Mothers' Marital Adaptation Following the Birth of Twins or Singletons: Empirical Evidence and Practical Insights

Abstract

Parenting twins is typically portrayed as more stressful than is parenting single children and, therefore, more of a strain on the marital relationship. With this in mind, the present study examined the contribution of infant characteristics and mother's internal resources (attachment style) and external resources (maternal and paternal grandmothers' perceived support) to their marital adaptation during the first month following delivery, comparing mothers of twins (n = 88) with mothers of singletons (n = 82). The findings indicate that both internal and external resources contribute to the marital adaptation of the two groups, even beyond the contribution of specific circumstances. Thus, it seems that the birth of twins and the birth of a single child are normative life events that have more in common than previously acknowledged. The implications for the focus of social work interventions, particularly in the case of the birth of twins, are discussed.

Families with twins - a systematic review

“…Grandmothers' roles came out as relevant in the complex management of chores for the couple, contributing to the marital relationship in the first weeks after labor. 33 Decreases in marital satisfaction, although without statistical significance, was consistent with increases in the number of children per conception. 27 No differences were reported with respect to sexual interest; 28 however, in mothers of multiples, sexual activity was less frequent.…”

“…Support Functions Scale; 29,33,38 Abbreviated Duke Social Support Index; 34 Scale of Perceived Social Support; 37,40 Maternal Support Scale. 41 Based on the abovementioned results, we decided to carry out synthesis and analysis of the data that, in our view, contributed the most to the understanding of the matter, as well as the nature of the supporting studies.…”

“…23,26,37,[40][41] They also covered marital adaptation, 29,32-33 parental adjustment 25,32 and behavior 25 and development of children, 28,30 seeking to identify the determining factors of this process 23,[27][28][29][30][33][34][37][38]40 and using twinning parenthood as a reference.…”

“…From the comparative analyses used in some of the research, we considered the difference between groups, taking into account: different types of conception, [25][26]32,[36][37] number of births per pregnancy [26][27][28][30][31][32][33][35][36]38,41 and gestation period. 29,38 …”

Longitudinal Influence of Paternal Distress on Children’s Representations of Fathers, Family Cohesion, and Family Conflict

“…Parents of twins tend to experience multiple demands and higher parenting stress in parent-child interactions (Lytton, Singh, & Gallagher, 1995). However, there is variability with regard to levels of stress couples experience after the birth of a child (Levy-Schiff, 1994), and Taubman-Ben-Ari et al (2008) found that having twins compared to a single child did not predict poorer marital adaptation.…”