Maternal depression and dyadic interaction: the role of maternal attachment style

Abstract

Maternal mental health and the contents of her representational world are important determinants of early parent-child relationship. We examined, first, the role of prenatal and postnatal depressive symptoms and maternal attachment style in predicting the quality of mother-child interaction. Second, we analysed whether the secure-autonomous attachment style can protect the dyadic interaction from the negative effects of maternal depression. The participants were 59 mother-infant pairs examined during pregnancy (T1), 4-5 months postpartum (T2) and when the children were approximately 14 months old (T3). Maternal attachment style was assessed with a modified Adult Attachment Interview -procedure, depressive symptoms with Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, and observed mother-child interaction with Care Index. The results show that autonomous mothers were more sensitive and responsive and their children more cooperative than dyads with dismissing maternal attachment style. As hypothesized, mothers with the combination of both prenatal and postpartum depressive symptoms were highly unresponsive in their dyadic interaction. Further, prenatal depressive symptoms had a stronger impact on maternal unresponsiveness than postnatal symptoms. As hypothesized, mother's autonomous attachment style protected the mother-child interaction from the negative impact of maternal postnatal depressive symptoms, whereas dyads with preoccupied mothers were especially at risk for interaction problems when mothers had postpartum depressive symptoms.

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“…However, a few recent studies (e.g. Flykt et al, 2010;;Sidor et al,2011) have similarly failed to find such associations. These studies suggested that factors such as chronicity and severity of depression and the additive effect of other risk factors (e.g.…”

“…Flykt, Kanninen, Sinkkonen and Punamaki (2010) found, for example, that prenatal depressive symptoms had a stronger impact on unresponsiveness in the mother-baby interaction than postnatal symptoms. The infant also plays an active part in the dyadic interaction with the parent.…”

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Family systems approach to attachment relations, war trauma, and mental health among Palestinian children and parents

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