Gioia Maria C, Cerasa Antonio, Muggeo Vito M R, Tonin Paolo, Cajiao Juanita, Aloi Alessia, Martino Iolanda, Tenuta Flaviana, Costabile Angela, Craig Francesco
iGreco Ospedali Riuniti, Cosenza, Italy.
Associazione di Volontariato Mammachemamme, Cosenza, Italy.
Front Psychol. 2023 Jan 16;13:1095030. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1095030. eCollection 2022.
Maternal-Fetal Attachment (MFA) delineates the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral aspects that mothers develop toward the unborn baby during pregnancy. The literature indicates that optimal attachment in pregnancy represents a protective factor for the mother-child attachment bond after birth and child development outcomes. To date, there are few studies that have investigated associated factors of MFA. This study sets out to explore the association between perceived parental bonds and maternal-fetal bonding in pregnant women, accounting for factors such as psychological distress, socio-demographic and obstetric characteristics.
In this cross-sectional study, 1,177 pregnant women answered the Parental Bonding Instrument, the Maternal-Fetal Attachment Scale, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-Y), and Beck-Depression Inventory (BDI-II).
We found out that perceived maternal and paternal care had significant direct effects on maternal-infant bonding during the pregnancy period when controlling for some confounders, including gestational age and mother age among others. Such maternal and paternal perceived care effects were not mediated by levels of psychological distress, which in turn resulted to be a "borderline" significant predictor of prenatal attachment. Interestingly, the gestational age and the mother age emerged to have a significant and synergic nonlinear effect, suggesting the influence on the MFAS of the gestational age depends on the values of the mother age, and likewise, the effect of mother age on MFAS depends on the gestational week.
This study expands our knowledge of the intergenerational transmission of attachment pointing out the effects of a woman's perceived bond in relation to her parental figures during the development of the prenatal attachment process. Findings also suggests that parenting support interventions may have benefits that are realized across generations.
母婴依恋（MFA）描述了母亲在孕期对未出生胎儿产生的情感、认知和行为方面。文献表明，孕期的最佳依恋是出生后母婴依恋关系和儿童发育结果的保护因素。迄今为止，很少有研究调查母婴依恋的相关因素。本研究旨在探讨孕妇感知到的亲子关系与母婴依恋之间的关联，同时考虑心理困扰、社会人口学和产科特征等因素。
在这项横断面研究中，1177名孕妇回答了父母教养方式问卷、母婴依恋量表、状态-特质焦虑量表（STAI-Y）和贝克抑郁量表（BDI-II）。
我们发现，在控制一些混杂因素（包括孕周和母亲年龄等）后，感知到的母亲和父亲的关爱在孕期对母婴依恋有显著的直接影响。这种母亲和父亲感知到的关爱效应并未通过心理困扰水平介导，而心理困扰水平反过来是产前依恋的“边缘”显著预测因素。有趣的是，孕周和母亲年龄呈现出显著的协同非线性效应，表明孕周对母婴依恋量表的影响取决于母亲年龄的值，同样，母亲年龄对母婴依恋量表的影响取决于孕周。
本研究扩展了我们对依恋代际传递的认识，指出了女性在产前依恋过程发展中感知到的与父母形象相关的关系的影响。研究结果还表明，育儿支持干预可能具有跨代实现的益处。
