New Parents' Mental Health in Socio-Cultural Context

University Of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst MA

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Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Given the dramatic increase in women's employment over the past half century, the transition to parenthood is now followed by the early transition back to paid work for the majority of new mothers. Pressures associated with parental employment and childcare have become growing concerns for new parents. Research highlights the lack of consensus about the short- and long-term consequences of early parental employment for both parents and children. Even less is known about how socio-cultural factors, such as race, class, and family structure, affect parents' and children's mental health across these multiple transitions. The primary goal of the proposed research is to explore how the transition to parenthood, coupled with the early return to paid employment affects the mental health and family relationships of working-class parents and children over the short- (1-year) and long-term (6 years), with the aim of exploring how these processes differ as a function of race and family structure. The first aim is to explore the long-term effects of the transition to parenthood and early parental employment on parents' and children's mental health five years later. A sample of 153 couples, who experienced the transition to parenthood between 1996 and 2001, will be re-interviewed as their first child enters kindergarten, affording the unique opportunity to examine how patterns established in the first year of parenthood are related to family members' mental health and relationships five years later. The second aim is to examine how race and family structure moderate how new parents fare as they become new parents and manage full-time employment. The original transition to parenthood study will be replicated with three new sub-samples including, African-American, single-mother and two-parent families and European-American single mothers. The objectives of the replication are: (1) to examine change in new parents' mental health and intimate relationships as they become new parents and soon thereafter return to full-time work, (2) to identify how work conditions, social support, gender ideology, expectations about parenthood, and characteristics of the child and parents mediate the effects of the multiple transitions on parents' mental health, (3) to examine change in family roles and behaviors across the first year of parenthood, and (4) to determine the effects of family-friendly workplace policies on parents' mental health across the transition to parenthood.