Abstract
Every parent-to-be has wishes for his or her child’s future. These wishes might influence parent–child interactions and children’s outcomes, yet little is known about the content of these wishes. The purpose of this mixed-methods investigation was to: (a) examine the different types of prenatal wishes that parents have for their first-born child using qualitative methods; and (b) explore whether parents’ wishes vary as a function of their gender and/or the gender of the child they are expecting, using quantitative methods. Participant interviews (n = 126 couples) from a longitudinal investigation that began in 1992 were used and qualitative analysis of mothers’ transcripts revealed eight wish categories: (1) well-being; (2) personal relationships; (3) particular characteristics; (4) particular goals; (5) personal achievement and responsibility; (6) personal fulfillment; (7) protection; and (8) dependence on the parent. Quantitative analyses revealed that, on average, mothers reported more wishes regarding their future child’s happiness (p < .05) and emotional fulfillment (p < .01), whereas fathers’ wishes focused more on their future child’s characteristics (p < .01), goals (p < .05), and achievement (p < .10). However, mothers’ and fathers’ wishes did not differ according to whether they knew if their future child was a boy or a girl. Although the types of wishes that mothers versus fathers have for their children’s future are generally influenced by the gender stereotypes in which they were raised, findings suggest that both mothers and fathers seem to avoid imposing these gender stereotypes on their future children.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bernard, H. R., & Ryan, G. (1998). Text analysis: Qualitative and quantitative methods. Handbook of methods in cultural anthropology. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press 595–645.
Blau, F. D., & Kahn, L. M. (2006). The U.S. gender pay gap in the 1990s: Slowing convergence. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 60, 45–66.
Bornstein, M. H. (2002). Parenting infants. In M. H. Bornstein (Ed.). Handbook of parenting: children and parenting (vol. 1) (pp. 3–43). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Boushey, H. (2009). The new breadwinners. In H. Boushey & A. O'Leary (Eds.), The Shriver report: A woman’s nation changes everything. New York, NY: Free Press.
Coleman, P., Nelson, E. S., & Sundre, D. L. (1999). The relationship between prenatal expectations and postnatal attitudes among first-time mothers. Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, 17, 27–39.
Delmore-Ko, P., Pancer, S. M., Hunsberger, B., & Pratt, M. (2000). Becoming a parent: The relation between prenatal expectations and postnatal experience. Journal of Family Psychology, 14, 625–640.
Dix, T. (1991). The affective organization of parenting: Adaptive and maladaptive processes. Psychological Bulletin, 110, 3–25.
Dix, T., Gershoff, E. T., Meunier, L. N., & Miller, P. C. (2004). The affective structure of supportive parenting: Depressive symptoms, immediate emotions, and child–oriented motivation. Developmental Psychology, 40, 1212–1227.
Dix, T., Stewart, A. D., Gershoff, E. T., & Day, W. H. (2007). Autonomy and children’s reactions to being controlled: Evidence that both compliance and defiance may be positive markers in early development. Child Development, 78, 1204–1221.
Eagly, A. H., & Steffen, V. J. (1984). Gender stereotypes stem from the distribution of women and men into social roles. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 735–754.
George, C., Kaplan, N., & Main, M. (1996). Adult Attachment Interview protocol (3rd ed.). Unpublished manuscript. Berkeley, CA: University of California at Berkley.
Harwood, K., McLean, N., & Durkin, K. (2007). First-time mothers’ expectations of parenthood: What happens when optimistic expectations are not matched by later experiences? Developmental Psychology, 43, 1–12.
Hastings, P. D., & Grusec, J. E. (1998). Parenting goals as organizers of responses to parent–child disagreement. Developmental Psychology, 34, 465–479.
Heilman, M. E. (2001). Description and prescription: How gender stereotypes prevent women’s ascent up the organizational ladder. Journal of Social Issues, 57, 657–674.
Kiang, L., Morena, A. J., & Robinson, J. L. (2004). Maternal preconceptions about parenting predict child temperament, maternal sensitivity, and children’s empathy. Developmental Psychology, 40, 1081–1092.
Kotila, L. E., Schoppe-Sullivan, S. J., & Kamp Dush, C. M. (2013). Time in parenting activities in dual-earner families at the transition to parenthood. Family Relations, 62, 795–807.
Palkovitz, R., Sherif Trask, B., & Adamsons, K. (2014). Essential differences in the meaning and processes of mothering and fathering: Family systems, feminist and qualitative perspectives. Journal of Family Theory and Review, 6, 406–420.
Paquette, D. (2004). Theorizing the father–child relationship: Mechanisms and developmental outcomes. Human Development, 47, 193–219.
Pleck, J. H. (2010). Paternal involvement: Revised conceptualizations and theoretical linkages with child outcome. The role of the father in child development (pp 58–93, 5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Rosen, R. (2013). The world split open: How the modern women’s movement changed America. Old Saybrook, CT: Tantor Media, Inc.
Weiss, R. S. (1994). Learning from strangers: The art and method of qualitative interview studies. New York, NY: The Free Press.
Wood, W., & Eagly, A. H. (2002). A cross-cultural analysis of the behavior of women and men: Implications for the origins of sex differences. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 699–727.
World Economic Forum (2014). The Global Gender Gap Report. Retrieved from http://www3.weforum.org/docs/GGGR14/GGGR_CompleteReport_2014.pdf.
Author Contributions
B.W.: designed and executed the study, completed data analyses, and wrote the paper. L.B.: designed and executed the qualitative analysis. A.A.: assisted with data analyses and collaborated in the writing and editing of the final manuscript. D.J.: collected data on participants. N.H.: assisted in study execution and collaborated in the writing and editing of the final manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Ethical Approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed Consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wittenberg, B.M., Beverung, L., Ansari, A. et al. Gender Differences in Parents’ Prenatal Wishes for their Children’s Future: A Mixed-Methods Study. J Child Fam Stud 26, 1865–1874 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-017-0713-9
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-017-0713-9