roles rather than on how couples decide upon these roles. Qualitative researchers have

looked more closely at the importance of couples' interactions in this process, but still

tend to focus on the individual's construction of roles rather than the couple's role

negotiations. Significantly more of both the quantitative and qualitative research has

investigated women's transition to parenthood than men's. Even when examining

relational issues like the division of labor, much of this research has not included men in

the samples. Instead, fathers' behaviors and adjustment are often estimated from their

partners' reports. Those studies that examine couples tend to analyze partner data

separately, looking at "mothers" or "fathers" as a group, without examining how one

partner's responses are related to the other's.

 Much of the extant research has focused on outcome variables rather than

processes. For example, Hackel and Ruble (1992), Ruble and her associates (1988), and

Cook and his colleagues (2005) investigated unmet expectations regarding couples'

divisions of labor, but did not examine how these couples developed divisions of labor

that contradicted their expectations and were perceived as unfair. Cowan and Cowan

(1988) described quite divergent parenting roles reported by the men and women in their

study, but did not study the particular couple interactions that may have led to these

different roles. In another study, Cowan and Cowan (1985) did examine problem-solving

strategies along with several other variables but did not report the results of the problem-

solving measure. Other research has examined couple process variables present in the

relationship before the birth of the baby, and has predicted future adjustment based on

these variables (e.g., Shapiro, Gottman, & Carrere, 2000). While this approach may be

helpful to couples who have not yet had children, a focus on the importance of specific