For the purpose of this assignment, I reviewed a research study found in Family Relations. This study, entitled Parental Role Socialization and the Transition to Parenthood, "investigates the relationships between level of socialization for parenthood, using the indicators of personal, family and infant well-being." This study was done of first time parents with healthy babies, between the ages of five and eleven months. The first major theme found in this study is socialization experiences, for example babysitting, parenting classes, having friends or relatives with babies, helping care for younger brothers and sisters, and reading books on parenting. All of these things were found to increase a parent's ability to deal with stress from having a baby. The second major theme discussed in the study was the level of stress indicated by mothers and fathers by examining factors that indicate personal and family well being, such as, negative appraisals of the self, marriage, and parenting skills. The results of the study showed that mothers and fathers viewed their perceived well-being differently, and that they viewed different socialization events as helpful in parenting.
             From this study I gained an understanding of the stress that my mother felt when she had me. She was twenty-three and I was her first child. She has always told me stories of how stressful it is to have a new baby, since she worried a lot about my well-being and she was often concerned that she wasn't doing thinks correctly. She also said that she worried about money a lot and that cause marital stress between her and my father. My mother babysat a lot when she was a teenager and she felt that that, as well as the parenting classes that her and my father took while she was pregnant were both helpful. They taught her about common baby problems, as well as what to worry about and what not to worry about. She felt that she was better p...