questioned.
Dr Feeney said the study's overall finding was that two-thirds of new parents reported no decline in marital satisfaction when their first child arrived.
'The study eliminated factors commonly believed to cause problems for new parents such as difficult babies, physically demanding pregnancies or births or unexpected pregnancies - these factors were equally evident in both the satisfied and unsatisfied groups,' she said.
'The key themes we found in the one-third of new parents reporting marital difficulties were a perception on the part of wives that husbands were not ?pulling their weight' with household chores or the baby, and anxiety on the part of husbands over their wives' love for them and the strength of the relationship in general.
'Anxious husbands may feel rather left out, and resent the time that wives spend with the new baby. Wives' insecurity was also important, although it did not predict changes in marital satisfaction. Wives who were anxious about their relationships at the beginning of the study were more likely to experience post-partum depression in the weeks following the birth; in these couples, both partners tended to report feeling stressed and insecure at the final assessment.'
Dr Feeney said the study's results reinforced the importance of couples firmly establishing their relationships before a new baby arrived and communicating different expectations including the amount of time spent on housework, babycare and shared couple activities.
The study quizzed all new parents about the best and worst aspects of having their first child. Dr Feeney said the top four (in descending order) for each category were: baby smiling, just having baby, seeing daily changes and being together as a family (best), and; sleep deprivation/exhaustion, not knowing what to do/helplessness, restrictions in lifestyle and a lack of bonding with the infant.
For more information, contact Dr Judith Feeney (telephone 07 3365 6412), Professor Patricia Noller (telephone 07 3365 6354) or Shirley Glaister in UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 2339) or email us at:communications@mailbox.uq.edu.au
