Why do men feel more attractive after childbirth?

Abstract

A great deal of research has examined women's bodily experiences with respect to pregnancy, childbirth, and the postnatal period. Men's experience of this significant life event is less scrutinized. Using longitudinal data from 182 newly married couples in the United States, we examine the effects of childbearing on wives' and husbands' feelings about their bodies. Our results suggest that whereas wives' perceived physical attractiveness declines after the birth of a child, husbands' perceived physical attractiveness increases.

Keywords::

• body image
• parenthood
• childbirth

Notes

^1. We also examined a multivariate path analysis. These findings confirm what is seen in Figure 1. New mothers felt less physically attractive after the birth of a child (b = − 0.09), and new fathers felt that they were more physically attractive after the birth of a child (b = 0.09). Furthermore, in preliminary analyses we examined the effect of the age of the child at the time of the interview. We assumed that the longer the period of time since birth, the fewer physical symptoms (such as weight gain and physical discomfort) a woman would be experiencing that might affect her perceived physical attractiveness. We also examined whether the woman was pregnant at the time of the interview, and we assumed that pregnant women might be experiencing negative effects before birth. When we examined the effects of child's age and whether the female respondent was pregnant, we found that they did not significantly affect our results. The details of these analyses are available upon request.

^2. These analyses are available upon request.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alicia D. Cast

Professor Alicia Cast's areas of research are social psychology and feminist studies with an emphasis on the family. Her research focuses on identity formation (the process by which persons come to understand who they are), the ways in which understandings of the self may be influenced by social context such as differences in power, and the role of emotions in person's understandings of the self. Her research is informed by the symbolic interactionist tradition and is situated within its recent formulation in identity theory.

Susan D. Stewart

Susan D. Stewart is a family demographer whose research focuses on structural diversity in families and its effects on the physical, social, and emotional health of children and adults. Her research has been supported by grants from the NICHD, USDA, Joint Center for Poverty Research, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation. She has published papers on a diverse array of topics including child and adolescent obesity, eating habits and nutrition, fertility intentions and behavior, child support and visitation, stepchild adoption, and women's financial literacy.

Megan J. Erickson

Megan J. Erickson studied sociology at Iowa State University, where she was awarded the Top Graduating Senior Award by the ISU Sociology Department and graduated with distinction. She went on to earn her law degree from Drake Law School, where she was an Opperman Scholar, published in the Drake Law Review, interned with the US District Court and Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, and graduated with high honors. Ms Erickson is currently an attorney at Dickinson, Mackaman, Tyler & Hagen PC in Des Moines, Iowa, where she practices employment/civil rights law and commercial litigation. She is also a frequent author and speaker on legal issues related to technology and social media.