Social-Network Contact, Family Support, and the Transition to Parenthood

In order to assess the effect of a new baby on social-network contact and family support, 72 volunteer families were studied longitudinally from the last trimester of pregnancy through the ninth postpartum month. Analyses of open-ended and closed-ended interview questions at three points in time revealed that mean levels of contact with parents'families of origin increased with time, as did contact with other parents with young children. Emotional and material support received from families of origin were greater at three months postpartum than during the last trimester of pregnancy and at nine months postpartum, especially in the case of first-time parents. The fact that individual differences in socialnetwork contact and family support were significantly stable over time, as revealed by cross-age stability coefficients, led to the conclusion that constancy in the face of change characterizes social-network development across the transition to parenthood. A final analysis indicated that even though the proximity of one's own family of origin predicts quantity of family contact and the extent to which it provides babysitting services, it does not relate to the degree of emotional and material support received or to the extent to which relatives are regarded as significant others with whom parents have frequent contact.