Relationships Among Social Network Characteristics, Perceived Social Support, Marital Satisfaction, and Postpartum Adaptation in Couples Having a Second Child.

Theoretical and empirical evidence emphasizes the role of social support in mitigating the potential deleterious effects of stress from a variety of life events including family expansion. The purpose of this study was to elucidate predictive relationships among social network characteristics, perceived social support, marital satisfaction, and postpartum adaptation in couples bearing a second child. A two-part repeated measures prospective design was used to gather the same data from both members of forty-eight married couples during the third trimester of pregnancy and at six weeks postpartum. Independent measures utilized were Cronenwett's Social Network Inventory and Roach's Marital Satisfaction Scale. The dependent measure was Lederman's Postpartum Self-evaluation Questionnaire. Differences between the social networks of mothers and fathers were related to there being significantly more men in fathers' networks and more women in mothers' networks. Mothers perceived more emotional support antepartum and fathers more instrumental support. Mothers and fathers experienced similar, relatively high degrees of marital satisfaction. Parents identified instrumental support as most helpful and desired over the perinatal period. Limited support was provided for the hypotheses that properties of the individual and social network are related to perceived social support. For this sample of educated and financially secure couples marital satisfaction was the most consistently significant factor associated with postpartum adaptation for both mothers and fathers. Other important factors for fathers were: percentage of relatives in the social network, boundary density, perceived appraisal support, social network size, and percentage of females, and , for mothers: percentage of relatives in the social network, perceived informational support, frequency of contact, and years of education. Adaptation to parenthood, therefore, was found to be associated with social network, social support, and individual variables for second-time parents. These findings differ from those reported for first-time parents. Implications for nursing practice and future research are discussed.PhDNursingUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/160155/1/8422259.pd