Transition to parenthood: The Turkish case

Turkish couples who did or did not become parents were interviewed twice during the first year of marriage. Measures were division of labor and satisfaction with division of labor, decision making, conflict and conflict management, feelings for spouse and families, and frequency of interaction with different sectors of the social network. The results revealed that future parents were more enmeshed with families before childbirth and reported greater levels of husband dominance in conflict before parenthood. After parenthood, parents reported more gender stereotypic division of labor and decision making, higher levels of conflict with families, and higher levels of wife dominance and bilateral concessions than did childless couples. No differences with respect to spousal feelings emerged either as a function of parenthood or of time. Regression analyses predicting feelings for spouse revealed that positive feelings for families and nontraditional family functioning favoring the wife were associated with positive feelings for spouse for both husbands and wives. Conflict with spouse and families and husband dominance in conflict were associated with negative feelings for spouse