Becoming school-parents: contrasts between mothers’ and fathers’ speech samples and links with psychological distress and household disorder

ABSTRACT

Transition to school research has largely overlooked parents’ experiences, particularly fathers. Addressing this gap, we gathered speech samples from UK parents (93 mothers, Mean age = 37.1 years; SD = 4.6 years; and 70 fathers, Mean age = 38.0 years; SD = 3.59 years) that captured their experiences of the school transition. This study (a) compared mothers’ and fathers’ experiences; and (b) examined experiences alongside parental self-reported psychological distress and household disorder. Parents’ experiences differed in valence: Emotional Reaction (mixed), Experiences with the School (positive), Support and Relationships (mixed), and Routines and Responsibilities (negative). Relationships and Support elicited heightened emotions from mothers than fathers. Only maternal experiences were associated with psychological distress and household disorder. Within couples (n = 64), only negative talk about Routines and Responsibilities was shared; all other experiences were individual. Findings show significant, mixed, and independent parental effects and recommend greater policy and practice consideration of the family context during the school transition.

KEYWORDS:

• Transition to school
• parents’ experiences
• mothers
• fathers
• quantitative interview coding
• coparenting

Introduction

Research on the transition to school has traditionally emphasised children’s ‘readiness’ (Dockett and Perry 2013; Petriwskyj, Thorpe, and Tayler 2005), but this period is also a time of significant change for parents (Webb, Knight, and Busch 2017). While a few exceptional studies have captured in-depth accounts of transition experiences from the parental perspective, these studies have overwhelming focused on mothers’ experiences and with little attention to how the family context shapes these experiences (Webb, Knight, and Busch 2017). Addressing these gaps, the current study examines: (a) similarities and differences in mothers’ and fathers’ experiences; (b) links between these experiences and two aspects of family adjustment: parental psychological distress and perceived household disorder.

Theoretical framework

The current study is framed within the Family Developmental Transitions Approach (FDTA; Griebel and Niesel 2013). This approach draws on ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner 1979), stress theory (Lazarus and Folkman 1987), developmental theory (Cowan 1991) and life span theory (Filipp 1995). Viewing the transition to school as a constructive effort of family, school, and community, the FDTA provides a framework for understanding how the transition affects parents as well as children. Griebel and Niesel (2009) outlined three levels of change experienced by parents that contribute to a successful transition to school. At the individual level, becoming a parent of a school child requires changes in a parent’s identity. Expectations, roles and control over their child’s life must adapt to make space for the school and teachers. At the relationships level, changes arise in the loss of relationships with preschool teachers and parents, as well as new relationships with the schoolteachers and parents, and changing dynamics at home. Finally, at the contextual level, parents need to integrate home, school and work environments. The school timetable requires daily scheduling and planning: parents in paid work may need to adjust their work hours and find childcare solutions for school holidays (see Griebel and Niesel 2009 for more detail). Qualitative grounded theory analyses provide empirical support for the FDTA (e.g. Griebel and Niesel 2013; Reichmann 2012), which informed the development of a novel coding manual for parents’ experiences of the school transition in the current study.

Measuring and understanding parental experiences

When children start school, parents experience a wide range of emotions – from emptiness and loss to pride and excitement (Dockett and Perry 2007). DeCaro and Worthman (2011) report that the school transition requires adjustment by the whole family, including new parenting expectations and altered schedules. The transition is also a time of mixed emotions: parents report both happiness and apprehension about their child starting school (Dockett, Perry, and Kearney 2012) and can represent the beginning of the ‘seriousness of life’ (Graßhoff et al. 2013). The transition to school requires parents to take on dual roles, both supporting their child and adapting to changes in their own lives (Hanke et al. 2017). These experiences are heightened with the first-born child – parents consistently report fewer worries, emotions and challenges when their second or third child makes the school transition (Ackesjö 2017).

