Department of Pediatrics, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
Infant Ment Health J. 2021 Sep;42(5):731-739. doi: 10.1002/imhj.21936. Epub 2021 Jul 13.
How parents think and feel about their young children has implications for the parent-child relationship. We examined prospective associations between prenatal descriptions of the unborn child's personality and later parenting behavior.
Pregnant women (N = 120; mean age = 26.16, SD = 5.71) were recruited in their third trimester for a longitudinal study. The sample is demographically diverse and predominantly economically disadvantaged. During prenatal interviews, women described their unborn child's personality, from which positive and negative emotion words were coded. Parenting behavior was coded 12 months postpartum (n = 105 for longitudinal analyses).
Use of positive and negative words was negatively correlated (r = -.34, p < .001). Greater use of positive words to describe the unborn child's personality was associated with higher observed sensitivity, warmth, and engagement during mother-infant interactions, whereas negative words were associated with higher interference and lower levels of sensitivity. Mothers who used anxiety- and/or anger-related words to describe their unborn child, relative to mothers who did not, demonstrated higher interference and lower warmth and sensitivity.
Descriptions of a child's personality before the child is born were associated with postnatal parenting behavior. Prenatal interventions that address negative thoughts and feelings regarding the child may be beneficial for promoting positive parenting postnatally.
父母对其年幼子女的想法和感受会影响亲子关系。我们研究了孕妇在产前对未出生孩子性格的描述与之后的育儿行为之间的前瞻性关联。
在一项纵向研究中，我们招募了 120 名处于妊娠晚期的孕妇（平均年龄=26.16，标准差=5.71）。该样本在人口统计学上具有多样性，且主要来自经济贫困家庭。在产前访谈中，女性描述了她们未出生孩子的性格，我们从中提取了积极和消极的情绪词汇。12 个月后（进行纵向分析时为 105 名）对育儿行为进行了编码。
积极词汇和消极词汇的使用呈负相关（r = -.34，p<.001）。用更多的积极词汇来描述未出生孩子的性格与母亲与婴儿互动时观察到的更高敏感性、温暖和投入有关，而消极词汇则与更高的干扰和更低的敏感性有关。与没有使用焦虑和/或愤怒相关词汇描述孩子的母亲相比，用这些词汇描述孩子的母亲表现出更高的干扰、更低的温暖和敏感性。
在孩子出生前对孩子性格的描述与产后育儿行为有关。针对孩子的负面想法和感受的产前干预可能有助于促进产后积极的育儿行为。
