Transition to Parenthood: The Association Between Expectations and Family-Life Satisfaction

Parenthood is often assumed to profoundly impact well-being. Yet, few studies have explored how the transition to parenthood relates to parent’s family-life satisfaction, and existing research has produced conflicting results. We propose that expected costs and rewards of having children (individual differences in the perceived value of children in one’s life) could explain the mixed findings. Following respondents in a nationally representative panel study from Germany up to 11 years ( N total = 6,850, N parents = 1,196), we found that positive expectations (i.e., higher reward/lower cost) were associated with a higher likelihood of parenthood. Among parents, negative expectations were associated with lower family-life satisfaction as measured by parenting pleasure and family satisfaction; however, expectations did not predict the trajectory post birth. This study underlines the role of expectations about being a parent for the transition to parenthood and for family-life satisfaction once a parent.