In a review of the literature on parental experiences of children’s transition to school, Webb, Knight, and Busch (2017, 214) called for research that ‘authentically listens to the varied voices of parents to establish patterns of meaning through analysing the parents’ stories within their individual context(s)’. The qualitative studies noted above provide valuable in-depth accounts of parents’ emotions but were not designed to explore the inter-relatedness of variation in these emotions, nor how they might differ for mothers and fathers or relate to aspects of family adjustment. For example, although studies commonly show that parents report mixed emotions during the school transition, they do not consider whether specific aspects of the transition are especially likely to evoke positive, negative, or mixed emotions. Addressing this gap, we gathered parents’ views and experiences of the transition to school by adapting the Five-Minute Speech Sample (FMSS; Gottschalk and Gleser 1979), which captures 5-minutes of uninterrupted speech from parents. Studies show rich individual differences in participants’ narratives (e.g. Richardson and Yates 2014; Sher-Censor, Nahamias-Zlotolov, and Dolev 2019). The FMSS is used to measure close relationships (for a review, see Sher-Censor 2015) and salient life experiences (Sher-Censor, Nahamias-Zlotolov, and Dolev 2019) and has been adapted for to study immigrant mothers (Sher-Censor and Mizrachi-Zinman 2021) and parents of children with developmental disorders (Smith et al. 2022). The current study is the first to apply the FMSS to measure parents’ experiences of the school transition. Therefore, a necessary first step was to develop a coding manual to investigate the frequency and valence of themes related to the FDTA identified in earlier qualitative studies (Griebel and Niesel 2009).

Mothers’ and fathers’ experiences in tandem

The lack of attention on fathers’ experiences of the school transition is particularly striking. Moreover, the restricted focus on mothers is not often acknowledged: studies often refer to samples of ‘parents’ but predominantly involve mothers (e.g. Dockett, Perry, and Kearney 2012; Graßhoff et al. 2013; Griebel and Niesel 2013). This isolated focus on mothers falls short of a family systems approach to the school transition (Bowen 1974). The current study draws on a sample from a longitudinal study documenting maternal and paternal experiences of the transition to parenthood. This included exploring mental health trajectories for both new parents (Hughes et al. 2020), analysis of day-long recordings of infants’ exposure to maternal and paternal talk (Fink et al. 2020) and investigating links between couple relationship quality and maternal sensitivity using the FMSS (Foley et al. 2020). The current study aimed to extend this dual-parent approach to examine within couple similarities and differences in parental experiences of the school transition.

As noted by Dockett, Perry, and Kearney (2012), experiences of the school transition may differ because of parents’ personal history and the context in which the transition is occurring. However, the lack of research on fathers makes it difficult to hypothesise about potential parent gender differences. In an exceptional study, Correia and Marques-Pinto (2016) found that focus groups with mothers, fathers and teachers all recognised parental stress and anxiety as a key factor during school transition. Research with dual-career families indicates that working mothers feel stressed and guilty for trying to ‘have it all’, but fathers report enjoying a balance between work and family life (e.g. Borelli et al. 2017; Budig and England 2001; Milkie et al. 2002). Indeed, compared with mothers, fathers spend less time with their children, assume fewer childcare duties and are less likely to engage in solo parenting (Borelli et al. 2017; Milkie et al. 2002; Musick, Meier, and Flood 2016). Thus, fathers’ experiences of the school transition may be less emotional than mothers’ experiences. By adopting a within-couple design, the current study compares mothers’ and fathers’ experiences of the school transition and examines the extent to which these experiences are shared.

