Empathy, Personality, and Couples’ Communication Over The Transition to Parenthood

Leigh Eskin, Psychology Advisor: Dr. Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan; Collaborators: Dan Bower & Claire Kamp-Dush

Department of Human Development & Family Science, The Ohio State University

Methods Results Discussion Introduction

What effect does good communication have on a relationship?

• “Communication plays an important role in determining satisfaction in marriage and close relationships” (Smith, Prabhaker, Abraham, & Mete, 2005)

• “Couples who make good or “happy” marital adjustments are those whose communication skills have been expanded to deal effectively with the problems inherent in marriage” (Navran, 2004)

Do personality characteristics effect communication?

• A study found that couples high in Agreeableness were less likely to use power-assertive strategies to resolve conflicts in relationships (Smith, Prabhaker, Abraham, & Mete, 2005)

• Higher ratings of Conscientiousness resulted in positive interactions and relationship satisfaction among dating couples (Smith, Prabhaker, Abraham, & Mete, 2005)

What is Empathy?

“Empathy arises out of the ability of one member of a pair to see the situation as his partner sees it” (Goodman & Ofshe, 1968)

The more people are empathetic or “in tune with” one another, the better their communication efficiency becomes (Goodman & Ofshe, 1968)

Research Questions

1.Do mothers’ and fathers’ personality affect their communication?

2.How does empathy affect the understanding and communication between couples?

3.How does communication change over the transition to parenthood ?

Participants

• 182 couples (M= Mother and F= Father)

European American: 86.5%(M), 84.3%(F)

African American: 5.9%(M), 6.5%(F)

Latinos: 4.4%(M), 1.6%(F)

Asian American: 4.9%(M), 3.7%(F)

Other: 4.3%(M), 2.7%(F)

oThe median level of education for both parents was a bachelor’s degree

oThis sample consisted of couples who were highly educated, mostly European American, and heterosexual. Results may not generalize to other groups and conditions

Procedure

Expectant mothers and fathers completed questionnaires collected at 3rd trimester of pregnancy (Phase 1)

Mothers and fathers rated communication problems during in-home visits

These in-home visits occurred at the 3rd trimester of pregnancy, and at three months postpartum (Phase 2) to measure changes over the transition to parenthood

Measures

o Personality: The NEO Five-Factor Inventory, emphasis on Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism (Costa & McCrae, 1992)

o Empathy The Interpersonal Reactivity Index: Perspective Taking, Emotional Concern, Personal Distress (Davis, 1980)

o Communication Problems MAP (Marital Agendas Protocol), couples’ ratings of communication as a problem in their relationship, Ph1 and Ph2 (Notarius & Vanzetti, 1983)

Q1: Do mothers’ and fathers’ personality affect their communication?

o Participants completed the NEO Five-Factor Inventory, and received a score on their Agreeableness, Conscientiousness and Neuroticism

o Each parent’s Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and also Neuroticism were correlated with their MAP (Marital Agendas Protocol) ratings of communication as a problem pre-birth and post-birth

  

 

 

Q2: How does empathy affect the understanding and communication between couples?

o Participants completed the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, and received a score on their levels of Perspective Taking, Emotional Concern, and Personal Distress

o These dimensions of empathy were correlated with their MAP (Marital Agendas Protocol) ratings of communication as a problem pre-birth and post-birth

• Conscientiousness revealed statistically significant negative correlations for both Mothers and Fathers, indicating that conscientiousness is linked with less communication problems. Interestingly, this negative correlation remained consistent only for Mothers, and not for Fathers, over the transition to parenthood.

•Agreeableness did not reveal statistically significant associations with communication, and had no changes across the transition to parenthood.

• Neuroticism revealed a statistically significant correlation for both Mothers and Fathers pre-birth. For Mothers, this correlation strengthened across the transition to parenthood, but it decreased for Fathers.

• Empathy had very interesting changes across the transition to parenthood. Fathers remained statistically significant on Perspective Taking, and they also had a significant correlation for Personal Distress post-birth. Mothers initially did not have any statistically significant data, but their levels of Perspective Taking in Ph2 (post-birth) revealed a very high correlation!

Conclusion

These results suggest that certain personality traits are linked with good communication skills over the transition to parenthood: Conscientiousness depicted lower ratings of communication as a problem, and remained consistent for Mothers but not Fathers

Neuroticism depicted higher ratings of communication as a problem, and remained consistent for Mothers and not Fathers

These results also reveal that empathy is involved with good communication skills over the transition to parenthood: Perspective Taking depicted lower ratings of communication as a problem, and remained consistent for Fathers, but changed drastically post-birth for Mothers. Personal Distress depicted higher ratings of communication problems for Fathers post-birth