Extending Models of Sensitive Parenting of Infants to Women at Risk for Perinatal Depression

Abstract

SYNOPSIS Objective Recognizing that not all mothers at risk for depression engage in insensitive parenting, this study examined predictors of individual differences in sensitive parenting of infants by mothers with histories of depression, who are at elevated risk for depression during the perinatal period. Design We examined maternal personal characteristics, context, and early infant temperament as predictors of sensitive parenting. Seventy-six women with a history of major depression were followed through pregnancy and postpartum and observed during play and feeding interactions with their 12-month-old infants. Results Maternal personal characteristics (recurrence of clinically significant depression symptom levels during pregnancy or postpartum and higher trait anxiety), context (lower social context and lower income), and early infant temperament (higher negative affectivity, surgency/extraversion, and orienting/regulation) are often associated with less sensitive parenting, with stronger and clearer associations for play than feeding and with some differences based on whether sensitivity was defined as affective matching or rated sensitivity. Conclusions The findings extend support for multi-determination of sensitive parenting of infants to women with histories of depression, albeit with small to medium effect sizes, and suggest ways to identify those who may be most at risk for insensitive parenting and the potential value of intervening in pregnancy to enhance subsequent sensitivity of parenting.

Avaliação do apoio social e estresse em estudantes de enfermagem

“…Some studies have been pointed out a certain relevance of the satisfaction with social support in detriment of the number of supporters itself (23)(24) . Thus, it is understood that the reduced number of supporters may be a characteristic of contemporaneity, seeing that such result has been described in previous studies with other population groups (24)(25) . Therefore, we understand that the number of supporters of the students seems not to have a specificity compared to the other populations.…”

Supporting Parents: How Six Decades of Parenting Research Can Inform Policy and Best Practice

“…For example, it is one of the strongest predictors of postpartum depression; thus, depression that occurs in pregnancy signals that the children might be repeatedly exposed (Fisher et al, 2016). Prenatal depression is also concerning because it is associated with mothers' negative perceptions of her child, which persist into the postpartum period (Lee & Hans, 2015), and with less sensitive parenting of the infant (Goodman, Bakeman, McCallum, Rouse, & Thompson, 2017). Prenatal depression appears to be predictive of later child outcomes even after accounting for the effects of postpartum depression (Pearson et al, 2013).…”

Maternal personality traits, antenatal depressive symptoms and the postpartum mother–infant relationship: a prospective observational study

“…Unadjusted linear regressions were run to investigate the associations between disordered personality traits and outcomes (PBQ and mother-infant interaction patterns) (model 1). Based on previous literature [5,10,49], potential confounding variables associated with both the exposure and outcomes were selected a priori. On this basis, maternal age, education, mothers having an older child, infant sex and gestational age at birth were included in the multivariable regression analysis (model 2).…”

“…To date, the research agenda has been largely driven by concerns about maternal depression and its impact on adverse mother-infant interactions. This literature has demonstrated an association between perinatal maternal depression and a range of negative child outcomes (including behavioral, emotional and cognitive development) [3,5,[8][9][10]. For this reason, research into the prevention and treatment of maternal depression has become a priority, with the antenatal period now recognized as an ideal time to identify and implement interventions for depression [11].…”