A new study shows that a new baby may trigger feelings of jealousy in a person who may already fear being abandoned by their partner. The study revealed that partners who presented signs of relationship anxiety before the birth of their first child were more likely to be jealous of the infant after it was born.

"You might think, who could be jealous of a baby? But if you already have fears of rejection, it may be scary to see how much attention your partner showers on your new child," said Anna Olsavsky, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in human sciences at The Ohio State University.

This jealousy can also add stress to an already tough time for couples' relationships. The study found that when either partner was jealous of the baby, couples experienced a decrease in their satisfaction with their relationship after having children. "This jealousy can erode a couple's relationship," said Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan, study co-author and professor of psychology at Ohio State.

"There has been a lot of research that shows couples' satisfaction with their relationship goes down after the birth of a baby, and this could be part of the reason for some people," said Schoppe-Sullivan, who is a senior research associate on the board of the Council on Contemporary Families.

The study, published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, used data from the New Parents Project, a long-term study co-led by Schoppe-Sullivan which examines how working couples adjust to becoming parents for the first time. Ultimately, 182 couples, most of whom were married, took part in the study.

During the third trimester of pregnancy, mothers and fathers answered several questionnaires, including one that tested "attachment anxiety." They were asked how much they agreed with statements like "I'm afraid that I will lose my partner's love" and "I worry about being abandoned."

Three months after the birth of their baby, the couples completed a measure of jealousy of the partner-infant relationship, reporting how much they agreed with statements like "I resent it when my spouse/partner is more affectionate with our baby than s/he is with me." As expected, the researchers determined that people with relationship anxiety before the baby's birth were more jealous of the infant three months after its arrival.

The study also revealed that not only was the anxious partner jealous of the baby, but their partners also experienced higher levels of jealousy, which may be due to the fact that they were used to receiving a lot of attention from their partner before the arrival of the baby.

"There may be two things happening to the spouses of people with relationship anxiety," Schoppe-Sullivan said. "It is not just that you aren't receiving all the attention that you used to receive, but also that the child is receiving that extra devotion that once was given to you."

Although researchers expected to find more anxious fathers, given that dads usually spend less time with babies than moms do, they discovered that anxious mothers and fathers were equally prone to be jealous of the time their partners spent with the new baby. The results indicate that couples should be aware of their relationship dynamics before having a baby.

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"There are a lot of programs for expectant parents, and attachment anxiety might be a good thing to assess beforehand," Olsavsky said. "If you make people aware of their relationship patterns, it may help them deal with their feelings more constructively."

The study was funded by the National Science Foundation and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Source: Science Daily