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

Disclosure statement

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