Links between parents’ experiences and family adjustment

In their review of the literature, Webb, Knight, and Busch (2017) called for research placing parents’ experiences within the family context. Discontinuities between home and school settings pose significant parental challenges, and how parents adjust to stressors and manage emotions has a significant impact on the family’s school transition (Lam 2014). Griebel et al. (2017) asked mothers (N = 108) to rate how well they had coped with their child’s school transition and identified two distinct groups: compared with parents identified as ‘negative copers’ (n = 12), those identified as ‘positive copers’ (n = 96) showed better self-assurance, more positive perceptions of their child’s transition, and greater participation in school-life. In a longitudinal study of US families (N = 51), parents with higher stress prior to the transition reported more problems in household routines 3-months after the transition, and authors concluding that ‘not all parents are equally equipped to adapt to changing schedules, roles and responsibilities’ (DeCaro and Worthman 2011, 446). Building on these findings, this study examines whether mothers’ and fathers’ specific transition experiences are associated with parental psychological distress and perceived household disorder.

Current study

This study takes a family-wide approach to school transition research (Webb, Knight, and Busch 2017), by considering both mothers and fathers during their first-born child’s transition to school and examining parental transition experiences in the context of measures of family adjustment. Drawing on the FDTA, a new coding manual was developed for parents’ speech samples in the current study. This enabled us to: (a) compare mothers’ and fathers’ experiences of the school transition; and (b) examine links between these experiences and parents’ responses to survey measures of psychological distress and household disorder.

Materials and methods

Participants

This study was part of New Fathers and Mothers Study, which examined parental influences on child development. The original study recruited 221 cohabiting heterosexual UK couples expecting their first baby and gathered data during pregnancy, at 4 months, 14 months, 2, 3, 4 and 5 years old. In early 2020, all families who participated in the previous wave (N = 186) were invited to participate, of whom 99 (53.22%) took part (recruitment and data collection were curtailed by the start of the Covid-19 pandemic). No differences between participating and non-participating parents were found for age, income, or education. Of the 99 participating families, 64 included both parents, 29 mothers only, and 6 fathers only. Mean ages were 5.31 years (SD = .25 years) for children, 37.1 years (SD = 4.60 years) for mothers and 38.0 years (SD = 3.59 years) for fathers. The original recruitment took place at a university hospital. Reflecting the local population, the sample was 89.2% White and highly educated; 94.7% of mothers and 88.9% of fathers had at least a bachelor’s degree.

Procedure

This study received ethical approval from the University of Cambridge Research Ethics Committee. Mothers and fathers were invited to participate separately. The FMSS was collected during phone interviews (full phone interviews length ranged from 479 words to 3119 words; M = 1447.80 words, SD = 445.56 words). Most parents conducted the phone interview at home. All interviews were audio-recorded and anonymised transcripts were used for coding. Participants were free to withdraw their data at any time during the study.

Measures

Experiences of the school transition

During the phone interview, the FMSS (Gottschalk and Gleser 1979) was used to gather parents’ experiences of the school transition. Parents were asked to speak for five minutes uninterrupted, without any questions or comments from the researcher. If parents spoke for longer than five minutes, the researcher waited until a break in speech before informing the parent that five minutes had passed and moving on to the next interview question. This adapted FMSS procedure gave the instruction: ‘I’d like you to talk for five minutes about your own experience of your child starting school and the impact this had on you and your family’.

Psychological distress

Parents completed the General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12; Goldberg et al. 1997), a 12-item measure of general psychological distress. Items assess the severity of mental problems over the past few weeks using a 4-point scale (from 0 to 3). Total scores range from 0 to 36, with higher scores indicating greater distress. The GHQ-12 has been shown to display good reliability and validity across varying samples and cross-culturally (Lesage et al. 2011; Makowska et al. 2002; Montazeri et al. 2003). Internal consistency was high (mothers α = .89, fathers α = .88), and both mean scores and standard deviations were similar for mothers (M = 10.86, SD = 4.55) and fathers (M = 10.68; SD = 4.80). Within couple associations (n = 64) showed fair agreement (α = .28, p = .006).

