INTRODUCTION

Family relationships are partly influenced by contextual features of the social environment, such as social policy systems and the extent of paid parental leave (Koslowski, Blum, Dobrotić, Macht & Moss, 2019). The mutual transactions between external factors and internal processes in family life are likely to affect the quality of the couple relationship, as emphasized in Bronfenbrenner’s (2001) bioecological model of human development. This theoretical framework describes how family processes are influenced by environmental events and that transitions occur throughout the life span and serve as trajectories for developmental change (Bronfenbrenner, 2001). The model addresses multiple factors that can facilitate the understanding of how parents’ decisions on parental leave influences both parents’ involvement in caregiving through reciprocal transactions between the societal and the individual levels, which might affect parents’ interaction and their relationship as a couple.

The present study examines parents’ perceived couple relationship quality and how it is influenced by division of parental leave, in a sample of 280 Swedish parents who filled out questionnaires at 6 and 18 months after their child was born. We also examined whether parenting stress or coparenting quality had any bearing on the association between division of parental leave and couple relationship quality. The study contributes new knowledge on how parents of young children perceive their couple relationship in the context of equal division of parental leave, building on our previous studies in which other outcomes were measured.

Parental leave in Sweden

Sweden has a history of implemented welfare reforms to promote gender equality (Oláh & Bernhardt, 2008) and is highly ranked internationally in terms of gender equality (World Economic Forum, 2020). Parental leave rights for both mothers and fathers are regulated in the gender‐neutral Parental Leave Act (SFS, 1995), and fathers have been afforded the same rights as mothers since 1974. Government policy encourages parents to share their parental leave equally, and the parental leave system is designed to stimulate a dual‐earner model (Haas & Hwang, 2012). Fathers’ total use of benefit days has slowly grown since the introduction of the gender‐neutral parental leave system in 1974, and today accounts for approximately 29% of the 480 benefit days afforded the couple for each child (Försäkringskassan, 2019). After a third so called “daddy month” was introduced in 2016, 90 days are today reserved for each parent, and most fathers, 88%, take some parental leave during their child’s first seven years, generally starting 13 to 15 months after childbirth (Duvander & Löfgren, 2019). Still, the proportion of parents who divide parental benefit days equally (each parent taking at least 40% of the leave) remains a low 18% (Försäkringskassan, 2019). This study was conducted between 2011 and 2013, before the third daddy month was added. During the study time period, each parent received 60 days, respectively, while the remaining days could be split however the parents wanted.

Parenthood and the couple relationship

The transition to parenthood is a major life event and its effects on the couple relationship are well established. However, the direction of the association is not always consistent. Several studies (Bäckström, Kåreholt, Thorstensson, Golsäter & Mårtensson, 2018; Canário & Figueiredo, 2016; Doss, Rhoades, Stanley & Markman, 2009; Lawrence, Rothman, Cobb, Rothman & Bradbury, 2008; Ngai & Ngu, 2016; Shapiro, Gottman & Carrère, 2000), as well as two meta‐analyses (Mitnick, Heyman & Smith Slep, 2009; Twenge, Campbell & Foster, 2003), have shown significantly lower relationship satisfaction after the transition to parenthood, while the opposite, that is, higher relationship satisfaction, also has been shown (Kluwer, 2010). Potential reasons for a lower relationship quality include role conflict and restriction of freedom after the birth of a child (Oláh, Kotowska & Richter, 2018; Twenge et al., 2003), less positive spousal interaction (Houts, Barnett‐Walker, Paley & Cox, 2008; Kluwer & Johnson, 2007), and the demanding task of combining childcare, household work, and paid work (Kushner, Sopcak, Breitkreuz et al., 2017; Yarwood & Locke, 2016). Experiencing early parenthood as stressful with insufficient communication between partners (Deave, Johnson & Ingram, 2008; Hansson & Ahlborg, 2016; Trillingsgaard, Baucom & Heyman, 2014), or suffering from sleep disruption as new parents (Medina, Lederhos & Lillis, 2009; Nelson, Kushlev & Lyubomirsky, 2014), also might contribute to lower quality of the couple relationship.

