ABSTRACT
Introduction: The birth of first child is a special course for couples and due to the various challenges faced by the couples in this period the marital satisfaction in couples may reduce. However there is a different potential in couples on how to respond to these changes and in order to determine changes and marital relationship vulnerability in new parents, this study was carried out to determine Correlation between transition difficulty to parenthood and marital satisfaction and its comparison in women with first and second child
Methods: This correlation study was carried out in 120 women, 60 women with first child and 60 other women with two or more children in 2013. Inclusion criteria were: children and women with mental and physical health, age of children between 6 weeks through 6 months. Instruments include: standard transition difficulty to parenthood scale, demographics and Enrich Marital Satisfaction Questionnaire. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics [Mann-Whitney test and Pearson and Spearman correlation] and SPSS [version 16]
Results: The mean age was 30.49 +/- 5.28 year and 75 women [62.5%] had academic education. The results showed no significant difference between two groups in difficult transition to parenthood [p=0.86]. Marital satisfaction was not significantly different between two groups [p=0.69]. There was an inverse association between transition difficulty to parenthood and marital satisfaction [p<0.001, r=-0.53]
Conclusion: According the results, it is necessary to pay attention to the importance of marital satisfaction and probability changes of couples' relationships during transition to parenthood; parents should be aware about it and to remind them these changes were transient and normal; also they should be taught how to manage it