Parenthood and changes in self-esteem and meaningfulness during the life course

This study examined self-esteem and meaning in life during the life course in relation to parenthood. Changes before and after becoming a parent as well as differences between parents and non-parents were analyzed.

Becoming a parent can affect mental well-being. However, little is known about its associations with the life course changes of self-esteem and meaning in life extending the immediate years surrounding the transition to parenthood.

We used 30-year follow-up (from age 22 to 52 years) data from the "Stress, development and mental health" (TAM) study (N = 1344). Changes in self-esteem and meaning in life in relation to the transition period of becoming a parent were analyzed with linear mixed models. Parents and non-parents were compared using analysis of variance at each study wave.

Among parents, self-esteem and meaning in life increased before becoming a parent. This increasing trend persisted through the perinatal period for men and continued until the toddlerhood phase for women, after which the trend turned stable. No significant differences were found between mothers and non-mothers of same age, except at age 42 where mothers experienced higher meaning in life. Compared to non-fathers, fathers reported higher self-esteem and meaning in life throughout the study period in the unadjusted models, while in the models controlling for sociodemographic factors, the differences attenuated considerably.

After becoming parent, earlier increasing change patterns of self-esteem and meaning in life stabilized for men, while among women increases continued up to toddlerhood phase before stabilizing. Compared with non-parents, parents had better mental well-being during the life course, but to a considerable extent, the differences seemed to be related to other sociodemographic factors.