Once the transition to parenthood is established, the dynamics in family processes may reflect changes in the couple relationship, as parental roles evolve with influence from ideals, values, norms, and contextual factors on the societal level (Bronfenbrenner, 2001). As the infant grows into toddlerhood, and primary caregiving often shifts from one parent to another when one or both parents return to working life, this time period generally involves the establishment of a new identity as a parent. The new situation often puts considerable strain on the couple relationship, and this time period may be crucial for the couple relationship. There is a paucity of research on how the couple relationship evolves in early parenthood, that is, during the child’s first year or two, in relation to different family social policy contexts.

Parenting stress

Childbirth and parenthood can produce cumulative effects of stress on parents (Younger, 1991). Although parenthood can be joyful, parental roles may also be associated with conflicting demands and multiple stressors (Deave et al., 2008; Nelson et al., 2014). Parenting stress can follow from a perceived discrepancy between specific demands associated with parenthood and the parent’s personal resources (Östberg, 1999). Parental roles associated with recurring struggles and parenting stress may in itself have consequences for the dyadic interactions in early parent–child relationships (Östberg, Hagekull & Hagelin, 2007), and has been shown to be related to parental bonding, and child executive functioning, in both mothers and fathers (de Cook et al., 2017). Both parents’ levels of parenting stress have been linked to the couple relationship quality (Durtschi, Soloski & Kimmes, 2017; Nelson et al., 2014). According to Durtschi et al. (2017), fathers’ parenting stress might influence the couples’ relationship quality to a greater degree than mothers’ parenting stress. The findings suggest that dyadic interactions between parents have synergistic effects on the partners’ parenting stress, whereby when parenting stress is high in one partner, the other parent is less affected by the partners’ stress. However, high levels of parenting stress may contribute to an increased risk of couple dissolution (Kerstis et al., 2014; Widarsson, Nohlert, Öhrvik & Kerstis, 2019).

Coparenting

New parents establish their joint parenting relationship and negotiate parenting roles within a coparenting relationship that is distinct from, though related to, their couple relationship. Coparenting dynamics reflect to which extent parents support their partner’s actions and decisions, as they form a coparenting team (Feinberg, 2003). Coparenting has been referred to as the collaboration between parents, how they trust each other, and how they share parental responsibilities (Feinberg, 2003).

Parents’ relational functioning as a couple seems to influence their joint parenthood, and evidence of longitudinal associations between relationship quality and coparenting functioning across the transition to parenthood has been found for both mothers and fathers (Christopher, Umemura, Mann, Jacobvitz & Hazen, 2015; Le, McDaniel, Leavitt & Feinberg, 2016). For mothers, the influence seems reciprocal, from coparenting functioning back to couple relationship quality, indicating that mothers are likely to perceive their partner’s engagement and support in parenting as associated with the quality of their couple relationship (Durtschi et al., 2017; Le et al., 2016; McClain & Brown, 2017). However, a recent study also found fathers’ perceptions of maternal support in their parenting (in terms of maternal gatekeeping) related to fathers’ couple relationship quality (Olsavsky, Yan, Schoppe‐Sullivan & Kamp Dush, 2019). Consistent with these bidirectional associations, both parents’ perceived supportive coparenting quality as new parents has been shown to predict the quality of their own relationship after two years (Durtschi et al., 2017).

