Romantic attachment, dyadic coping, and parental adjustment across the transition to parenthood

Abstract

This study explored the mediating role of common dyadic coping (common DC) on the longitudinal associations between attachment‐related anxiety and avoidance and parental adjustment to the first year postpartum. A total of 92 Portuguese couples completed self‐report questionnaires of romantic attachment, common DC, parenting stress, and parental confidence. Results showed that more avoidant parents (at mid‐pregnancy) engaged less in common DC (at 6 weeks postpartum), which consequently increased their partner's parenting stress (only in mothers) and decreased their partner's parental confidence (in both parents) at 6–9 months postpartum. Anxious attachment did not predict parents' adjustment directly or indirectly. Interventions aimed at preventing adjustment difficulties to early parenthood in more avoidant parents should focus on enhancing their common DC strategies soon after childbirth.

Does Dyadic Coping Predict Couples’ Postpartum Psychosocial Adjustment? A Dyadic Longitudinal Study

“…These findings come to challenge the traditional role of fathers as the support provider and mothers as the care recipients (Darwin et al, 2017), highlighting that women and men benefitted mostly and equally from joint coping strategies regarding numerous dimensions of life. This adds on recent perinatal research suggesting that common DC is a key resource for partners' relationship satisfaction (Molgora et al, 2019) and confidence in their parental role and against parenting stress (Alves et al, 2019). However, contrary to these studies, we found actor but not partner effects between common DC and partners' adjustment (which did not confirm our hypothesis 2b).…”

Intra‐couple similarity in dyadic coping and partners’ adjustment to the birth of a child

“…In line with prior research (Alves et al., ; Alves et al, ; Brandão et al., ; Molgora et al., ), our findings reinforce the idea that perinatal intervention approaches should include a DC component and efforts should be made to encourage both women's and men's participation as both seem to be influenced by these dyadic processes. While preventive interventions aimed to promote stress management within couples already included a component focusing on the promotion of equity in DC (e.g., Couples Coping Enhancement Training [CCET]; Bodenmann & Shantinath, ), our findings suggest important refinements of existing approaches.…”

“…Existing studies that have focused on the role of the couple's relationship during the transition to parenthood have privileged an individual approach (Mickelson & Biehle, ), mostly considering the woman's perspective and adjustment (Pilkington et al., ). A couple‐based approach that considers the couple as the unit of analysis, including both self and partner characteristics simultaneously, has been the focus of recent studies (e.g., Alves, Fonseca, Canavarro, & Pereira, ; Alves, Milek, Bodenmann, Fonseca, Canavarro, & Pereira, ; Molgora et al., ; Schoppe‐Sullivan et al., ), some of which have examined the influence of couple‐level factors on partners’ adjustment (e.g., couples’ congruence in marital relationship quality; Gameiro, Nazaré, Fonseca, Moura‐Ramos, & Canavarro, ).…”

“…As previously noted, this transition is marked by several perinatal stressors not necessarily related to childcare and households (e.g., complicated schedules and time demands, potential disagreements with family of origin, work–family conflict), which are likely to trigger DC strategies. Indeed, DC is principally activated in situations of external stress (i.e., outside the couple's relationship), and recent studies showed its benefits for both partners’ individual (Alves et al, ; Brandão, Brites, Hipólito, Pires, & Nunes, ), dyadic (Brandão et al., ; Molgora et al., ) and parental (Alves et al, ) adjustment during pregnancy and after childbirth. Extending these findings, perceived and/or actual similarity in DC may also play an important role for partner's adjustment.…”

Parental relationship and child development: A study protocol for a randomized controlled trial for strengthening couples and children from pregnancy until four years after birth

“…dyadic coping) may buffer detrimental effects of TTP [19]. A meta-analysis, not specific to the TTP, documents the importance of dyadic coping for relationship satisfaction [20] and it has also been shown to be predictive for partner's parenting stress during the TTP [21]. Similarly, couples' communication is a powerful predictor of relationship satisfaction and mediates the effects of stress on the relationship [22].…”