Faculty of Health, School of Psychology, Liverpool John Moore's University, Liverpool, United Kingdom; Department of Psychology, Institute of Population Health, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom.
Department of Psychology, Institute of Population Health, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom; Department of Women & Children's Health, School of Life Course Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine, King's College London, London, United Kingdom; Elizabeth Garret Anderson Institute for Women's Health, Faculty of Population Health Sciences, School of Life and Medical Sciences, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
J Affect Disord. 2021 Mar 1;282:1323-1329. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2021.01.023. Epub 2021 Jan 13.
There are associations between maternal mental health (anxiety and depression), maternal-infant bonding, and infant temperament. However, few studies have examined these variables simultaneously, and none have applied a parallel mediation analysis to consider maternal mental health as an explanatory variable. We aimed to examine these relationships, and whether mental health (anxiety and/or depression) mediates the observed association between maternal-infant bonding and infant temperament.
Mothers with babies between zero and twelve months (N=527) were recruited to a cross-sectional online survey containing a battery of psychometric measures.
Correlation analyses examined relationships between the predictor (maternal-infant bonding), outcome (infant temperament), and mediator (maternal mental health; anxiety and/or depression). All associations were highly significant (p<.001). A parallel mediation (anxiety and/or depression) model was conducted, showing a significant indirect effect of maternal-infant bonding on infant temperament through anxiety, B = .04 (SE= .01) 95% CI= .01 to .07, but not through depression.
Homogeneous sampling was an issue with mainly UK, married mothers, with higher socio-economic status and educational attainment participating. Therefore, further replication in diverse samples is required.
Associations were identified between maternal-infant bonding, infant temperament, and maternal mental health (anxiety and depression). However, only anxiety mediated the relationship between bonding and temperament. Healthcare professionals should consider the role of maternal anxiety when working with mothers who present with relational issues or report their infant as excessively challenging. These results signify the need to address maternal anxious and depressive symptoms as distinct issues considering their differential effects on parenting behaviour.
产妇心理健康（焦虑和抑郁）、母婴联系和婴儿气质之间存在关联。然而，很少有研究同时检查这些变量，也没有应用平行中介分析来考虑产妇心理健康作为解释变量。我们旨在检查这些关系，以及心理健康（焦虑和/或抑郁）是否在观察到的母婴联系和婴儿气质之间的关联中起中介作用。
招募了零至十二个月婴儿的母亲（N=527）参与一项横断面在线调查，其中包含一系列心理测量工具。
相关分析检查了预测变量（母婴联系）、结果（婴儿气质）和中介变量（产妇心理健康；焦虑和/或抑郁）之间的关系。所有关联均具有高度显著性（p<.001）。进行了平行中介（焦虑和/或抑郁）模型，表明母婴联系通过焦虑对婴儿气质有显著的间接影响，B=0.04（SE=0.01）95%CI=0.01 至 0.07，但通过抑郁则没有。
同质抽样是一个问题，主要是英国、已婚母亲，具有较高的社会经济地位和教育程度参与。因此，需要在更多样化的样本中进行进一步复制。
母婴联系、婴儿气质和产妇心理健康（焦虑和抑郁）之间存在关联。然而，只有焦虑在联系和气质之间起中介作用。医疗保健专业人员在与表现出关系问题或报告其婴儿过度具有挑战性的母亲一起工作时，应考虑到母亲焦虑的作用。这些结果表明，需要考虑到焦虑和抑郁症状对育儿行为的不同影响，将其作为不同的问题来解决。