Mothers’ support of their partner’s actions and decisions during coparenting has been linked to increased father involvement (Murphy, Gallegos, Jacobvitz & Hazen, 2017). Father involvement in their child’s care seems to influence coparenting quality (Jia, Schoppe‐Sullivan & Eccles, 2011), and parental disagreement about the maternal role may be a source of conflict in the triadic mother–father–infant interaction (Favez, Tissot, Frascarolo, Stiefel & Despland, 2016). Fathers’ involvement in the care of their child may not only be positive; it also might trigger parental friction, often referred to as “maternal gatekeeping” (Schoppe‐Sullivan et al., 2008). Maternal gatekeeping can either encourage or discourage fathers’ parenting engagement, affecting their share of parenting and degree of coparenting (Puhlman & Pasley, 2013). Fathers might be sensitive to their partner’s criticism, but also might feel supported when their partner offers practical support in how to carry out parenting tasks (Sheedy & Eubands Gambrel, 2019).

Equal parental leave and the couple relationship

Sharing parental leave has been reported to facilitate couples’ understanding of each other’s everyday life (Almqvist, Sandberg & Dahlgren, 2011), which might contribute to higher quality of the couple relationship. Recently, in the context of the United States which has no national paid parental leave policy, Petts and Knoester (2019) found associations between length of paternal leave and parental relationships, in terms of higher perceived relationship satisfaction and less reported relationship conflict by mothers who worked before childbirth, than by non‐working mothers. In a longitudinal study of the same sample, fathers’ leave taking after childbirth and length of parental leave were positively associated with relationship quality one year after childbirth, and the association remained over the first five years after birth (Petts & Knoester, 2020).

A recent study by Lappegård, Duvander, Neyer, Viklund, Andersen and Garðarsdóttir (2020) in Sweden, Norway, and Iceland found that couples where the father took parental leave for any period of time were at lower risk of union dissolution than couples where the father took no leave, but there was no association between equal division of parental leave and relationship stability. In the Swedish context fathers’ parental responsibility is expected to include caregiving initiatives, and ideals of gender equality is strongly articulated in the contemporary mindset (Duvander, Haas & Thalberg, 2017). Fathers’ who report dissatisfaction with their share of parental leave, and who wish they had more time on parental leave have been found to experience lower relationship satisfaction and higher risk of union dissolution, than fathers who are satisfied with the division of parental leave (Brandén, Duvander & Ohlsson‐Wijk, 2016). However, mothers might exhibit undermining behavior if they perceive that their traditional parenting role and authority as expert, is threatened by the father’s involvement (Schoppe‐Sullivan et al., 2015). Parents’ collaboration and coordination of their parenting activities and responsibilities often is a process of negotiations, which might put stress on the couple relationship (Favez et al., 2016).

Parental roles are settled early in parenthood and set the stage for future interactions in family life (Murphy et al., 2017), entailing a need for increased understanding of the quality of the couple relationship in early family life and how it is affected by division of parental leave. If supportive coparenting can be established, couple relationship quality may remain stable throughout infancy and beyond (Favez et al., 2016; Le et al., 2016). In our previous research, we found that sharing parental leave equally was associated with lower parenting stress in fathers, but not in mothers (Lidbeck, Bernhardsson & Tjus, 2018), and with higher coparenting quality in both mothers and fathers (Lidbeck & Bernhardsson, 2019), compared with not sharing the leave equally. Mothers who shared parental leave equally also have reported higher satisfaction with their partner’s involvement in caregiving than those who did not share equally (Lidbeck & Bernhardsson, 2019). As parenting stress and coparenting quality are likely to have a bearing on couple relationship quality, it is of relevance also to investigate how parents’ division of parental leave influences their couple relationship. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore associations between division of parental leave and change in perceived quality of the couple relationship in parents of infants, and whether this association is influenced by parenting stress or coparenting quality. We hypothesized that equal division of parental leave is positively associated with couple relationship quality (Hypothesis 1). Furthermore, this association should be mediated by parenting stress and coparenting quality (Hypothesis 2).