Household disorder

Parents completed the Confusion, Hubbub, and Order Scale (CHAOS; Matheny et al. 1995), a 15-item measure of household routines, organisation, confusion, and noise. Items include, ‘There is very little commotion in this house’. Each item has a 1- to 4-point scale: ‘Very much like my own home’, ‘Somewhat like my own home’, ‘A little bit like my own home’ and ‘Not at all like my own home’. Total scores range from 15 to 60, with higher scores indicating more a chaotic and disorganised home. Studies have found good reliability and validity of the CHAOS (Ganasegeran, Selvaraj, and Rashid 2017). In this study, the CHAOS showed high internal consistency (mothers α = .85, fathers α = .86), and mean scores and standard deviations were similar for mothers (M = 28.82, SD = 7.18) and fathers (M = 29.79; SD = 7.15). Within couple associations (n = 64) showed fair agreement (α = .38, p = 002).

Coding parents’ transition experiences

Empirical origins

Theoretically informed by the FDTA (Griebel and Niesel 2009), a coding manual to capture parents’ experiences of their child’s school transition was developed in this study. The codes in the manual reflected the FDTA levels of change: (i) intrapersonal (e.g. ‘changes in the identity as a mother or father’, ‘parental expectations of their child’, ‘feelings of being back in school’; Griebel and Niesel 2009, 62); (ii) relationships (‘loss of relationships with kindergarten teacher and kindergarten parents’, ‘new relationships are created within parents’ groups’; Griebel and Niesel 2009, 62–63); and (iii) contextual (‘daily, weekly and annual planning is influenced distinctly by the school’, ‘working hours may need to be organised’; ‘communication with the school and participation in the scholastic education with the purposes of educational partnership’; Griebel and Niesel 2009, 63).

Refinement and reliability

Discussion and reliability coding were used to refine the draft manual. Transcript coding was led by the first author and assisted by two undergraduate researchers. Following a preliminary round of coding based on 20% of transcripts, the first author led a coders discussion that eliminated codes that appeared in less than 10% of the transcripts subsample. Further, a separate theme was created to capture frequently mentioned experiences with the school. Next, 20% of transcripts were double coded to assess inter-rater reliability. In the initial round, poor inter-rater reliability led to two adjustments: (i) increased specificity in some codes (wording and description), and (ii) changing the coding from a Likert scale to a binary present/not present code. This process was repeated three times until discrepancies were resolved. In total, 100 (62%) transcripts were double coded with the final manual, and the average value of Cohen’s kappa was good (average κ = .81).

The final manual captures four themes using 16 codes. Table 1 provides excerpts of speech samples for each code. The unit of analysis coded was a complete statement; either a full sentence or section of a sentence that identified a clear expression from a parent. Speech samples were coded for positive and negative talk separately on each of the four themes. The themes capture the following parental experiences: (i) Emotional Reaction (emotional response to the transition, e.g. feelings of joy, excitement, pride, loss, anxiety and fear); (ii) Experiences with the School (emotions about the school as a place for their child; their own interactions with the school and their child’s teacher; and quality and quantity of home-school communication), (iii) Support and Relationships (emotions about impact on friendships and family relationships, including new social relationships with other school parents, and the quality of parents’ social relationships and support during the transition), and (iv) Routines and Responsibilities (emotions about the impact on work hours, annual leave, changes to home life such as juggling home learning activities with other demands and time constraints and managing additional school responsibilities). The full coding manual is available online: https://osf.io/n54px/.

Table 1. Coding Manual themes and codes with examples of positive and negative talk.

