Return to search

Women's parenting expectations and their influence on adjustment to parenthood

[Truncated abstract] The transition to parenthood places a number of emotional, physical, and cognitive demands on individuals. It is also a role that many individuals choose, enjoy, and derive benefit from. This research examined how women's parenting expectations influence their adjustment to parenthood. Taylor & Brown (1988, 1994) suggest that unrealistically optimistic expectations are associated with positive psychological adjustment. However, research examining adjustment during the transition to parenthood has demonstrated that unrealistic expectations pertaining to some aspects of parenthood can have a negative effect on adjustment (Belsky, 1985; Hackel & Ruble, 1992). The primary aims of this thesis were to examine the relationship between optimistic expectations and adjustment, taking into account a broader range of expectations than previous work, and to examine how adjustment is influenced if expectations are overly optimistic relative to experiences.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/221066
Date January 2004
CreatorsHarwood, Kate
PublisherUniversity of Western Australia. School of Psychology
Source SetsAustraliasian Digital Theses Program
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
RightsCopyright Kate Harwood, http://www.itpo.uwa.edu.au/UWA-Computer-And-Software-Use-Regulations.html

Page generated in 0.0015 seconds