Understanding in transition: The influence of becoming parents on empathic accuracy

Empathic accuracy (EA), the ability to understand a close other’s thoughts and feelings, is linked to relationship satisfaction. Yet, it is unclear whether stress interferes with relationship partners’ ability to be empathically accurate. The present study investigates whether a major life stressor, the transition to parenthood (TTP), interferes with EA between partners. In a daily diary study of 78 couples expecting their first child, couples reported on their own and their partners’ daily mood for 3 weeks during three separate time periods across the TTP: pregnancy, infancy, and toddlerhood. Both mothers and their partners demonstrated EA across the TTP. However, there was evidence that the transition interfered with EA: Partners’ ability to track mothers’ negative mood dropped significantly during infancy and remained low in toddlerhood, whereas mothers’ ability to track their partners’ positive mood dropped significantly in infancy and recovered in toddlerhood. This suggests that one way in which a major life stressor, in this case, the TTP, may interfere with relationship functioning is by decreasing couples’ understanding of each other’s mood states.