Mothers' and Fathers' Experiences of Family Relations and Parenting During the First Year of Parenthood.

Abstract

The first year of parenthood is considered to be a challenging period, associated with the transformation of family relations. The links between family relations and parenting are widely studied. However, in most research only a limited number of indicators is investigated, and there is a lack of data on the agreement between mothers' and fathers' evaluations of family relations. The aims of the present study were to explore (1) the structure and measurement invariance of marital relations and parenting constructs for mothers and fathers; (2) the associations among the measures of marital relations and parenting in mothers and fathers; (3) the agreement between mothers and fathers in their perception of marital relations, as well as cross-parent cross-measure associations of marital relations and self-rated parenting; (4) average differences between the parents in their perception of marital relations and parenting. The data from 352 Russian-speaking married couples participating in the Wave 3 of the Prospective Longitudinal Interdisciplinary Study (PLIS) were collected when the children were 9 months old. Seven measures of family relations (marital relations, grandparents' support) and nine measures of parenting were obtained. The statistical analyses included the exploratory factor analysis, assessment of measurement invariance, comparative and correlational analysis. The result showed that measures were organised into coherent factor-based groupings: (1) marital relations, (2) support from grandparents, (3) childcare and affection, and (4) harsh parental discipline. Six of 12 measures showed partial scalar invariance between mothers and fathers. Moderate within-measure correlations were observed between mothers' and fathers' assessments of family relations; and weak correlations-for parenting. Mother-father cross-measure correlations were moderate for family relations, but negligible for parenting. Small to moderate average differences between mothers and fathers were found for all measures. The results highlight the need to consider similarities and differences between mothers' and fathers' experiences in future research and practice.