Prospective predictors of bonding and emotional availability: A longitudinal study of pregnancy and the first year of life

BackgroundMother-infant relationship quality in the first year of life has important implications for offspring development through the life course. The emotional bond that a mother feels towards her baby is critical to offspring social, emotional and cognitive development (Bornstein, 2014). Likewise, the capacity for a mother and her infant to share an emotional connection and enjoy a mutually fulfilling and healthy relationship, otherwise known as emotional availability (EA), is critical to establishing positive parent-child relationships (Biringen & Easterbrooks, 2012). Despite an emerging literature on the importance of bonding and EA, little is known about the predictors of the mother’s felt bond to her offspring across pregnancy and the postnatal period as well as emotional availability at infant age 12-months. Even less is known about the predictors of the relationship between partners and their infants. There are a range of factors theorised to promote bonding and EA in infancy including healthy parent-infant bonding during pregnancy and parent wellbeing (i.e., good mental health and low-risk substance use); yet these factors have not been comprehensively assessed in both mothers and their partners across the first year of life.AimsFour empirical studies sought to examine: (1) maternal bonding to offspring across the pregnancy and postnatal period, and to examine a broad range of sociodemographic and psychosocial predictors of the maternal-offspring bond; (2) the extent to which mother-fetal bonding, substance use and mental health through pregnancy predicted postnatal mother-infant bonding at 8-weeks; (3) the extent to which postnatal bonding, maternal mental ill-health and substance use at infant age 8-weeks predicted mother-infant bonding and mother EA at 12-months of age; and, (4) the role of mother and partner bonding, mental health and substance use at 8-weeks post-birth on mother and partner-infant EA at 12-months infant age, accounting for the correlated dyadic influence. MethodsUsing a sample of pregnant women participating in an Australian pregnancy cohort study of perinatal health and development, participants completed maternal and paternal bonding, mental health and substance use questionnaires at each trimester (one, two and three), 8-weeks and 12-months postnatal. Data was collected on a range of sociodemographic and psychosocial factors. The EA Scales were used to code the quality of interactions between mother-infant and partner-infant dyads during a 20-minute free play observational video recorded at 12-months infant age. ResultsMaternal-fetal bonding increased in quality and intensity across the pregnancy period with a plateauing of bonding representations towards the end of pregnancy. Bonding between late pregnancy and the early postnatal period remained relatively stable. Maternal-fetal bonding was the strongest predictor of maternal bonding in the postnatal period, both at 8-weeks and 12-months. Mental health and substance use also predicted both maternal and paternal relationship quality, as indicated by bonding and EA measures. Tobacco use for both mothers and partners was negatively associated with EA at 12-months. ConclusionThe results of this thesis show that early bonding to the fetus was not only important in laying the foundation for mother-infant bonding in the early postnatal period, but also later in the postnatal period. Moreover, both maternal mental ill-health and substance use appeared to play a small yet significant role in predicting later bonding. However, it was notable that substance use occurred only infrequently in the sample and that substance abuse/dependence were not reported in this sample.These results highlight the importance of supporting the development of a healthy bond between a mother and her fetus during pregnancy and in the early postnatal period. The results also suggest that interventions could be targeted towards parents struggling with symptoms of depression and/or substance use during pregnancy and postnatal. Interventions aimed at emotional regulation and EA promotion for young parents with a history of depression and substance use might also be helpful in strengthening the mother/partner-child relationship. There is a need for further longitudinal research continuing into the toddler and preschool years, including continued assessment of partners and the important role they play. Targeted interventions aimed at enhancing bonding have the potential to strengthen parent-infant relationships through the first year of life