Parenting/Parent-Child Relationship The Emotional Context Where the Infant Born: Parental Psychopathology and Marital Quality Cross the Transition to Parenthood

The transition to parenthood could be considered a key moment in which the couple reorganizes itself and develops new patterns of interaction. When partners perceive the transition to parenthood as more successful, than their child can deal more successfully the transition from family to school at five years. Parental psychopathology was not so investigated in relation to this critical moment (Coyne et al., 2002; Perren et al., 2003; Low & Stocker, 2005) with the exception of postnatal depression, that was found to be influenced also by the quality of couple’s satisfaction, or by violated expectations about the division of household work between the partners. The general aim of this study is to investigate the effects of psychopathology on couple’s adjustment during the transition to parenthood. The sample included fifty-two couples ethnically homogeneous, consisting of 100% Italian people, from the middle class. In the most part of the couples there was at least one partner employed. The mean age of wives is 35.8 (SD= 2.2); the mean age of husbands is 37.9 (SD= 1.8).