Are Women's Parenting-Specific Beliefs Associated With Depressive Symptoms in the Perinatal Period? Development of the Rigidity of Maternal Beliefs Scale

Abstract

The RMBS may be useful with clinical populations to identify maladaptive or rigid thoughts that could be a focus of intervention. This tool may also be used to guide conversation about motherhood expectations within any context where pregnant women present (e.g., prenatal care, social services), as well as potentially identifying women who are at risk for postpartum depression in clinical contexts.

The Pregnancy Related Beliefs Questionnaire (PRBQ): An examination of the psychometric properties in perinatal samples

“…Feelings of inadequacy may be triggered, which, in turn, may activate ruminative thinking concerning one's own competency as a mother, further undermining the woman's confidence in her mothering ability and triggering low mood. Similar themes of dichotomous attitudes and judgements by the self and others stand out as particularly meaningful in previously developed measures of dysfunctional attitudes specific to the perinatal period: the AToM (Sockol et al, ) and the Rigidity of Maternal Beliefs Scale (Thomason et al, ). In both of these scales, subscales that tap into dichotomous thinking and judgments of what constitutes a good or bad parent were most strongly associated with perinatal depression symptoms, compared to other factors tapping into maternal role idealization or role identity.…”

“…Preliminary evidence demonstrated that the AToM is a valid and reliable measure of maternal attitudes associated with perinatal depression, although not all three of their factors may have concurrent validity. A recently developed Rigidity of Maternal Beliefs Scale (Thomason, Flynn, Himle, & Volling, ) also seems to highlight the role that maternal attitudes, relating to women's perceptions of their ability to “mother” effectively, play in predicting PND. After controlling for antenatal depression levels, the “maternal dichotomy” factor (a four‐item factor focusing on attitudes related to what represents a good/bad parent/mother) was the only dimension that predicted PND levels; perceptions of societal expectations, role identity, and maternal confidence/efficacy were not predictive of PND.…”

Brief Online Self-help Exercises for Postnatal Women to Improve Mood: A Pilot Study

“…Thought content and mood are inter-related [9] , and depression [10] is associated with negative automatic thoughts, negative beliefs about oneself and others, and memory biases [11] . This pattern is seen in postnatal women with symptoms of depression [8] . Consequently, targeting women's negative beliefs about themselves as a mother may be a simple, effective way to influence mood positively.…”

“…Women with postnatal depression or anxiety often report thought patterns pertaining to worries about their baby, its health, or their competence as a mother [8] . Thought content and mood are inter-related [9] , and depression [10] is associated with negative automatic thoughts, negative beliefs about oneself and others, and memory biases [11] .…”

Positive Motherhood at Work: The Role of Supervisor Support in Return to Work After Maternity Leave

“…Women focus on what society believes good mothers should do, how happy they should be of being parents, how intensive their caregiving should be. If these cognitive factors associated with motherhood become inflexible, they negatively affect mothers' psychological well-being (Smith et al, 2019;Thomason, Flynn, Himle, & Volling, 2015), in the same way as any other form of perfectionism and irrational beliefs does (Girardi, Falco, De Carlo, Dal Corso, & Benevene, 2018).…”