There were five measures:
maternal warmth, described as the degree to which the mother demonstrates positive regard and emotional support
for the
child;
maternal respect
for autonomy, describing the degree to which the mother maintained appropriate control while providing the
child the opportunity to negotiate what he / she wanted to do;
maternal structure and limit setting, defined as the adequacy with which the mother established her
expectations for the
child's behavior and demonstrates a capacity
for effective leadership that engenders
child compliance; and synchrony / quality of assistance, described as the ability of the mother to assist the
child's performance in a manner that protects the
child's self - esteem and demonstrates that she is attuned to the
child's needs.
The remaining parenting behaviors (category: other parenting) ranged from r = − 0.04, p > 0.10,
for parental
expectations (i.e., expecting the
child to clean his or her bedroom, do the dishes, etc.) to r = − 0.35, p < 0.05,
for maternal problem solving statements during an interactive task with the
child.
The purpose of this research was to explore the theoretical assumption that if a mother's
expectations of her partner are not fulfilled, she will experience a decline in relationship satisfaction despite the reduction in role strain afforded her by
maternal leave to care
for her
child.