中文翻译：

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共享育儿假时，夫妻关系会发生什么变化？一项前瞻性纵向研究

介绍

家庭关系在一定程度上受到社会环境背景特征的影响，例如社会政策体系和带薪育儿假的范围（Koslowski、Blum、Dobrotić、Macht & Moss，2019 年）。正如 Bronfenbrenner ( 2001 ) 的人类发展生物生态模型所强调的那样，家庭生活中外部因素和内部过程之间的相互交易可能会影响夫妻关系的质量。这个理论框架描述了家庭过程如何受到环境事件的影响，以及在整个生命周期中发生的转变，并作为发展变化的轨迹（Bronfenbrenner，2001）。该模型解决了多种因素，可以促进理解父母关于育儿假的决定如何通过社会和个人层面之间的互惠交易影响父母双方参与照料，这可能会影响父母的互动和他们作为夫妻的关系。

本研究以 280 名瑞典父母为样本，在他们的孩子出生后 6 个月和 18 个月填写问卷，调查父母对夫妻关系质量的感知及其如何受育儿假分配的影响。我们还研究了育儿压力或共同育儿质量是否与育儿假分配和夫妻关系质量之间的关联有关。该研究以我们之前衡量其他结果的研究为基础，为幼儿的父母如何在平等分配育儿假的背景下看待他们的夫妻关系提供了新的知识。

瑞典的育儿假

瑞典有实施福利改革以促进性别平等的历史（Oláh 和 Bernhardt，2008 年），并且在性别平等方面在国际上排名很高（世界经济论坛，2020 年）。母亲和父亲的育儿假权利在性别中立的育儿假法案（SFS，1995 年）中进行了规定，自 1974 年以来，父亲被赋予与母亲相同的权利。政府政策鼓励父母平等分享育儿假，而育儿假制度旨在激发双职工模式（Haas & Hwang，2012）。自 1974 年引入不分性别的育儿假制度以来，父亲对福利日的总使用量一直在缓慢增长，如今占这对夫妇为每个孩子提供的 480 个福利日的大约 29%（Försäkringskassan，2019 年）。在 2016 年推出第三个所谓的“爸爸月”后，今天为每位父母保留了 90 天，大多数父亲（88%）在孩子出生后的前七年休育儿假，通常从产后 13 至 15 个月开始（杜万德和洛夫格伦，2019 年）。尽管如此，平均分配育儿福利天数（每位父母至少休假 40%）的父母比例仍然很低，只有 18%（Försäkringskassan，2019 年））。这项研究是在 2011 年和 2013 年之间进行的，在添加第三个爸爸月份之前。在学习期间，每位家长分别获得了 60 天的假期，而剩余的天数可以根据家长的意愿进行分配。

亲子关系和夫妻关系

为人父母是人生中的重大事件，它对夫妻关系的影响已经确立。然而，关联的方向并不总是一致的。一些研究（巴克斯特罗姆，Kåreholt，Thorstensson，Golsäter和马藤松，2018 ;里奥-菲格雷多，2016 ;多斯，罗兹，史丹利马克曼，2009 ;劳伦斯，罗斯曼，科布，罗斯曼和布拉德伯里，2008 ;艺和恩古，2016 ;夏皮罗, Gottman & Carrère, 2000 )，以及两项荟萃分析 (Mitnick, Heyman & Smith Slep, 2009 ; Twenge, Campbell & Foster, 2003)，在过渡到为人父母后，关系满意度显着降低，而相反的，即更高的关系满意度，也已显示出来 (Kluwer, 2010 )。关系质量较低的潜在原因包括角色冲突和孩子出生后对自由的限制（Oláh、Kotowska 和 Richter，2018 年；Twenge等人，2003 年）、配偶互动不太积极（Houts、Barnett-Walker、Paley 和考克斯，2008 ; KLUWER生，2007年），并结合育儿，家务劳动，并支付工作（库什纳，Sopcak，Breitkreuz等人的艰巨的任务升。2017年; Yarwood和洛克，2016）。因伴侣之间的沟通不足而经历早期为人父母的压力（Deave、Johnson & Ingram，2008 年；Hansson & Ahlborg，2016 年；Trillingsgaard、Baucom 和 Heyman，2014 年），或者作为新父母遭受睡眠中断（Medina、Lederhos 和 Lillis，2009 年） ; Nelson, Kushlev & Lyubomirsky, 2014 )，也可能导致夫妻关系质量下降。

