Becoming Parents: Exploring the Bonds between Mothers, Fathers, and their Infants

What happens to couples when they become parents? Becoming Parents presents a landmark study of the transition to parenthood and its effects on individual well-being and couple relationships. Researchers in the study tracked 100 couples who were first-time parents and a comparison sample of couples who were not. The couples gave interviews, recorded domestic tasks and completed questionaires–at the second trimester of pregnancy, as well as 6 weeks, 3 months and 6 months after the baby was born. The research, based on adult attachment theory, gives us a comprehensive and contemporary picture of what it is like to be a parent today. Encompassing the perspectives of both women and men, Becoming Parents addresses such issues as the changing nature of couples’ relationships, the division of domestic labor, changes in new parents’ attachment networks and postnatal depression. Judith A. Feeney is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Queensland. Lydia Hohaus is Lecturer in Lifespan Development at Griffith University. Richard P. Alexander is a Ph.D. research candidate at the University of Queensland. All of them live in Brisbane, Australia.