Women's and men's personal goals during the transition to parenthood

To investigate how women's and men's personal goals change during the trans ition to parenthood, the authors studied 348 women (152 primiparous and 196 multiparous) and 277 of their partners at 3 times: early in pregnancy, 1 m onth before the birth, and 3 months afterward. At each measurement, partici pants completed the Personal Project Analysis questionnaire (B. R. Little, 1983). The results showed that during pregnancy women became more intereste d in goals related to childbirth, the child's health, and motherhood and le ss interested in achievement-related goals. After the birth women were more interested in family- and health-related issues. These changes were more s ubstantial among the primiparous than among the multiparous mothers. Althou gh the men's personal goals changed during the transition to parenthood, th ese changes were less substantial than those found among the women.