Personality change in women and their partners.

Adjective Check List (ACL) data from 82 female participants in a longitudinal study and their male partners were used to investigate personality change between the early parental and postparental periods. In the early parental period, men were more competent, whereas women were more emotionally dependent and more facilitative in their interpersonal relations. In the postparental period, primarily because of the greater breadth and sharper gradient of ACL changes in women, these differences were attenuated or even reversed. The influence of the mother role, women's status level in work, whether partners were the same or different, and personality differences between the women's mothers and fathers were considered.