Expectant Fathers’ Intuitive Parenting: Associations With Parent Characteristics and Postpartum Positive Engagement

Abstract

This study examined expectant fathers’ intuitive parenting behavior, its correlates, and its associations with fathers’ postpartum positive engagement. One hundred eighty-two expectant couples completed the Prenatal Lausanne Trilogue Play in the third trimester of pregnancy. Coders rated expectant fathers’ and mothers’ intuitive parenting behavior during this procedure. Expectant parents also completed surveys regarding their psychological and demographic characteristics. At 3 months postpartum, fathers completed time diaries that assessed the time they spent in developmentally appropriate positive engagement activities with their infants. Examination of correlates of expectant fathers’ intuitive parenting behavior revealed that expectant fathers showed lower levels of these behaviors than expectant mothers, that intuitive parenting behavior was moderately positively associated for mothers and fathers, and that individual differences in expectant fathers’ intuitive parenting behavior were associated with parent demographic and psychological characteristics. In particular, expectant fathers showed greater intuitive parenting behavior when they had greater human capital and more progressive beliefs about parent roles, and when their partners had lower parenting self-efficacy. Findings also indicated that expectant fathers’ greater intuitive parenting behavior was predictive of fathers’ greater subsequent engagement in developmentally appropriate activities at 3 months postpartum, but only when expectant mothers demonstrated low levels of intuitive parenting behavior.

Who Are the Gatekeepers? Predictors of Maternal Gatekeeping

“…We believe the answer lies in the fact that mothers tend to have an advantage in parenting self-efficacy over fathers (Hudson et al, 2001). Hence, mothers may be in the position of the “expert” parent and fathers in the position of “apprentice” parent – even prior to the child’s birth (Schoppe-Sullivan et al, 2014) – setting the stage for maternal gate closing behavior. However, the extent to which mothers have a self-efficacy advantage may differ across families, and future research should examine more closely the relative parenting self-efficacy of expectant fathers and mothers and how that may affect patterns of maternal gatekeeping and father involvement postpartum.…”

Triadic Interactions in Families of Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa and Families of Adolescents with Internalizing Disorders

“…For example, prenatal LTP may open a window into the development of the coparental behaviors and representations before the baby’s birth (Altenburger et al, 2014). A significant continuity was in fact observed between the prenatal coparental behaviors and the observed coparenting behaviors 1 year later; moreover, fathers who engaged in higher quality prenatal intuitive parental behaviors were discovered to exhibit more supportive parental behavior during the postpartum, when pregnant mothers presented lower parenting behaviors (Schoppe-Sullivan et al, 2014). The high potential for clinical intervention in relationally frail family systems was also demonstrated in a study (McHale and Coates, 2014) concerning African-American unmarried couples, which found that the majority of families showed high degrees of disengagement and tension-competitiveness, signaled by disputes and interferences.…”

Prenatal Intuitive Coparenting Behaviors

“…Using video-microanalytic research, they found that parents possess remarkable implicit communicative abilities (Papoušek, 2007) that allow them to adjust subtly to their infant’s capacities and promote its well-being and development (Papoušek et al, 2000). Intuitive parenting behaviors are considered preprogrammed and universal: they have been observed in different cultures, species, and genders, and in parents as well as non-parent adults (Bard, 1994; Schoppe-Sullivan et al, 2014). Children also display intuitive parenting behaviors, such as when a young child carefully holds a doll and uses baby talk.…”

“…During face-to-face interactions, parents express different behaviors, such as using a high-pitched and rhythmic voice, holding the baby at dialog distance, and looking and smiling at the baby, depending on the infant’s behavioral and affective states (Papoušek and Papoušek, 1987; Schoppe-Sullivan et al, 2014). The parents intuitively adjust their “multimodal communicative repertoire to the infant’s level of perceptual, integrative and communicative competence and know how to read and attribute meaning to their infant’s behavior” (Papoušek, 2007, p. 264).…”

“…One showed that the mode of conception (assisted reproductive technology or spontaneous pregnancy) in a sample of 82 couples did not affect the quality of prenatal intuitive parenting (Darwiche et al, 2015). Another study, with a sample of 182 expectant parents, found less frequent intuitive parenting behaviors in fathers compared to mothers, but a moderate positive association between fathers’ and mothers’ intuitive parenting behaviors (Schoppe-Sullivan et al, 2014). That study also found that greater intuitive parenting behaviors in fathers (frequency, variety and intensity), associated with lower intuitive parenting behaviors in mothers, predicted greater developmentally appropriate activities from fathers with their 3-month-old babies.…”