Exploring Individual Differences in Marital Change across the Transition to Parenthood: The Role of Violated Expectations

Violated wishes about division of childcare labor predict early coparenting process during stressful and nonstressful family evaluations

“…Perhaps this is because mothers are the ones who generally anticipate assuming less childcare-related work than they ultimately end up taking on while fathers generally end up doing less than they had predicted prenatally (e.g., Belsky, 1985;Ruble et al, 1988). Prenatal expectancies about future labor inequity also appear to be more closely tied to maternal pessimism about future family process than to paternal pessimism (McHale et al, 2004).…”

“…In fact, more than one third of all women in a sample reported on by Ruble et al (1988) expected a fully egalitarian division of labor, and so not surprisingly, many had to confront a significant violation of their prepartum expectations after the baby's arrival. Men, too, are overly optimistic; Belsky (1985) found that the bias anticipating that fathers will be equitably involved in childcare is shown by both parents.Most studies of violated expectancies document consistent negative effects on postpartum marital adjustment. For example, Belsky (1985) reported that especially unrealistic expectations about division of labor in childcare tasks or about the effect that the baby would have on the couple's own relationship and on their relationships with family and friends predicted greater marital dissatisfaction during the early postpartum months.…”

“…Men, too, are overly optimistic; Belsky (1985) found that the bias anticipating that fathers will be equitably involved in childcare is shown by both parents.…”

“…In fact, more than one third of all women in a sample reported on by Ruble et al (1988) expected a fully egalitarian division of labor, and so not surprisingly, many had to confront a significant violation of their prepartum expectations after the baby's arrival. Men, too, are overly optimistic; Belsky (1985) found that the bias anticipating that fathers will be equitably involved in childcare is shown by both parents.…”

“…For example, Belsky (1985) reported that especially unrealistic expectations about division of labor in childcare tasks or about the effect that the baby would have on the couple's own relationship and on their relationships with family and friends predicted greater marital dissatisfaction during the early postpartum months. Ruble et al (1988) found that women assuming significantly more of the house-and childcare burden than anticipated reported the most negative feelings about their husbands' involvement in these tasks, and were more negative when evaluating the effect of the baby on their marital relationship.…”