Our Methods

Detailed analysis of speech samples is time consuming, so we focused on just 30 of the 200 couples in the UK who took part in the New Fathers and Mothers Study.

To identify themes, we conducted reflective thematic analysis that was framed by Self Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000), which posits that wellbeing hinges on three 'basic psychological needs' being met: relatedness, autonomy, and competence. By using Qualitative Longitudinal Research analysis (Neale, 2021), we explored how these three basic psychological needs were met or challenged by parents' everyday experiences. This resource was created to reflect parents' common experiences, illustrated by three themes using parents' own language.

To ensure that our subsample reflects the diversity of parental experiences, and to move away from the traditional focus on mothers, we selected 15 couples where fathers showed positive wellbeing trajectories and 15 couples with negative wellbeing trajectories.