Synchronicity During Pregnancy Helps Couples Effectively Balance New Childrearing Responsibilities Which Minimizes Adversarial Parenting

• In Event: Becoming Fathers: Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, and Neurological Predictors of New Fathers’ Parenting Behavior

Abstract

As couples navigate pregnancy and childbirth, it is important to consider how they adapt to and negotiate new roles and parenting responsibilities (Cowan and Cowan, 2000). Dissatisfaction with how childrearing responsibilities are balanced between mothers and fathers can breed feelings of resentment and undermine parenting effectiveness (Feinberg, 2003). As such, research is required to identify factors that promote more equitable and satisfying division of childrearing labor between parents. The degree to which couples demonstrate synchronicity, mutual responsivity, and warmth (MRO; Mutually Responsive Orientation, Brock et al., 2020) during pregnancy could set the stage for caregiving roles that are perceived as fair and satisfying. The primary aim of the study was to examine MRO, observed during pregnancy, as a predictor of division of childrearing labor during the first year after childbirth, and to test division of labor as a mechanism linking prenatal MRO to the quality of parenting interactions observed with infants. We predicted that higher levels of prenatal MRO would be associated with greater satisfaction in division of childrearing labor, reported by each parent, which would subsequently decrease the likelihood of parents using high power control tactics during interactions with their 1-year-olds, a robust predictor of child socioemotional development (e.g, Kim & Kochanska, 2015).

We pursued this aim in a sample of 157 pregnant couples. Parents attended an appointment during pregnancy and participated in naturalistic, interactive paradigms. Coders viewed these interactions and coded MRO (Brock et al., 2020) in the interparental relationship on a scale of 1 (low MRO) to 5 (high MRO) (ICCs > .70 across 3 paradigms). At 1-year postpartum, parents completed the Division of Childrearing Labor subscale of the Coparenting Relationship Scale (CRS, Feinberg 2012) to assess satisfaction with partner involvement in childrearing (AIC = .307). Additionally, at the 1-year assessment, the use of high power control (i.e., parent guiding child’s behavior in a combative and forceful way) was observed during naturalistic, developmentally appropriate parent-child interactions in the laboratory and coded as 1 (present) or 0 (absent) (M Kappa = .682).

We used Bayes estimation for testing mediation hypotheses (Nguyen, Webb-Vargas, Koning, & Stuart, 2015). The indirect effect of MRO on fathers’ use of control via division of labor was significant, 95% CI [-0.41, -0.01]. Specifically, in couples with higher MRO, fathers were less likely to engage in high power control tactics with their children through greater satisfaction with partner involvement in childrearing. In contrast, MRO was not related to mothers’ use of high-power control through division of childrearing labor, 95% CI [-0.23, 0.01]; however, dissatisfaction in division of childrearing labor reported by mothers was associated with greater use of high power control tactics by mothers when interacting with children, 95% CI [-0.52, -0.04]. No partner paths were significant. These results underscore the importance of understanding how the interparental relationship impacts not only maternal, but also paternal perceptions of family functioning and the importance of routinely considering how fathers are experiencing changing roles and parenting responsibilities following childbirth, given these experiences have important implications for parenting effectiveness.

Authors

• Erin Ramsdell, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
  Presenting Author

• Eric Phillips, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
  Non-Presenting Author

• Rebecca Brock, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
  Non-Presenting Author