Recent studies of the transition to parenthood which advance understanding over to earlier, cross sectional and retrospective investigations are examined with regard to what they indicate about how marriages change that occur in marital activities/interactions and sentiments, design issues pertaining to this recent research are considered, specifically the need for and meaning of a childless comparison group. An analysis of studies which employ and do not employ such contrast groups indicates that across the transition household of labor becomes more traditional, couple leisure activities become less frequent, positive interchanges decrease whereas conflict increases, and overall satisfaction with the marriage and feelings of love for the spouse decline, especially in the case of wives. It is observed, however, that these changes are modest in magnitude (at least as currently measured) and probably represent the accentuation of changes that typically take place in marital relationships over time. The need to study the multiple determinants of individual differences in marital change across the transition to parenthood is considered in the concluding section of this paper, as are implications for practice.
Belsky et al. (1988) studied this question.