title: Prenatal expectations in transition to parenthood: former infertility and family dynamic considerations.
abstract: Prenatal expectations are important for the future parent-child relationship. The authors examined how maternal and paternal prenatal expectations of the relationship with the child predicted 1st-year parenting stress and whether these expectations were violated over the transition to parenthood. They further examined how former infertility affected these associations. The participants were 745 Finnish couples, 367 having undergone a successful assisted reproductive treatment and 378 conceiving spontaneously. Couples completed a questionnaire of family representations during pregnancy and when the child was 2 and 12 months old and Abidin's Parenting Stress Index at 2 and 12 months postpartum. The hypothesis of moderately high expectations predicting the lowest level of parenting stress was substantiated only concerning paternal expectations of own autonomy with the child. Generally, however, negative expectations of own and spouse's relationship with the child were linearly associated with higher parenting stress. Postnatal representations were more positive or equal to expectations, except for negative violation occurring in maternal expectation of the father-child relationship, especially among normative mothers. The results are discussed in relation to family dynamic considerations and special features of formerly infertile couples.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland. Marjo.Flykt@uta.fi
authors.forename: Marjo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Flykt
authors.forename: Jallu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lindblom
authors.forename: Raija-Leena
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Punamäki
authors.forename: Piia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Poikkeus
authors.forename: Leena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Repokari
authors.forename: Leila
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Unkila-Kallio
authors.forename: Sirpa
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vilska
authors.forename: Jari
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sinkkonen
authors.forename: Aila
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tiitinen
authors.forename: Fredrik
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Almqvist
authors.forename: Maija
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tulppala
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D005220:Fathers / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007247:Infertility, Female / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires