Department of Psychology, The University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA.
Fam Process. 2021 Sep;60(3):966-983. doi: 10.1111/famp.12599. Epub 2020 Sep 28.
Research demonstrates the central role of mother-child relationships in child socioemotional development; however, families are complex systems and the unique roles of multiple family subsystems in early infant development have received less attention. In the present study, we investigated the role of multiple family relationships (interparental, mother-infant, father-infant), during pregnancy and the first month after childbirth, in infant socioemotional functioning at 6 months. We administered semi-structured interviews during pregnancy to assess multiple qualities of the interparental relationship. At 1 month postpartum, parents completed reports about their feelings and attitudes toward their infant to assess impaired bonding. At 6 months, parents provided reports of child socioemotional functioning. Both mother-infant and father-infant impaired bonding were uniquely associated with infant socioemotional impairment, controlling for prenatal interparental relationship quality. Additionally, multiple dimensions of the interparental relationship (i.e., poor-quality conflict management, inadequate support for fathers, and low levels of respect toward mothers) were associated with infant socioemotional impairment controlling for parent-infant bonding. Results also demonstrated an indirect pathway, such that poor sexual quality during pregnancy was associated with fathers (but not mothers) reporting more impaired bonding with their infants, which was linked to greater infant socioemotional impairment. Results highlight the importance of understanding the broad family environment, prior to and immediately following the birth of the child, to identify at-risk children at the earliest possible stages of intervention.
研究表明，母子关系在儿童社会情感发展中起着核心作用；然而，家庭是一个复杂的系统，多个家庭子系统在婴儿早期发展中的独特作用却较少受到关注。在本研究中，我们调查了怀孕期间和产后第一个月多个家庭关系（夫妻关系、母婴关系、父子关系）对 6 个月大婴儿社会情感功能的影响。我们在怀孕期间进行了半结构化访谈，以评估夫妻关系的多个方面。在产后 1 个月时，父母完成了关于他们对婴儿的感受和态度的报告，以评估不良的亲子关系。在 6 个月时，父母提供了关于孩子社会情感功能的报告。母婴和父子关系不良的亲子关系都与婴儿社会情感障碍有关，而与产前夫妻关系质量无关。此外，夫妻关系的多个维度（即冲突管理质量差、对父亲的支持不足、对母亲的尊重程度低）与婴儿社会情感障碍有关，而与亲子关系无关。研究结果还表明存在间接途径，即怀孕期间的性质量差与父亲（而不是母亲）报告与婴儿的亲子关系更差有关，这与婴儿的社会情感障碍更严重有关。研究结果强调了在孩子出生前后，了解广泛的家庭环境的重要性，以便在干预的最早阶段识别出有风险的儿童。
