In spite of the relative ease of accessibility to reliable contraception, unplanned pregnancy continues to be a major social problem for both society and for those individuals personally involved. The growing furor over adolescent unplanned pregnancy has not only led to arguments over abortions on legal, financial, and moral levels but has resulted in studies pertaining to non-use of birth control among all ages. Contraceptives are not being used as widely and effectively as they could be. The primary goal of this research is to explore the male's role (or lack of it) in family planning. A further goal is to increase awareness among practitioners in the field and among the general public, regarding the importance of male involvement.

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The topic of this diploma thesis is stepmotherhood, specifically its implementation within relationships between women and men who already have a child or children. The basic motive of my work is to identify the construction of several conceptions that are considered natural, given or unchangeable, and which often represent very specific norms, especially dependent on gender. I define stepmotherhood here as a concept that in practice violates many cultural norms and which has the potential to enrich critical discussions about the family, reproduction and motherhood, and parenthood in general. My search is based on information gained through narrative interviews, which complement theoretical discussions representing the constructivist paradigm.

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This study examines relationships between the division of housework and childcare and marital love and conflict and perceived fairness as a mediator of those relationships. Gender role ideology is also examined as a moderator of the relationships between the division of labor predictors and perceived fairness. To this end 112 working-class, dual-earner couples having their first child were interviewed at three time points during the first year of parenthood after mothers returned to work. Findings indicate that wives’ reported greater marital love when their husbands performed more housework and more childcare, with fairness as a mediator of those relations. Husbands’ greater participation in both housework and childcare was directly related to their reports of marital love. For marital conflict, wives reported less conflict when husbands performed more childcare with perceived fairness as a mediator. Husbands reported less conflict when they performed a greater proportion of housework, with wives’ perceived fairness as a mediator. The division of childcare and perceived fairness were more strongly related for wives with egalitarian gender role ideology than for more traditional wives.

Behavior problems are common during early childhood, and while many children will outgrow them, others will continue to have substantial difficulties. Unfortunately, too little is known about which children will exhibit continued difficulties, making it difficult to intervene before maladaptive behavior becomes entrenched. A number of parenting and parent characteristics, including ineffective discipline, maternal depression, parenting stress, and limited social support have consistently been found to be associated with externalizing problems in young children. While these variables are concurrently related to behavior problems, we know very little about whether or not they predict change in externalizing behaviors over time. The proposed research examined several parenting and parent predictors of changes in child behavior problems, including lax and overreactive discipline, single parent status, and parental depression. In addition, this study evaluated whether child gender and ethnicity moderated the relationships between these variables and changes in problem behavior. Single parenthood was the only significant predictor for the sample as a whole, while parent depression was a significant predictor for girls. Several significant ethnic differences emerged, highlighting the importance of considering cultural context in studies of parenting and externalizing behavior.

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This study investigated whether ethnic identity, financial and educational resources, and social support predicted levels and trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms above and beyond racial and ethnic categories. A sample of Black, Latina, and White working class mothers were interviewed at five time points during the first year of parenthood. Findings indicated that Latina mothers experienced significantly higher levels of depressive symptoms compared to Black mothers at the final time point. There was a significant interaction between race and ethnic identity in predicting symptoms such that Latino mothers saw an increase in the growth rate of symptoms compared to White mothers. Perceived social support from family was associated lower levels of symptoms at Time 5. Additionally, occupational prestige moderated the relationship between race and depressive symptoms. Compared to Latina mothers, Black mothers with high occupational prestige experienced a significant decline in depressive symptoms across the first year of parenthood and this change occurred more rapidly than for Latina mothers. There was also a trend for the interaction between ethnic identity and education predicting maternal depressive symptoms Mothers with high ethnic identity and more education experienced a rapid decline in depressive symptoms across the transition to parenthood compared other mothers. These findings highlight the importance of understanding the unique experiences of people of different racial and ethnic groups.

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