Étude exploratoire des changements psychologiques chez les hommes qui deviennent père sur le plan de leur relation à leurs parents, leur conjointe et leur représentation d'eux-mêmes
This two-article thesis aims to further characterize the nature of psychic changes encountered in the transition to fatherhood and the process whereby these changes arise. We will focus on changes regarding mental representations of oneself, one’s spouse, and one’s parents. We would like to further understand how upcoming fatherhood, and in some sense, taking the place of one’s father in the chain of generations, can induce psychological modulations and change the mental representations of the people mentioned earlier. It is well known that fathers get involved as soon as the pregnancy is discovered, that they exert a positive influence on the development of the child early on, and that their state of mind affects the way in which they exercise their role. Nonetheless, our knowledge of the intrapsychic changes that occur during upcoming and first-time fatherhood remains limited. The first article summarizes what is currently known on the subject. Because so few studies have been published on this topic among the numerous theoretical and clinical studies published on other aspects of fatherhood since the 1950s, we decided to concentrate on an exhaustive systematic review of the literature from 1950 to June 2012. As the search covers a very long period of time, it was essential to be able to highlight the progression of findings and research methodologies. To do so, we decided to proceed in historical context, retaining for each decade the studies most relevant to our topic.    The second article describes the results of a study we undertook, in which 13 men participated. In the interval between the sixth month of pregnancy and the fifth month postpartum, each participant was interviewed four times. The data were analyzed by semi-automated content analysis. Results showed two sets of findings related to psychological change: one was organized along generational lines and the other according to representations of  the participant’s own mother and father. These results suggest that psychic changes in upcoming fatherhood can be stratified on different levels.   Title: The experience of first-time fathers: An exploratory study on relationships with family and spouse and on self-image as fathers
transition Fatherhood Birth Mental representation