Abstract

Background: This paper aimed to explore the associations between maternal representations of attachment evaluated during pregnancy, pre and postnatal maternal depression, parenting stress and child’s attachment at 15 months after childbirth. Methods: Mothers (n = 71), and their infants participated in a longitudinal study of maternal attachment, pre and postnatal depression, parenting stress and child attachment. Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) was conducted between 24 and 26 weeks of pregnancy (Time 1), depression was assessed using the Edinburgh Perinatal Depression Scale (EPDS) (at Time 1 and 6 months after childbirth, i.e., Time 2), parenting stress was assessed using the Parenting Stress Index—Short Form (PS-SF) (at Time 2) and the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) at child’s 15 months of age (Time 3). Results: Free-autonomous maternal classification of attachment increases the likelihood of secure child classification in her offspring, while decreases that of avoidance and ambivalence. Insecure maternal representation of attachment evaluated during pregnancy and higher levels of parenting stress at six months after childbirth was associated with higher rates of infant insecure attachment at 15 months. Conclusions: Our study validates the importance of considering maternal representations of attachment crucial in determining the quality of the caregiving environment, thereby the healthy development of children, despite the presence of other contextual risk.

Highlights

  • Maternal depression is a common disorder among women [1,2]

  • We focus on parenting stress that may be defined as the perception of incongruence between the demands of parenting and parental accessible resources [18,19]

  • The present study shows that maternal self-reported depressive symptoms, parenting stress, and attachment security affect the child’s attachment

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Summary

Introduction

Maternal depression is associated with sadness, lethargy, helplessness, irritability that leads to either a withdrawn, unresponsive or hostile, intrusive interactive style with their infant [4,5,6,7]. These manifestations have proven to compromise the development of a secure attachment relationship between mother and infant [8,9,10,11]. Secure attachment is fostered by a caregiver who is sensitive and responsive to their infant’s signals of distress This relationship favors the child’s behavioral and emotional functioning [12,13]

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