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Journal of Family Nursing
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Mothers' and Fathers' Views of the Interdependence of Their Relationships With Their Infant

A Systems Perspective on Early Family Relationships

Linda Bell, RN, PhD

Université de Sherbrooke, Montréal, Canada, linda.bell{at}usherbrooke.ca

Céline Goulet, RN, PhD

Université de Montréal, Canada

Denise St-Cyr Tribble, RN, PhD

Université de Sherbrooke, Montréal, Canada

Denise Paul, RN, DEd

Université de Sherbrooke, Montréal, Canada

Annick Boisclair, MPs

Clinique Enfance, Famille et Santé, Quebec, Canada

Edward Z. Tronick, PhD

Harvard Medical School, Boston

This study examined the interrelatedness of mother-infant and father-infant relationships as they develop over the first 4 months postpartum as well as the dynamics used by the couple to balance these relationships. First-time mother-father couples (n = 18) were interviewed separately at 1, 6, and 16 weeks postpartum using the Parent-Infant Relationship Interview. The data were analyzed using in-depth qualitative strategies. The parents' core themes of their early family relationships ranged from an undifferentiated unit at 1 week, to being a highly disorganized unit at 6 weeks, to a more integrated unit at 16 weeks. These results suggest that one should be thinking of early family relationships and parenting in terms of "messy processes" out of which new ways of being together are created. This disorganization plays a fundamental role in the establishment of early family relationships and warrants further empirical and clinical attention.

Key Words: child-bearing families • parents • parent-infant relationship • transition to parenthood • family systems

Journal of Family Nursing, Vol. 13, No. 2, 179-200 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1074840707300774
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Journal of Family Nursing, May 1, 2009; 15(2): 237 - 263.
[Abstract] [PDF]