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Abstract
Differences among adoptive and biological parents during the transition to parenthood were investigated in this exploratory study. Subjects were 61 adoptive and 63 biological couples. Household division of labor, childcare division of labor, joint leisure, self-esteem, and marital satisfaction scales were utilized in order to better understand how infertile adoptive parents navigate the transition to parenthood in comparison to biological parents. Some significant differences were found between adoptive and biological fathers on the childcare division of labor scale and on the DAS subscales of Dyadic Consensus and Affectional Statement. Adoptive and biological mothers differed significantly on the household division of labor scale. Although, some differences were noted, this study suggests that adoptive families are not more at risk upon the transition to parenthood, but actually report better functioning on some measures of marital satisfaction than do their biological counterparts.