The objective of this study was to explore how maternal mood during pregnancy, i.e., general anxiety, pregnancy-specific anxiety, and depression predicted parenting stress 3 months after giving birth, thereby shaping the child’s early postnatal environmental circumstances. To this end, data were used from 1073 women participating in the Dutch longitudinal cohort Generations2, which studies first-time pregnant mothers during pregnancy and across the transition to parenthood. Women filled out the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Pregnancy-Related Anxiety Questionnaire-revised (PRAQ-R), and Beck Depression Index (BDI) three times during pregnancy: at 12, 22, and 32 weeks gestational age. Three months postpartum, a parenting stress questionnaire was filled out yielding seven different parenting constructs. Latent scores were computed for each of the repeatedly measured maternal mood variables with Mplus and parenting stress constructs were simultaneously regressed on these latent scores. Results showed that trait anxiety and pregnancy-specific anxiety were uniquely related to almost all parenting stress constructs, taking depression into account. Early prevention and intervention to reduce maternal anxiety in pregnancy could hold the key for a more advantageous trajectory of early postnatal parenting.

SYNOPSISObjective. Anxiety and depressive symptoms are assumed to relate to parenting self-efficacy in the context of changes and adaptations taking place in the transition to parenthood. The aim of this study was to elucidate the direction of effects. Design. Participants were 822 firsttime expectant women who filled out questionnaires on depressive and anxiety symptoms and parenting self-efficacy at 32 weeks of pregnancy and at 3 and 12 months postpartum. Results. From 32 weeks of pregnancy to 3 months postpartum, parenting self-efficacy increased, whereas anxiety and depressive symptoms decreased. Multivariate response models showed that higher prenatal parenting self-efficacy was associated with more decreases in anxiety and depressive symptoms; lower prenatal mood symptoms were associated with more increases in parenting self-efficacy to 3 months postpartum. Higher postpartum parenting self-efficacy at 3 months predicted less increase in trait anxiety from 3 to 12 months postpartum. Conclusions. Parenting self-efficacy appears to be a result of mental health and a predictor for the course of mental health in first-time mothers. These results highlight the importance of focusing on both factors for intervention and prevention efforts.

We conclude that pregnancy-specific anxiety and general anxiety appear to influence each other over time, resulting in heightened anxiety for some soon-to-be mothers.

The aim of the study was to examine parenting self-efficacy in relation to depressive and anxiety symptoms during pregnancy. Five hundred thirty-three first-time pregnant women completed questionnaires at 12, 22, and 32 weeks of pregnancy that measure parenting self-efficacy, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. Parenting self-efficacy increased slightly but significantly over the course of pregnancy. Higher levels of depressive symptoms as well as state and trait anxiety symptoms were related to lower expectations of parenting self-efficacy at all time points, but only anxiety symptoms uniquely predicted parenting self-efficacy. Higher levels of anxiety symptoms in the first trimester predicted less positive change in parenting self-efficacy over the course of pregnancy, but depressive symptoms did not when anxiety levels were taken into account. The findings highlight the role of antenatal anxiety symptoms as a predictor of suboptimal preparation for the parenting role in first-time-expecting mothers. Possible explanations and implications for clinical practice are briefly discussed.