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Assessing the Coherence of Parents' Short Narratives Regarding their Child Using the Five-Minute Speech Sample Procedure
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Assessing the Coherence of Parents' Short Narratives Regarding their Child Using the Five-Minute Speech Sample Procedure

Published on: September 19, 2019

Representations of early family relationships predict marital maintenance during the transition to parenthood

Melissa Curran1, Nancy Hazen1, Deborah Jacobvitz1

  • 1Department of Human Development and Family Sciences.

Journal of Family Psychology : JFP : Journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association (Division 43)
|June 29, 2005
PubMed

Marital maintenance, which involves engaging in behaviors that maintain closeness and is critical to sustaining marital satisfaction, was examined in 234 husbands and wives across the transition to parenthood. Prenatal assessments of adults' attachment representations and memories of their parents' marriage during childhood predicted perceptions of maintenance in their own marriage prenatally and 24 months postpartum. Adults who dismiss the importance of early attachment and lack believable memories of their parents' marriage reported the lowest levels of prenatal maintenance. Adults who are preoccupied with their early relationships with parents and have negative memories of their parents' marriage reported the sharpest declines in maintenance postpartum. Family interventions that can help couples recognize and explore problems that may accompany parenthood are discussed.

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