TY - JOUR
T1 - Pregnancy Intentions and Family Functioning Among Low-Income, Unmarried Couples
T2 - Person-Centered Analyses
AU - Li, Xiaomin
AU - Curran, Melissa
AU - Paschall, Katherine
AU - Barnett, Melissa
AU - Kopystynska, Olena
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2019 American Psychological Association.
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Guided by family systems theory and using 2-wave data from 4,843 low-income, unmarried couples in the Building Strong Families study, we examined paths from paternal and maternal pregnancy intentions to family functioning in personal, relationship, and coparenting domains. Using 3-step Latent Class Analysis, we first identified 3 subgroups of couples based on both parents' pregnancy intentions: Both Wanted/Both On-time (33.8%), Both Wanted/Both Mistimed (56.1%), and Women Wanted/Both Mistimed (10.1%). We then examined how family functioning varied across these 3 classes. We found that fathers and mothers in the Women Wanted/Both Mistimed class experienced the lowest levels of family functioning. Mothers in the Both Wanted/Both On-time class reported higher family functioning than mothers in the Both Wanted/Both Mistimed class, whereas few differences were identified between fathers in the Both Wanted/Both On-time class and the Both Wanted/Both Mistimed class. We discussed implications for families transitioning to parenthood of this nuanced understanding of associations between pregnancy intentions and family functioning.
AB - Guided by family systems theory and using 2-wave data from 4,843 low-income, unmarried couples in the Building Strong Families study, we examined paths from paternal and maternal pregnancy intentions to family functioning in personal, relationship, and coparenting domains. Using 3-step Latent Class Analysis, we first identified 3 subgroups of couples based on both parents' pregnancy intentions: Both Wanted/Both On-time (33.8%), Both Wanted/Both Mistimed (56.1%), and Women Wanted/Both Mistimed (10.1%). We then examined how family functioning varied across these 3 classes. We found that fathers and mothers in the Women Wanted/Both Mistimed class experienced the lowest levels of family functioning. Mothers in the Both Wanted/Both On-time class reported higher family functioning than mothers in the Both Wanted/Both Mistimed class, whereas few differences were identified between fathers in the Both Wanted/Both On-time class and the Both Wanted/Both Mistimed class. We discussed implications for families transitioning to parenthood of this nuanced understanding of associations between pregnancy intentions and family functioning.
KW - Family functioning
KW - Low-income unmarried couples
KW - Pregnancy intentions
KW - Three-step latent class analysis
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U2 - 10.1037/fam0000547
DO - 10.1037/fam0000547
M3 - Article
C2 - 31219271
SN - 0893-3200
JO - Journal of Family Psychology
JF - Journal of Family Psychology
ER -