Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, "Sapienza" University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Front Public Health. 2020 Dec 2;8:439449. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2020.439449. eCollection 2020.
Parental pre-natal representations predict the interactive patterns that parents will put in place after childbirth. Early interactions defined by high parental emotional availability (EA) influence the development of security in children. To date, research on the predictive role of parental pre-natal representations on child attachment is still poor. Moreover, investigations on pre-natal representations have mainly focused on mothers. This study aimed at: investigating the criterion validity of the Interview of Maternal Representations During Pregnancy-Revised (IRMAG-R) and of the Interview of Paternal Representations During Pregnancy (IRPAG), using EA, parental attachment, and child attachment toward both parents, as criteria; testing the incremental validity of the IRMAG-R and IRPAG in the prediction of child attachment, controlling for other covariates, such as depressive and anxious levels during pregnancy, EA, and parental attachment; evaluating the possible mediation role of EA on the relationship between parental representations during pregnancy and child attachment. Fifty couples of primiparous parents were recruited during pregnancy, when the IRMAG-R and IRPAG were administered to mothers and fathers. At 6-9 months after childbirth, the mother-child and father-child interactions were coded by means of the EA Scales (EAS). At 14-18 after childbirth, the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) was administered to parents, and the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) was carried out to assess children's attachment toward mothers and fathers, respectively. The results showed significant correlations between parental pre-natal representations and EA, parental attachment and child attachment. As regards the prediction of child attachment, the IRMAG-R/IRPAG categories showed: a significant and large unique contribution for maternal representations; a close to be significant contribution for paternal representations (with a higher effect size for mothers than fathers). Moreover, while the indirect effect of pre-natal representations in the prediction of child attachment was not significant for mothers, it was instead significant for fathers. The results of this study confirmed the criterion validity of the IRMAG-R and IRPAG, and supported the incremental validity of the IRMAG-R and IRPAG in the prediction of children's attachment categories. Finally, the mediation models revealed that EA did not mediate the relationship between maternal pre-natal representations and child attachment, while it totally mediated the relationship between paternal pre-natal representations and child attachment.
父母产前的表现预测了父母在孩子出生后的互动模式。早期由高父母情感可用性 (EA) 定义的互动会影响孩子的安全感发展。迄今为止，关于父母产前表现对儿童依恋的预测作用的研究仍然很差。此外，关于产前表现的研究主要集中在母亲身上。本研究旨在：使用 EA、父母依恋和儿童对父母双方的依恋作为标准，调查修订后的产前母亲表现访谈（IRMAG-R）和产前父亲表现访谈（IRPAG）的效标效度；测试 IRMAG-R 和 IRPAG 在预测儿童依恋方面的增量有效性，控制其他协变量，如怀孕期间的抑郁和焦虑水平、EA 和父母依恋；评估 EA 在产前父母表现与儿童依恋关系中的中介作用。在怀孕时招募了 50 对初产妇夫妇，对母亲和父亲进行了 IRMAG-R 和 IRPAG 测试。在孩子出生后 6-9 个月，通过 EA 量表（EAS）对母婴和父子互动进行编码。在孩子出生后 14-18 个月，对父母进行了成人依恋访谈（AAI），并进行了陌生情境程序（SSP），分别评估儿童对母亲和父亲的依恋。结果表明，父母产前表现与 EA、父母依恋和儿童依恋之间存在显著相关性。就儿童依恋的预测而言，IRMAG-R/IRPAG 类别显示：母亲代表的表现具有显著的、较大的独特贡献；父亲代表的表现接近显著贡献（母亲的效应量高于父亲）。此外，虽然产前表现对母亲预测儿童依恋的间接效应不显著，但对父亲则显著。本研究结果证实了 IRMAG-R 和 IRPAG 的效标效度，并支持了 IRMAG-R 和 IRPAG 在预测儿童依恋类别的增量有效性。最后，中介模型表明，EA 不能中介母亲产前表现与儿童依恋的关系，但完全中介了父亲产前表现与儿童依恋的关系。