Theme	Codes	Positive talk	Negative talk
1: Emotional Reaction	Emotions about their child starting school	I was really excited for him to learn how to read	Out of my depth … going in to the unknown
	Change in emotions since their child started school	I was not looking forward to [child] not being with me, but because he really likes it, I’m happy	Naively you assume when you child goes to school things get simpler, but they actually get more complicated
2: Experience with the School	School as a place for their child	When she gets an award at school … it’s just nice to have things to be proud of	Force [children] to sit in seats when they’re five and look at a chalk board … it’s mind-blowing
	Interactions with the school as a parent	Walking into [child]’s classroom I wish that I could study there!	Structure of the school, like the curriculum … pushing [children] really hard
	Relationship with their child’s teacher	The teachers are brilliant, if you’ve got a question we can go in and we can ask any we want	Not always very useful … certainly when I had the problem with the children bullying [child] they weren’t really that helpful
	Quality of home-school communication	It is quite useful and it’s quite handy	It’s not so easy to try to talk … unless you go in and make an appointment
	Quantity of home-school communication	It’s nice to go on there and see what they have posted each day	The school seem to send out seventeen PDFs a minute
3: Relationships and Support	Existing friendship	We still get to spend time together at the local club	That’s really sad, I hope that’s not the start of us starting to not be as close
	Family relationships	[Help from grandparents] is huge, the most important support	It just feels so harsh for the younger one to always be woken up
	School social relationships	Practical remembering, all the details, [relationships with school parents have] been quite useful	If you don’t get to know the mums on the playground, I think it’s quite difficult to feel involved
4: Routines and Responsibilities	Additional school responsibilities	It’s easier once you have a good knowledge of the system	Overwhelming remembering all the right things on the right day
	Home learning activities	Great to have something new and interesting to do together	At the end of the day [child’s] worked really hard, she’s tired
	Impact of transition on competing home demands	Nice to have a bit of your own space and your own time	Juggling everybody to get them to the right places at the right time
	Impact of transition on day and work hours	It’s been great. [Child] loves the routine and we love a routine	Any lateness at all [leaving work] and I know I’m going to be late for school pick-up and I feel bad
	Impact of transition on annual schedule	We cherish the holiday time together	Just don’t have enough to go around to cover the school holidays
	Gender division of labour at home	Made me reflect on a better routine with my husband	It was probably hardest on me … I was the one who had to re-jig everything

Data analysis plan

Data was analysed using SPSS. The study data and materials are available online: https://osf.io/n54px/. Across the four transition themes, the number of codes differs (from two to six), so scores on each theme are presented as a proportion of their codes. We used correlational analyses to examine whether transition themes have a single or mixed valence and examine associations between themes and psychological distress and household disorder. A Wilcoxon signed-rank test showed no significant difference in verbosity (indexed by interview word count) between mothers and fathers (Mdn = 2.07 vs 2.21), T = 1251, z = −.93, p = .353. Therefore, verbosity was not controlled for in analyses. For the subsample of 64 families where both parents participated, we used Wilcoxon signed-rank tests to compare mothers’ and fathers’ transition experiences.

Results

Descriptive results of parents’ school transition experiences

Table 2 presents descriptive statistics for negative and positive talk on the four themes. Initial visual inspection showed a positive skew (skewness and kurtosis exceeding ±2 for multiple experiences; Field 2013). Shapiro-Wilks tests confirmed a lack of normal distribution of the data: Emotional Reaction, negative talk W(161) = .796, p < .001 and positive talk W(161) = .855, p < .001; Experience with the School, negative talk W(161) = .648, p < .001 and positive talk W(161) = .823, p < .001; Relationships and Support, negative talk W(161) = .769, p < .001 and positive talk W(161) = .892, p < .001; and Routines and Responsibilities, negative talk W(161) = .831, p < .001 and positive talk W(161) = .742, p < .001. Given these non-normal distributions, the data were analysed using Spearman’s correlations and Wilcoxon tests.

Table 2. Descriptive results for mother’s and father’s school transition experiences and Wilcoxon tests for within couple differences.

