Previous resean::h mostly focused on early parenting stress or postpartum symptoms of menwl illness whereas the topic of a succes.\ful tmnsition Lo motherhooalisfaction. A succe.-.,ful tr.rnsilion Lo mothcrhood is fecling salislied, self-efficienL, and energclic in Lhe matemal role during Lhe liri.t year afler binh. Survey data from a largc. nalionally reprc.o;entative panel study with four measurement points acros.' 11 years were analy1.ed using strucluml equation modeling (SEM). Tl corresponds Lo child's lirst year of life. al T2 children were around 3. at T3 the children were around 8, and at T4 children were around 12 yean. old. Tue study sample comprised 322 mother;;hild dyad. , . Molhers completed qul:.'>tionnaire.' to a..,_.;e;,, their early tmnsition to motherhood (fl). children's e motion regulation (fl and 1'2). and matemal warmth (T3), At age 12 (f4). childrcn sclf-reponcd their lifc satisfaclion. ResulL,confirmed thal a suc..-ccssful tr.insilion l<> molh"rhoud had positive, lung-lcnn cITects on mat..mal warmth and children's cmotiun regulation. Muret. >V"1", adapting optimally to mothcrhood had an indirect J><•>ilivccffoct un children's 'ubjcctivc lifc sati,faclion at agc 12. Lifc satisfactiun wa.~ in tum po'itivcly affcctcd by matemal warmth and childrcn's cmotion regulatiun. Tue rc'ull' highlight lhe importance of a succe;,\ful lr.lll,ition to molhcmood for parcnling, children•, cmotion regulation. and lift: satisfaction. Kt')word.v: tmnsition Lo molherhood, parenlinJ!. emotion regulation. life satisfaction. panel study Becoming a mother changes life in many personal and social aspects (Aber et al., 2013). Well-being, love. and joy natur.illy go hand in hand with distress. helplessness. and fruslr.ition during lhe lirst monlhs of molherhood (Javadifar et al., 20 16). Although, conllicting and uvcrwhelming emotions are common. (long-lenn) diflicultics with thc mothcr rolc migh t rcsult in parental strcss or even psychopathological symptoms (Perren el al., 2005). Parental strcss is genemlly defined a~ negative psychological and physiological rcactions 10 lhc dcmands ofbcing a parcnt (Barroso et al., 2018).Research ha~ consistently demonstrated lhat early parental stress ha~ negative implicalions for bolh parenting (Baker et al., 2000; Mousavi et al., 2017) aml child well -being {Nib,en el al., 20 16).In contrast, positive outcomes of a successful transition to molhcrhood in parenting and child well-being were more or less neglected in previoLL~ research. llowever. this is important, because identifying positive detenninants lhat contribule to positive outcomes can be helpful in developing methods lo promote these desired oulcomes Rebecca Bondü hups:/lorcid.org/OOOO.Q002-3935-8849 Some of the data and ideas uf the man...