Transition to Parenthood

In 1949, Reuben Hill formulated the perspective of a "family crisis" in his landmark book Families Under Stress. Hill defined a family crisis as "a situation in which the usual behavior patterns are found to be unrewarding and new ones are called for immediately. Theoretically we know that three variables are present in a situation which determine whether or not a crisis is created: (1) the hardships of the event, (2) the resources of the family to meet the event, and (3) the family's definition of the event" (p. 51).

This notion of crisis created a framework for a pair of studies concluding that the transition to parenthood created a crisis situation for new parents (Dyer 1963; Lemasters 1957); other researchers, however, asserted the opposite—that first time parents had little difficulty in adjusting to parenthood (Hobbs; 1965, 1968). Equally as important, however, to the emerging interest in the effect of a child's birth on the marital relationship was the recommendation to drop the term crisis and "to view the addition of the first child to the marriage as a period of transition which is somewhat stressful" (Hobbs 1968, p. 417). The emphasis on "the transition to parenthood" was reiterated by Alice Rossi (1968) in an article of the same name, and since then the research has highlighted the process whereby couples move from the role of spouse to the role of parent through the pregnancy and immediate postpartum period.