Prenatal Psychological Adjustment, Relationship Satisfaction, and Parental Reflective Functioning: An Examination of Actor and Partner Effects in the Context of Paternal Moderate to Heavy Drinking.

Objective: Parental reflective functioning (PRF) emerges during the prenatal period and helps fathers and mothers prepare for the transition to parenthood. Few studies have considered how PRF could support at-risk fathers and their partners across this transition. In a sample of moderate to heavy drinking fathers, an actor-partner interdependence mediation model (APIMeM) was used to examine concurrent indirect effects between prenatal psychological symptoms and paternal and maternal PRF through interparental relationship satisfaction while accounting for the interdependence among father-mother dyads.

Design: 180 first-time expectant father-mother dyads were recruited in the second to early third trimester of pregnancy. Most fathers were European American (89.44%, 6.15% African American, 1.68% Asian American, 2.73% Mixed race or other; 7.80% Latin American) and had a bachelor's degree or higher (78%). All variables were reliably assessed using self-report at one timepoint. The APIMeM examined dyadic patterns.

Results: Paternal psychological functioning was negatively associated with paternal interparental relationship satisfaction and positively associated with paternal PRF. For mothers' PRF, two couple patterns emerged. Paternal and maternal psychological symptoms were negatively associated with maternal interparental relationship satisfaction and positively associated with maternal PRF. Paternal drinking intensity moderated the associations between maternal psychological symptoms and maternal PRF and maternal interparental relationship satisfaction and maternal PRF.

Conclusions: Paternal psychological symptoms may be a prenatal prevention target for at-risk father-mother dyad relationship satisfaction. Moderate relative to heavy levels of paternal drinking in the prenatal period may have a positive impact on family functioning. Future research should examine these associations longitudinally.