Stresses of Role Transition
In 1968 Alice Rossi identified five stresses involved in entering parenthood
- Irreversibility speaks to the issue that unlike other roles, one cannot easily leave parenthood once a child is born.
- Lack of Preparation is exactly what it says. There is absolutely no way to plan for and practice parenting until you have a child in your arms to take care of constantly.
- Idealization and Romanticization is the issue that if and when the reality of being a parent turns out to be different than what is expected, it is easy for new parents to become frustrated and disappointed in their new roles.
- Suddenness addresses the issue that regardless of months of pregnancy, an individual goes from being a non-parent to a parent the moment that childbirth occurs and with that is the same suddenness of the responsibilities that go along with it.
- Role Conflict is felt when the parental role affects all other roles that are held by the individual. It is sometimes difficult to manage all roles which can lead to stress and unhealthy coping.
Read more about this topic: Child Rearing
Famous quotes containing the words stresses, role and/or transition:
“The goal in raising one’s child is to enable him, first, to discover who he wants to be, and then to become a person who can be satisfied with himself and his way of life. Eventually he ought to be able to do in his life whatever seems important, desirable, and worthwhile to him to do; to develop relations with other people that are constructive, satisfying, mutually enriching; and to bear up well under the stresses and hardships he will unavoidably encounter during his life.”
—Bruno Bettelheim (20th century)
“Women’s battle for financial equality has barely been joined, much less won. Society still traditionally assigns to woman the role of money-handler rather than money-maker, and our assigned specialty is far more likely to be home economics than financial economics.”
—Paula Nelson (b. 1945)
“Power ceases in the instant of repose; it resides in the moment of transition from a past to a new state, in the shooting of the gulf, in the darting to an aim.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)