Objective: To investigate parents' expectations and perceptions of their firstborn child's behavior before and after the birth of a second child.
Design: Couples expecting their second child completed questionnaires before and after the second child's birth.
Setting: Two large private hospitals offering primary care in urban settings.
Participants: Seventy married couples who were expecting their second child and had one child age 6 or younger at home.
Main outcome measures: The Older Child Expectations, Older Child Observations, and Sibling Behavior inventories.
Statistical analysis: Independent t-tests were used to measure mean changes over time.
Results: For the items related to the newborn on the Older Child Expectations and Observations inventories, 16 of 23 items differed significantly over time for one or both parents. Parents expected their firstborn child's behavior to be more negative than they actually observed it to be. For the items dealing with developmentally appropriate behaviors, only 7 of 45 items differed significantly over time.
Conclusions: Parents expected more negative behaviors in their firstborn child than they actually observed after the birth of their second child. Parents observed similar levels of developmentally appropriate behaviors in their firstborn child both before and after the birth of the second child.