Unmet and Exceeded Expectations for Sexual Concerns across the Transition to Parenthood

ABSTRACT

Expectations play a key role in shaping sexual and relationship well-being. Across the transition to parenthood, couples navigate many changes to their sexual relationships, yet little is known about their expectations related to sex. This longitudinal study investigated how unmet and exceeded expectations for postpartum sexual concerns – assessed in pregnancy and compared to experiences at 3-months postpartum – affect sexual and relationship well-being. Data were collected from 200 new-parent couples mid-pregnancy and at 3, 6, 9, and 12-months postpartum. Mothers’ unmet expectations (i.e., sexual experiences were worse than expected) were associated with their own lower sexual and relationship satisfaction at 3-months postpartum. Partners’ unmet expectations were associated with their own lower sexual satisfaction, higher sexual distress and relationship conflict, and mothers’ lower sexual satisfaction. Mothers’ exceeded expectations (i.e., sexual experiences were not as bad as they expected) were linked to their own and their partners’ higher sexual satisfaction and lower sexual distress and relationship conflict at 3-months postpartum. Partners’ exceeded expectations were only associated with mothers’ lower sexual distress at 3-months postpartum. Expectations did not predict change in outcomes over time. Findings provide novel evidence that expectations for one’s sexual relationship are associated with new parents’ sexual and relationship adjustment during a vulnerable period for sexuality and well-being.

Acknowledgements

We thank James Kim and Megan Muise for their assistance with data collection, as well as the couples who participated in this research. Study pre-registration, data, syntax, and output are available https://osf.io/ahrbx/?view_only=e013a24dd0a94e29bb138367afbbb8ee

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2022.2126814

Notes

¹ All participants who gave birth indicated that their gender/sex was woman/female, with one person identifying as a trans woman and female. We therefore refer to this group collectively as “mothers.”

² Higher partner reports of expectations at 20 weeks pregnancy predicted a steeper decrease in mother’s relationship satisfaction from 3 to twelve months postpartum.

³ Upon the request of reviewers (i.e., in deviation from our pre-registration), we examined three covariates: education level, relationship length, and depressive symptoms. When education level was included, our focal results remained the same, with two exceptions: mothers’ exceeded expectations no longer predicted partner’s higher sexual satisfaction at 3-months postpartum, but partner exceeded expectations predicted their own higher sexual satisfaction at 3-months (see Table S3). Relationship length did not predict any of our outcomes and therefore was not examined further. When we attempted to include depressive symptoms, the model fit was poor and there were no conceptually permissible modifications to improve model fit.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) to Natalie O. Rosen, Sarah A. Vannier, and Emily A. Impett.