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The study aimed to verify whether parents at different stages of parenthood differ in the intensity of three identity processes in the parental domain: commitment, in-depth exploration, and reconsideration of commitment. We also examined whether there were differences between men and women in this context. We jointly analyzed results from seven independent cross-sectional samples examined between 2017 and 2022 in Poland. A total of 5454 parents aged 18 to 59 participated in the studies at different stages of parenthood: up to 3 years after becoming a parent, being a parent for 4 to 7 years, being a parent for 8 to 12 years, being a parent for 13 to 20 years and being a parent for 21 years or more. Parents at different stages of parenthood were found to have significantly different levels of in-depth exploration and reconsideration of commitment. The results suggest that in the first years of parenthood, parents experience a relatively high in-depth exploration and reconsideration of commitment, which may decrease over time. The analyses also indicated that women are characterized by higher levels of in-depth exploration than men at each stage of parenthood. Men, on the other hand, experience stronger identity uncertainty related to the parental role.
Piotrowski et al. (Mon,) studied this question.