一旦确立了向父母身份的过渡，家庭进程中的动态可能会反映夫妻关系的变化，因为父母角色随着社会层面上理想、价值观、规范和背景因素的影响而演变（Bronfenbrenner，2001 年））。随着婴儿进入学步期，当父母一方或双方重返工作岗位时，主要的照料工作通常会从父母一方转移到另一方，这一时期通常涉及确立作为父母的新身份。新情况往往会给夫妻关系带来相当大的压力，而这段时间可能对夫妻关系至关重要。很少有关于夫妻关系如何在早期为人父母的过程中演变的研究，即在孩子的第一年或第二年，与不同的家庭社会政策背景相关。

育儿压力

分娩和为人父母可以对父母产生累积的压力影响（Younger，1991）。虽然为人父母可以是快乐的，但父母角色也可能与相互冲突的需求和多重压力源有关（Deave等人，2008 年；Nelson等人，2014 年）。育儿压力可能源于与父母身份相关的特定需求与父母个人资源之间的差异（Östberg，1999）。与反复出现的斗争和育儿压力相关的父母角色本身可能会对早期亲子关系中的二元互动产生影响（Östberg、Hagekull 和 Hagelin，2007)，并且已被证明与父母的亲子关系和儿童执行功能有关（de Cook等人，2017 年）。父母双方的育儿压力水平与夫妻关系质量有关（Durtschi, Soloski & Kimmes, 2017 ; Nelson et al ., 2014）。根据 Durtschi等人的说法。( 2017)，父亲的教养压力可能比母亲的教养压力更大程度地影响夫妻关系质量。研究结果表明，父母之间的二元互动对伴侣的育儿压力具有协同作用，即当一个伴侣的育儿压力高时，另一位父母受伴侣压力的影响较小。然而，高水平的育儿压力可能会增加夫妻解体的风险（Kerstis等，2014 年；Widarsson、Nohlert、Öhrvik 和 Kerstis，2019 年）。

共同抚养

新父母建立他们的共同养育关系，并在与他们的夫妻关系不同但相关的共同养育关系中协商养育角色。共同抚养的动态反映了父母在多大程度上支持他们的伴侣的行为和决定，因为他们形成了一个共同抚养的团队（Feinberg，2003）。共同养育被称为父母之间的合作，他们如何相互信任，以及他们如何分担父母的责任（Feinberg，2003）。

父母作为夫妻的关系功能似乎会影响他们的共同父母身份，并且已经发现父母双方在过渡到为人父母的过程中关系质量和共同抚养功能之间存在纵向关联的证据（Christopher、Umemura、Mann、Jacobvitz 和 Hazen，2015 年）；Le、McDaniel、Leavitt 和 Feinberg，2016 年）。对于母亲来说，这种影响似乎是相互的，从共同养育功能回到夫妻关系质量，这表明母亲可能认为伴侣在养育中的参与和支持与其夫妻关系的质量相关（Durtschi等，2017 年；Le等人，2016 年；麦克莱恩和布朗，2017 年）。然而，最近的一项研究还发现，父亲在养育子女时对母亲支持的看法（在母亲看门方面）与父亲的夫妻关系质量有关（Olsavsky, Yan, Schoppe-Sullivan & Kamp Dush, 2019）。与这些双向关联一致，父母双方作为新父母的支持性共同养育质量已被证明可以预测两年后他们自己的关系质量（Durtschi等，2017）。

