Family System Types from Pregnancy to Toddlerhood – a Person-Oriented Substudy in the Finnbrain Cohort Study

• In Event: Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Topic - Family Context & Processes

Abstract

The transition to parenthood is a complex and often challenging period for the parents. Parents form attachment representations about their relationship with the child during pregnancy and this prepares them to form an emotional bond with the infant (Foley & Hughes, 2018). The marital relationship can be an essential resource for the parents during this process (Schoppe-Sullivan, et al., 2004), yet, marital satisfaction tends to deteriorate during the first year after the child’s birth (Doss & Rhoades, 2017). Importantly, there is high heterogeneity in the ways couples enter parenthood. A person-oriented approach has been used to capture this by typologizing distinct family system types (Volling et al., 2015). Yet, previous studies have rarely considered multiple relationships during the transition to parenthood. Therefore, our first aim is to identify family system types as trajectories from early pregnancy to the child’s first birthday, based on parents’ experiences with parenting and marital relationships. Our second aim is to examine how family system types prospectively predict the child’s psychological well-being at 2 years of age.

The study sample is from the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, including family data from N=3014-1583 mothers and N=1942-826 fathers. Parents filled questionnaires about family relationships during early (T1), middle (T2) and late (T3) pregnancy, when the child was 3 (T4), 6 (T5) and 12 months (T6) old. The parenting domain was assessed with the Maternal and Paternal Fetal Attachment Scale at T1-T3 (Cranley, 1979), the Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire at T4 (Brockington et al., 2001), the Parenting Stress Inventory at T5 and T6 (Abidin, 1995). The marital domain was assessed with the Dyadic Adjustment Scale at T3, T5 and T6 (Busby et al., 1995). As for the child’s developmental outcomes, psychological symptoms (BITSEA; Briggs-Gowan et al., 2002) and temperament (ECBQ; Putnam et al., 2006) were assessed at 2 years of age (T7). The family system types were identified using latent profile analysis and latent class growth analysis.

The preliminary results, based on cluster analysis, yielded four family types: Adequate Families (60%) were characterized by average functioning in both parent-child and marital domains; Highly Functional Families (16%) by high functioning, especially in the marital domain; Declining Families (14%) by relatively high prenatal attachment, but low parental functioning after the child’s birth, accompanied with stable low marital satisfaction; and Ascending Families (10%) by very low prenatal attachment, especially among mothers, followed by somewhat higher parental functioning after the child’s birth.

Regarding developmental outcomes, compared to Adequate Families, children from Highly Functional Families had fewer internalizing problems; from Declining Families more externalizing problems; and those from Ascending Families more internalizing problems. The family types systems did not predict children’s temperament. The results remained after controlling for various covariates (e.g., parity and SES).

Our findings depict the ways different families enter parenthood. This has both theoretical and clinical value in understanding how family processes naturally unfold during the transition. Furthermore, our findings may help explain the family conditions in which specific forms of psychopathology develop and provide a basis for targeted interventions.

Authors

• Jallu Lindblom, University of Turku
  Presenting Author

• Julia Dietrich, University of Jena
  Non-Presenting Author

• Saara Nolvi, University of Turku
  Non-Presenting Author

• Riikka Korja, University of Turku
  Non-Presenting Author

• Linnea Karlsson, University of Turku
  Non-Presenting Author

• Hasse Karlsson, Turku University Hospital and University of Turku
  Non-Presenting Author

• Marjukka Pajulo, University of Turku
  Non-Presenting Author