The second child's birth can increase family tension because it brings a need for reformulation of its roles and functioning rules. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of the second child's birth on family relations, with special attention to the changes in social support, marital relationship, firstborn's behaviors and parents-first born relationship. Eight families, in which the second child had been born during the first born's second year of life, participated in the study. The parents were interviewed during the first born's 18th, 24th and 36th month. The qualitative content analysis revealed the effort of each family member to deal with the ambiguities of this situation which, at the same time the second child is celebrated, changes a relatively steady familiar dynamics involving the father-mother-first-born triad. Although the changes brought anxiety and instability to family relations, the results highlight the adaptiveness of the members of these families.
firstborn; second child; family relations; family
