The University of Arizona

Exploring the Context of Marriage versus Parenting for Fathers during the Transition to Parenthood

In a study of couples and the transition to parenthood, Assistant Professor Melissa Curran found that 24 months postpartum, women, but not men, who remembered their parents' marriage negatively and who lacked insight about these memories demonstrated the lowest emotional attunement score (hostility, detachment, or both). This difference between women and men was quite large. This difference may be because men take on fewer roles and responsibilities when they become fathers (1). Interestingly, when the couples were observed with their 24 month old toddler, here it was men, but not women, who remembered their parents' marriage negatively and who lacked insight about these memories, who were judged as overinvolved, and bordering on enmeshment, with their child during triadic family interactions (2). This research suggests that in marital interactions with their partner, men who remember negative content and who lack insight about their parents' marriage are not as affected by their representations of the parents' marriage as are women. However, when involved in interactions with the partner and the child, men's representations of the parents' marriage matters a great deal. These studies illustrate the importance of studying both marriage and parenting, and especially underscore the important role of both mothers and fathers in family interactions, instead of more common research on mothers and children, with the omission of fathers.

  1. Curran, M. A., Hazen, N., Jacobvitz, & Sasaki, T. (2006). How representations of the parental marriage predict marital emotional attunement during the transition to parenthood. Journal of Family Psychology, 20, 477–484.
  2. Curran, M. A., Hazen, N., Dunn, T., & Bosch, L. (in preparation). Expectations of parenthood, representations of the parental marriage, and gender: Predictors of parenting within the triadic family context. Invited submission on the transition to parenthood to Parenting: Science and Practice.

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