Theme (number of codes)	Mothers (N = 93)				Fathers (N = 68)				Wilcoxon test (N = 64)
	M (SD)	α	Max	%^a	M (SD)	α	Max	%^a	r	U	z	p
Positive talk
Emotional Reaction (2)	.477 (.271)	.31	3	86%	.436 (.246)	.12	3	88.2%	−.09	2854	−1.13	.257
Experience with the School (5)	.245 (.254)	.57	5	62.4%	.206 (.239)	.57	5	60.3%	.20	2871	−1.05	.296
Relationships and Support (3)	.539 (.350)	.42	4	78.5%	.368 (.313)	.31	4	70.6%	.06	2219	−3.34	.001
Routines and Responsibilities (6)	.110 (.146)	.25	3	43%	.127 (.146)	.12	2	48.5%	.03	2946	−.828	.408
Negative talk
Emotional Reaction (2)	.489 (.304)	.16	2	80.6%	.427 (.369)	.23	2	64.7%	.05	2831	−1.261	.207
Experience with the School (5)	.120 (.189)	.49	4	38.7%	.088 (.160)	.51	3	29.4%	.16	2868	−1.194	.232
Relationships and Support (3)	.290 (.292)	.13	3	60.2%	.152 (.233)	.14	3	35.3%	.08	2291	−3.244	.001
Routines and Responsibilities (6)	.180 (.165)	.27	4	68.8%	.137 (.138)	.23	3	60.3%	.37**	278	−1.91	.056

Note. ^aPercentage of the sample talking about each theme at least once. **p < .01.

Valence of parents’ transition experiences

For each of the four themes, Spearman’s correlations were used to examine whether scores reflected a singular positive-negative dimension or whether parents expressed mixed views (with no overall association between positive and negative talk). This mixed response applied to Emotional Reaction: rs_mothers (93) = .086, p = .410; rs_fathers (68) = .193, p = .115; and to mothers’ Experiences with the School: rs_mothers (93) = −.172, p = .099. However, fathers who spoke positively about their experiences with the school were less likely to also speak negatively about this experience: rs_fathers(68) = −.612, p = .031. For Routines and Responsibilities, parental talk showed a negative association between positive and negative talk that was significant for mothers, rs_mothers (93) = −.274, p = .008, and marginal for fathers, rs_fathers (68) = −.226, p = .064. For Relationships and Support, mothers showed a significant positive association between positive and negative talk: rs_mothers (93) = .268, p = .009, but there was no corresponding significant association for fathers, rs_fathers (68) = .164, p = .181.

Comparing mothers and fathers’ transition experiences

To test whether mothers and fathers were aligned in their experiences of the school transition, we analysed data from the subsample (n = 64) in which both mothers and fathers in the family participated in the study. Apart from a positive within-couple association for negative talk about Routines and Responsibilities, rs(64) = .37, p = .003, mothers’ and fathers’ experiences showed no significant correlations. Wilcoxon tests showed that mothers and fathers have similar mean levels of negative talk regarding the Emotional Reaction and Experience with the School, but mothers showed significantly more negative talk than fathers regarding Relationships and Support and marginally more negative talk regarding Routines and Responsibilities. Mothers were more positive than fathers regarding Relationships and Support, but did not differ from fathers for Emotional Reaction, Experience with the School and Routines and Responsibilities.

Associations between transition experiences and psychological distress and household disorder

Potential links between transition themes and both psychological distress / household routines were assessed using Spearman’s correlations. Maternal psychological distress was associated (in the expected directions) with negative talk about Experiences with the School, rs = .26, p = .015, and Routines and Responsibilities, rs = .39, p < .001, and with positive talk about their Emotional Reaction, rs = −.29, p = .007. Associations with other transition themes were not significant, −.09 < rs < .09. Further, maternal perceptions of household disorder were positively associated, rs = .35, p < .001, with mothers’ negative talk about Routines and Responsibilities; associations with other transition themes were not significant, −.20 < rs < .20. Fathers’ speech sample-based ratings of transition themes showed no significant associations with either psychological distress, −.09 < rs < .06, or household disorder, −.14 < rs < .25.

