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Mothers' Perception of Marital Quality After Childbirth
1. Mothers' Perception of Marital
Quality Over the Course of Two years
Following Childbirth
Adi Noy
Orit Taubman – Ben-Ari
Bar Ilan University, Israel
2. Marital Quality
• Higher levels of personal well-being (Proulx et al., 2007).
• Better health (Robles et al., 2014).
• Greater satisfaction with life, lower stress, and less
depression (Holt-Lunstad et al., 2008).
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3. Marital Quality among Parents
• Decline in marital satisfaction - Parents have
significantly lower marital satisfaction than
nonparents (Keizer & Schenk, 2012; Lawrence et al., 2008; Twenge et al.,
2003).
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4. Aims of the Present Study
To examine:
• Mothers' perception of marital quality after
childbirth, and over a period of two years following
childbirth
• Variables that may contribute to this perception
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5. Mothers of Twins
• Higher level of tension (Glazebrook et al., 2004; Olivennes et al.,
2005).
• Higher levels of burden, stress, and exhaustion(Baor &
Soskolne, 2012; Vandell, 1990; Weigel et al., 2000).
What happens to the marital relationship after
the birth of twins?
• Loss of contact with their partner vs. creating
greater cohesion between the parents as a team
(Ellison & Hall, 2003).
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6. Mothers of Pre-term
• Maternal anxiety and distress (Zelkowitz et al., 2007).
What happens to marital quality after the birth
of a pre-term baby?
• Greater risk of separation(Shailender et al., 2006).
• No relationship between a pre-term birth and
marital satisfaction(Gray et al., 2012).
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7. Attachment Orientation
• Affects quality of the marital relationship (Knoke et al.,
2010).
• Attachment anxiety and avoidance are associated
with lower levels of current relationship quality
(Kohn et al., 2012; Saavedra et al., 2010).
• Secure attachment is associated with better marital
quality, and may protect this relationship during life
transitions and stressful periods(Mikulincer & Shaver, 2007).
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8. Social Support - Emotional and Instrumental
Maternal grandmother's support
• Contributes to the marital quality (Poehlmann et al., 2009;
Vandell, 1990; Findler et al., 2007).
Paternal grandmother's support
• May play a significant role in providing support,
although mothers were less satisfied with the
support from their mothers-in-law than with that
from their own mothers(Ahlborg et al., 2009).
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9. The Current Study
• Mothers' perception of marital quality
• one month (intercept)
• over two years (slope)
• Birth circumstances
• twins or singletons
• pre-term or full-term
• first or non-first baby
• Attachment orientation
• anxious attachment
• avoidant attachment
• Perceived support
• from maternal grandmother
• from paternal grandmother
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10. Hypotheses
1. Marital quality will show a decline over the two years
following childbirth.
2. Mothers of twins, mothers of pre-terms, and first-time
mothers will report lower marital quality.
3. Mothers with higher anxious and/or avoidant
attachment will report lower marital quality.
4. Perceived mother’s and mother-in-law’s emotional and
instrumental support will be related to higher marital
quality.
5. Perceived mother’s and mother-in-law’s emotional and
instrumental support will mediate the relationship
between attachment orientation and marital quality.
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12. Procedure
• Data was collected through deliberate sampling as part of a
longitudinal investigation conducted at a large medical
facility in the center of Israel.
• Mothers filled out the questionnaires one month, one year
and two years after childbirth.
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13. Instruments
• Evaluating and Nurturing Relationship Issues,
Communication, and Happiness (ENRICH; Fowers & Olson, 1989).
• Experiences in Close Relationships Scale (ECR; Brennan, Clark, &
Shaver, 1998).
• The Support Functions Scale (Dunst, Trivette, & Deal, 1988).
• demographic questionnaire.
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14. Data Analysis
Structural Latent Growth Model
• Used to estimate latent intercept (one month after
childbirth) and latent slope (change over time) in level of
marital quality.
• The background variables, circumstances of the birth,
attachment orientations, and perceived support variables
were all included in the model.
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16. Results
• A significant decline in marital quality over time (-0.13,
p<.001).
• The model explained 40% of the variance in marital quality
one month after birth (p<.0001).
• The model accounted for 19% of the variance in the change
in marital quality over time (p<.001).
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18. Conclusions
• Motherhood to twins or to pre-term does not affect marital
quality.
• There is more rapid return to base-line marital quality in
non-first time mothers.
• Attachment orientation is strongly connected to marital
quality, both directly and through the perception of the
support.
• Not all forms of support offered to mothers are positively
related to marital quality.
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