Leiden University Student Repository

Brugts, Daan (2026)

De Rol van Partnerrelatiekwaliteit in het Dagelijks Leven van Vaders met een Verleden van Kindermishandeling: Een Dagboekstudie naar Opvoedstress.

Master thesis | Education and Child Studies (MSc)

Background: Fathers’ mental health has long been underexposed, despite its importance for family functioning and child development. Parenting stress in fathers during the perinatal period can have significant negative consequences for the well-being of fathers, children, and families. The current research focuses on mapping variation in parenting stress between weekdays an weekends, and on the question whether a good quality of the partner relationship can buffer these differences. Methods: The current study included 69 fathers (aged 21 to 48 years) with a maximum of one child (aged between 0.3 and 33 months). These fathers had alle experienced some degree of abuse or neglect, as determined by the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). During a seven-day period, the fathers recorded their perceived parenting stress daily using selected items from The Parental Stress Scale (PSS). The quality of the partner relationship was measured by the Brief Coparenting Relationship Scale (B-CRS)....Show moreBackground: Fathers’ mental health has long been underexposed, despite its importance for family functioning and child development. Parenting stress in fathers during the perinatal period can have significant negative consequences for the well-being of fathers, children, and families. The current research focuses on mapping variation in parenting stress between weekdays an weekends, and on the question whether a good quality of the partner relationship can buffer these differences. Methods: The current study included 69 fathers (aged 21 to 48 years) with a maximum of one child (aged between 0.3 and 33 months). These fathers had alle experienced some degree of abuse or neglect, as determined by the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). During a seven-day period, the fathers recorded their perceived parenting stress daily using selected items from The Parental Stress Scale (PSS). The quality of the partner relationship was measured by the Brief Coparenting Relationship Scale (B-CRS). Results: Perceived parenting stress did not differ between weekdays and weekends (t(68) = .596; p = .553). The quality of the partner relationship was not a significant moderator (F(1,66) = .017; p = .897), also after controlling for the age of the child. Conclusion: The results suggest that weekday-weekend variation may be of limited relevance for understanding fathers’ daily parenting stress. The absence of moderation by partner-relationship quality indicates that broader social support may play a more consequential role in reducing daily parenting stress. Despite some methodological limitations, this study contributes to the increasing attention for fathers in the perinatal period and underscores the value of interventions that strengthen general social support, especially for fathers with a history of trauma.Show less

Author

Brugts, Daan

Faculty

Faculty of Social & Behavioural Sciences

Specialisation

Forensische Gezinspedagogiek

Supervisors

Buisman, R.S.M.

ECTS Credits

20

Language

nl