At the second assessment, which took place about five months after the study began, both groups of couples again completed questionnaires reporting on their relationships and their general psychological adjustment. In addition, the new parents (whose babies were then about six weeks old) reported on the amount of stress associated with parenthood, and the strategies they were using to deal with the demands of parenting. In this chapter, we explore four aspects of these reports: changes occurring since the first assessment; overall differences between groups and genders; links between attachment security at the beginning of the study and current relationship quality and adjustment; and patterns of stress and coping among new parents.

CHANGES SINCE THE FIRST ASSESSMENT

A central issue in this longitudinal study was the extent to which the couples changed between the first and second assessments. We were interested in tracking any changes in their relationships, as well as in their psychological adjustment. Hence, at the second assessment, we examined responses to the core questionnaires that the couples had now completed twice: relationship satisfaction, attachment, caregiving, sexuality, and general psychological adjustment.

In looking at scores across the two assessments, we were particularly interested in measures on which the transition and comparison groups showed different patterns of change.