1) Transition to Adoptive Parenthood Project (TAPP)

I am currently conducting a study focused on the transition to adoptive parenthood among same-sex couples and heterosexual couples. I am seeking couples who are preparing to become parents for the first time, and who are actively pursuing adoption. I am interviewing couples before the adoption (about 1-5 months pre-adoption), soon after the adoption (about 3 months post-adoption), and then 2 years post-adoption. I am interested in the unique challenges and joys that couples face as they prepare to adopt, and then adopt, their first child, as very little is known about couples' experiences during this important life transition. Members of each couple will participate in a telephone interview and complete a packet of questionnaires at all three time points. If you and your partner are currently in the process of adopting your first child, click here.

Some of the questions I hope to answer are:

1. What are couples' decision-making processes about adoption? (E.g., how do they decide to adopt, how do they decide what type of adoption to pursue, etc.)

2. What factors (e.g., social support, adoption agency practices) are associated with an easier or harder adjustment to parenthood?

3. How do couples' lives change when they become parents?

2) Transition to Parenthood for Lesbian Couples Project (TPLCP)

I recently completed a study of the transition to parenthood among lesbian couples. I interviewed 35 lesbian couples (70 women) who were giving birth to or adopting their first child, at three time points: 1 month before they became parents, three months after, and 3.5 years later. The most recent phase of data collection occurred very recently (Spring/Summer 2006). 

This study, which was funded by the American Psychological Foundation, used both quantitative and qualitative methods and investigated a wide range of phenomena: women's mental health, relationship quality, social support, workplace experiences, parenting experiences, child care plans and preferences, experiences within the health care system, and multiple other domains.

Some of the questions I hope to answer are:

1) How does women's well-being change during the early years of parenthood?

2) How do workplace policies and other social supports influence well-being?

3) What are the challenges that women experience, and the strategies that they use, with regard to balancing work and family?
 

3) Work & Family Transitions Project

I am also involved in an ongoing study of heterosexual, working-class couples' transition to parenthood. This project is headed by Maureen Perry-Jenkins, Professor of Psychology (and also affiliated with the Center for Research on Families) at the University of Massachusetts. In this project, we interviewed 153 couples at five points across the transition to parenthood: once before the baby's birth, and four times during the first year of parenthood. Currently, Dr. Perry-Jenkins and her students are following up these 153 couples, whose children are now in 1st grade. She is also conducting a study of the transition to parenthood among a diverse group of single mothers.