Discussion

The school transition is increasingly viewed as the collective responsibility of families and schools (Dockett and Perry 2009), requiring a greater understanding of family-wide processes (Webb, Knight, and Busch 2017). The current study used the FMSS to capture four themes related to parents’ experiences of their first-born child’s school transition, which were characterised by differences in valence of parental talk: Emotional Reaction (mixed), Experiences with the School (positive), Support and Relationships (mixed), and Routines and Responsibilities (negative). All four themes were prevalent for both mothers and fathers and only Relationships and Support elicited more emotions for mothers than fathers. That said, examination of within couple associations indicated substantial independence: Routines and Responsibilities was the only shared experience. For mothers, but not fathers, transition experiences were associated with parental psychological distress and household disorder. Below, we discuss these findings before considering the strengths and limitations of our study.

Themes of parental transition experiences

Consistent with previous studies (e.g. Dockett, Perry, and Kearney 2012), all four themes elicited some amount of both positive and negative talk. However, the themes did differ in the amount of positive and negative talk. Reassuringly, parents reported predominantly positive Experiences with the School. This finding is particularly encouraging given these parents experienced the school transition during the Covid-19 pandemic, when social distancing measures limited opportunities to build home-school connections. Highlighting the pressures that parents encounter when their child starts school, the theme of Routines and Responsibilities was predominantly negative in valence. This finding aligns with previous studies; for example, Correia and Marques-Pinto (2016) reported additional burdens of changing routines was emphasised in parents interviewed post-transition compared with pre-transition. Examining the associations between positive and negative talk confirmed these patterns. Experiences with the School and Routines and Responsibilities showed a unidimensional pattern: those who spoke positively about these themes were less likely to speak negatively. However, positive and negative talk about Relationships and Support coincided, which aligns with the mixed emotions previously reported (e.g. Dockett, Perry, and Kearney 2012; Graßhoff et al. 2013; Griebel and Niesel 2013). Overall, changing routines and responsibilities appears to be the biggest challenge of the transition for parents, and so should be a focus for efforts to support parents. Parents’ adaption to the school transition may also depend on the balance between these different experiences. For example, most families may experience increases in workload and time pressure, but for some, this may be exacerbated by reduced social support, while for others, this may be buffered by positive interactions with the school (e.g. transactional stress theory; Lazarus and Folkman 1984).

Independence of mothers’ and fathers’ experiences

Previous studies have focused heavily on mothers’ experiences (e.g. Dockett, Perry, and Kearney 2012; Graßhoff et al. 2013). Our findings show that fathers and mothers have similarly positive and negative experiences with one exception – mothers report heightened emotions regarding Relationships and Support. In one of the few studies to include fathers: Correia and Marques-Pinto (2016) similarly concluded that parents’ emotions were a key factor during the school transition for all participants. Interestingly, our examination of within-couple associations showed that mothers’ and fathers’ transition experiences show a substantial degree of individuality. The correlation between the valence of mothers’ and fathers’ talk was only significant for Routines and Responsibilities, which also showed marginally heightened negativity for mothers. Mothers may feel these pressures slightly more than fathers, perhaps due to higher involvement in childcare duties (e.g. Borelli et al. 2017; Milkie et al. 2002), but there appears to be some spill-over effects from one parent to the other. In sum, fathers report similarly emotional but largely independent experiences of the transition when examined alongside mothers.

These findings are interesting when considered in the context of previous work conducted with the current sample. Firstly, Hughes et al. (2020) conducted latent growth curve modelling of parental mental health across the transition to parenthood and showed different trajectories for mothers (higher prenatal but temporally stable with postnatal) and fathers (increasing from pre- to postnatal). Further, social support was pivotal in attenuating parents’ psychological distress, but for mothers, this effect was driven by support from friends, whereas family support was the driving factor for fathers. Secondly, when the children were 4-months, Foley et al. (2020) coded parents’ FMSS transcripts for pronoun use (‘I’, and either infant- or partner-inclusive ‘we’) and found that mothers’ frequent use of partner-inclusive ‘we’ pronouns was associated with reduced sensitivity to the infant, particularly in the context of a positive partner relationship. In the context of these findings, the current differences in mothers’ and fathers’ parental experiences align with differential trajectories that extend back over time and are present since before the child’s birth. Current findings of differential social support may also reflect the distinct sources of support reported by new mothers and fathers. Finally, these parental differences may be not only consistent, but encouraging – indicating sensitivity towards the child rather than partner-focused parenting. Overall, these findings extend research on coparenting experiences and highlight the importance of studying both parents in tandem (Bowen 1974).

