Associations between Maternal Reflective Functioning, Depression, Stress and Mother-Child Relationship Quality in a Pre-Term Sample at 18-24 Months Corrected Age

The experience of giving birth to a pre-term infant is a distressing event that can often lead to the development of symptoms of stress and depression which can negatively impact upon the mother’s behaviour towards her child, consequently affecting the development of the mother-child relationship. The current study aims to investigate the effects of these maternal factors on the emerging mother-child relationship within a sample of mothers and their 18 to 24 month old pre-term infants (corrected age). The quality of the mother-child relationship was evaluated under the framework of Emotional Availability and assessed via behaviours exhibited by the mother and child during interactions in a home observation setting. Higher levels of reported depression and stress were expected to result in lower overall Emotional Availability within mother-child dyads, as well as less sensitive, non-intrusive and non-hostile maternal behaviour toward the child. Furthermore, stress and depression were expected to adversely affect maternal Reflective Functioning, a concept referring to the mother’s ability to reflect upon the mental states (thoughts, emotions and intentions) of her child. Additionally, the connection between maternal reflective functioning and the quality of the mother-child relationship was explored, with the expectation that lower reflective functioning would be associated with lower overall Emotional Availability, as well as less sensitive, non-intrusive and non-hostile maternal behaviour. Finally, it was expected that depression and stress would be positively associated. The strengths, limitations and implications of this study are discussed