Citation

Nobre-Trindade C, Caçador MI, Canavarro MC, Moreira H. Infant Ment. Health J. 2021; 42(6): 784-795.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/imhj.21947

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Postpartum psychopathology has an adverse impact on parenting behaviors and, consequently, on the mother-infant relationship. This study aimed to explore whether the relationship between maternal anxiety and depression symptomatology in the postpartum period and the ability of mothers to adopt a mindful parenting approach is indirect and can be explained by parental reflective functioning. Two hundred ninety five Portuguese mothers of infants aged up to 12 months completed self-report measures assessing anxiety/depression symptoms, mindful parenting, and parental reflective functioning. Mothers who reported clinically significant anxious and/or depressive symptomatology levels (21%) showed lower levels of mindful parenting and of certainty about the mental states as well as higher levels of prementalizing modes of mental states than mothers with normal symptomatology levels. An indirect effect of depressive symptomatology on mindful parenting through the two dimensions of parental reflective functioning and a direct effect of anxious symptomatology on mindful parenting were found. The results suggest that parental reflective functioning is an important explanatory mechanism of the relationship between depressive symptomatology and mindful parenting, as well as that anxious symptomatology is directly associated with mindful parenting. This study suggests that reducing anxious and depressive symptoms in the postpartum period can promote reflective and mindful parenting skills.

Language: en

Keywords

achtsame Elternschaft; crianza consciente; elterliche Reflexionsfunktion; fonctionnement parentage de réflexion; funcionamiento reflexivo del progenitor; mindful parenting; parentage attentif; parental reflective functioning; Postpartale ängstliche Symptomatik; postpartale depressive Symptomatik; postpartum anxious symptomatology; postpartum depressive symptomatology; sintomatología de ansiedad posterior al parto; sintomatología depresiva posterior al parto; Symptomatologie anxieuse postpartum; symptomatologie dépressive postpartum; أعراض القلق بعد الولادة، أعراض اكتئاب ما بعد الولادة، الأداء التأملي للوالدين، التربية الواعية; マインドフルな子育て; 产后抑郁症状; 产后焦虑症状; 正念育儿; 産後うつ症候学; 産後の不安症候学; 育儿反思功能; 親の省察機能