Links between transition experiences and family adjustment for mothers, but not fathers

For mothers, our results confirmed expected associations between transition experiences and psychological distress and household disorder. Psychological distress showed relatively global associations with mothers’ transition experiences, while household disorder was specifically associated to Routines and Responsibilities during the transition. These associations are in line with previous studies showing the importance of parental self-assurance (Griebel et al. 2017) and household routines (DeCaro and Worthman 2011) for parents’ coping during the school transition and Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory (1979) which nests individuals’ experiences within their environmental contexts. This finding is encouraging in that it suggests our coding manual is sensitive to differences in difficulties experienced by mothers. The different pattern of associations seen for fathers may be linked to the independence of within-family experiences; again, suggesting different trajectories and factors influencing mothers’ and fathers’ experiences. Like (Hughes et al. 2020), studies focusing on children in the year prior to starting school suggest these parental differences may have a protective effect on children. For example, Latham, Mark, and Oliver (2017) found that maternal coercive parenting had more negative effects on children’s disruptive behaviour in the context of higher quality coparenting. A degree of separation in parents’ experiences, such as that reported here, may provide a more balanced home environment for children, without everyone’s ‘emotional eggs in one basket’.

Strengths and limitations

This study addresses an understudied group in school transition research and uses a novel design, adapting the FMSS to capture mothers’ and fathers’ multi-faceted experiences. This open-ended approach allowed parents to highlight certain experiences over others and attribute their subjective meaning (Adler et al. 2017; McAdams and McLean 2013). Our study, along with other recent work (e.g. Sher-Censor and Mizrachi-Zinman 2021), shows that the FMSS is a valuable tool that can be applied across samples and life events. Further, our findings shine a light on the significant but often overlooked emotional changes that parents face (Dockett and Perry 2007). Our findings highlight the need for families, (i) to achieve a sustainable balance between work, family and school responsibilities during the school transition, and (ii) for mothers particularly, to seek out sources of social support.

However, this study also has important limitations. To achieve inter-rater reliability, it was necessary to simplify the coding of speech samples using a binary variable for each code. This precluded distinctions between emotions of different intensity (e.g. ‘slight concern’ versus ‘overwhelming anxiety’). Our sample characteristics (predominantly White, well-educated heterosexual couples) also limits generalisability. For example, when children have intellectual disabilities, parents’ experiences are very dependent on the needs of their child (Wilder and Lillvist 2017). Single-parent families or same-sex parents may also face very different challenges to the current sample, while parents may report fewer adjustment difficulties when their later-born children start school. Future research involving more diverse samples is needed.

Conclusions

This study examines mothers’ and fathers’ multi-faceted experiences during their first child’s school transition. Experiences appear to be overwhelmingly personal, rather than shared within the family, but equally emotional for fathers and mothers. Underscoring the value of including both parents, mothers’ and fathers’ experiences were differentially associated with aspects of family adjustment. The importance of these family experiences during the school transition is both acknowledged by teachers (Arndt et al. 2013; Rothe, Urban, and Werning 2014) and connecting with families is an established direction for future policy (Wickett 2017). However, future research is needed that evaluates the impact of current educational strategies on parental experiences, and across diverse family samples. Overall, this study contributes to the understudied perspective of parents during the transition to school and our findings recommend that researchers and practitioners should consider the family context during children’s transitions to school.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).