在共同抚养期间，母亲对伴侣的行为和决定的支持与父亲参与的增加有关（Murphy、Gallegos、Jacobvitz 和 Hazen，2017 年）。父亲参与照料孩子似乎会影响共同养育的质量（Jia、Schoppe-Sullivan 和 Eccles，2011 年），而父母对母亲角色的分歧可能是母婴三方互动冲突的根源（Favez、Tissot、 Frascarolo、Stiefel 和 Despland，2016 年）。父亲参与照顾孩子可能不仅是积极的；它也可能引发父母的摩擦，通常被称为“母系守门员”（Schoppe-Sullivan等，2008）。母亲看门可以鼓励或阻止父亲的育儿参与，影响他们的育儿份额和共同育儿的程度（Puhlman & Pasley，2013 年）。父亲可能对伴侣的批评很敏感，但当他们的伴侣在如何执行育儿任务方面提供实际支持时，他们也可能会感到受到支持（Sheedy & Eubands Gambrel，2019 年）。

平等育儿假与夫妻关系

据报道，共享育儿假有助于夫妻了解彼此的日常生活（Almqvist、Sandberg 和 Dahlgren，2011 年），这可能有助于提高夫妻关系的质量。最近，在美国没有全国带薪育儿假政策的背景下，Petts and Knoester ( 2019)) 发现产前工作的母亲比非工作母亲更高的感知关系满意度和更少报告的关系冲突与育儿假的长度和父母关系之间存在关联。在对同一样本的纵向研究中，父亲产后休假和育儿假的长度与产后一年的关系质量呈正相关，并且这种关联在产后的前五年保持不变（Petts & Knoester，2020）。

瑞典、挪威和冰岛的Lappegård、Duvander、Neyer、Viklund、Andersen 和 Garðarsdóttir（2020 年）最近进行的一项研究发现，与父亲休育儿假的夫妇相比，父亲休育儿假的夫妇解除工会的风险较低。父亲没有请假，但育儿假平均分配与关系稳定之间没有关联。在瑞典语境中，父亲的育儿责任应包括照料计划，而性别平等的理想在当代思维方式中得到强烈表达（Duvander、Haas 和 Thalberg，2017 年））。报告发现，与对育儿假分配感到满意的父亲相比，报告对自己的育儿假份额不满并希望有更多育儿假时间的父亲对关系的满意度较低，工会解散的风险较高（Brandén , Duvander & Ohlsson-Wijk, 2016 )。然而，如果母亲认为她们作为专家的传统养育角色和权威受到父亲参与的威胁，她们可能会表现出破坏性行为 (Schoppe-Sullivan et al ., 2015 )。父母在育儿活动和责任方面的合作和协调往往是一个谈判的过程，这可能会给夫妻关系带来压力（Favez et al .,2016 年）。

父母角色在为人父母的早期就已经确定，并为未来家庭生活中的互动奠定了基础（墨菲等，2017 年），需要更多地了解早期家庭生活中夫妻关系的质量以及它如何受到分裂的影响育儿假。如果可以建立支持性的共同抚养，夫妻关系的质量可能会在整个婴儿期及以后保持稳定（Favez等人，2016 年；Le等人，2016 年）。在我们之前的研究中，我们发现平等分享育儿假与父亲的育儿压力降低有关，但与母亲无关（Lidbeck、Bernhardsson 和 Tjus，2018 年）)，并且与不平分休假相比，母亲和父亲的共同抚养质量更高 (Lidbeck & Bernhardsson, 2019 )。与没有平等分享育儿假的母亲相比，平等分享育儿假的母亲对伴侣参与照顾的满意度更高（Lidbeck & Bernhardsson，2019 年））。由于育儿压力和共同育儿质量可能对夫妻关系质量产生影响，因此调查父母对育儿假的分配如何影响夫妻关系也具有相关性。因此，本研究的目的是探讨育儿假的分配与婴儿父母对夫妻关系感知质量变化之间的关联，以及这种关联是否受养育压力或共同养育质量的影响。我们假设育儿假的平均分配与夫妻关系质量正相关（假设 1）。此外，这种关联应该由养育压力和共同养育质量介导（假设 2）。