Disentangling the trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms and partnership problems in the transition to parenthood and their impact on child adjustment difficulties.

Maternal perinatal depression (PND) and partnership problems have been identified to influence the development of later child adjustment difficulties. However, PND and partnership problems are closely linked which makes it difficult to draw conclusions about the exact transmission pathways. The aim of the present study was to investigate to what extent PND symptoms and partnership problems influence each other longitudinally and to examine the influence of their trajectories on child adjustment difficulties at the age of three. Analyses were based on publicly available data from the German family panel "pairfam". N = 354 mothers were surveyed on depressive symptoms and partnership problems annually from pregnancy (T0) until child age three (T4). Child adjustment difficulties were assessed at age three. Results of latent change score modeling showed that partnership problems predicted change in PND symptoms at T0 and T3 while PND symptoms did not predict change in partnership problems. Child adjustment difficulties at age three were predicted by PND symptoms, but not by partnership problems. Partnership problems predicted externalizing, but not internalizing symptoms. Results underline the effects of family factors for the development of child adjustment difficulties and emphasize the importance of early interventions from pregnancy onwards.

Perceived parenting stress in the course of postpartum depression: the buffering effect of maternal bonding.

Research investigating maternal bonding and parenting stress in the course of postpartum depression is lacking. Aim of the study was to investigate the development and potential mediation of both constructs in the course of postpartum depression. n = 31 mothers with postpartum depression according to DSM-IV and n = 32 healthy controls completed the German version of the Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire and the Parenting Stress Index at two measuring times: acute depression (T1) and remission (T2). At T1, the clinical group reported lower bonding and higher parenting stress. Bonding was found to partially mediate the link between maternal diagnosis and parenting stress. Furthermore, the clinical group reported lower bonding and higher parenting stress averaged over both measurement times. However, at T2, the clinical group still differed from the controls even though they improved in bonding and reported less parenting stress. A significant increase of bonding was also observed in the control group. Maternal bonding seems to buffer the negative impact of postpartum depression on parenting stress. The results emphasize the need for interventions focusing on maternal bonding and mother-infant interaction in order to prevent impairment of the mother-child relationship.

Maternal bonding in mothers with postpartum anxiety disorder: the crucial role of subclinical depressive symptoms and maternal avoidance behaviour.

Hardly any research has examined the link between postpartum anxiety disorder and maternal bonding. This study examined if postpartum anxiety disorder and maternal bonding are related in the postpartum period. Thereby, subclinical depressive symptoms and specific aspects of an anxious symptomatology were also taken into consideration. The German sample of N = 78 mother-infant dyads is composed of n = 30 mothers with postpartum anxiety disorders but without major or minor depression according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (DSM-IV) and n = 48 healthy mothers. Subjects were interviewed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Disorders at an average infant age of M = 4.1 months. Moreover, mothers filled out the Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire-16. The Anxiety Cognitions Questionnaire, the Body Sensations Questionnaire and the Mobility Inventory were chosen to assess different aspects of anxious symptomatology. To control for concurrent subclinical depressive symptoms, we used the German Edinburgh-Postnatal-Depression Scale. Mothers with postpartum anxiety disorder reported significantly lower bonding than healthy mothers. However, in a linear regression analysis, concurrent subclinical depressive symptoms and avoidance of anxiety-related situations in company explained 27 % of the overall variance in maternal bonding. The perceived lower bonding of mothers with anxiety disorder could be due to aspects of a concurrent subclinical depressive symptomatology. This notion emphasizes the need to target even mild depressive symptoms in the treatment of postpartum anxiety disorders. The outcomes also underline that the severity of anxious symptomatology, reflected by avoidance behaviour in company, puts the mother-infant bond at risk.