First-time parenthood under socially disadvantaged conditions: Linking caregivers’ experiences of avoidance and relationship satisfaction with feelings of closeness to the infant

Abstract

Systemic models assume that quality of interparental and parent–child relationships are related to adult attachment representations in internal working models. Previous studies have confirmed this, but failed to consider interpersonal mechanisms such as relationship satisfaction as latent variables. Further, these relations in socially disadvantaged first-time parents are understudied The present study sheds more light on that area by investigating the interdependency of parents’ ratings by using the actor–partner mediator model with latent variables, and the association between adult re-presentations of attachment, relationship satisfaction and caregivers' feelings of closeness to the infant at 6 months postpartum in a sample of 104 socially disadvantaged first-time parents. Results supported the assumption that relationship satisfaction mediates the association between parents’ characteristics of attachment avoidance and mothers' bonding to the infant. Moreover, a few individual-level associations between the study variables and psychosocial risk factors such as experiences of domestic violence and neglect in childhood could be found.