Does Parental Reflective Functioning Mediate the Associations between the Maternal Antenatal and Postnatal Bond with the Child in a Community Sample?

Chiara Pazzagli; Livia Buratta; Giulia Cenci; Elena Coletti; Maria Luisa Giuliani; Claudia Mazzeschi

doi:10.3390/ijerph19126957

Does Parental Reflective Functioning Mediate the Associations between the Maternal Antenatal and Postnatal Bond with the Child in a Community Sample?

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Jun 7;19(12):6957. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19126957.

Authors

Chiara Pazzagli¹, Livia Buratta¹, Giulia Cenci¹, Elena Coletti¹, Maria Luisa Giuliani¹, Claudia Mazzeschi¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Philosophy, Social Sciences and Education, University of Perugia, 06123 Perugia, Italy.

Abstract

Although establishing an affective tie with a child during perinatality is considered one of the most important maternal tasks, little is still known about the mediators of the association between maternal antenatal and postnatal bonding with the infant. This prospective study addresses this gap by evaluating a community sample of 110 Italian women to assess whether maternal pre- and postnatal bonds with the infant are mediated by parental reflective functioning (PRF), as assessed at the third trimester of pregnancy and three months postpartum. Controlling for confounding variables, the hierarchical regression analyses show the maternal prenatal quality of attachment to the fetus as the main predictor of maternal postnatal attachment to the child (β = 0.315; t = 0.2.86; p = 0.005). The mediation analyses show that mothers' PRF (b = 0.245; SE = 0.119; 95% CI = 0.071, 0.531) explains 39% of the relationship between maternal pre- and postnatal bonding with the child. The findings of this study contribute to research on the association between prenatal and mother-to-infant bonding by additionally investigating the importance of taking into account maternal PRF as a mediating variable. This provides support for the clinical utility of interventions focused on maternal PRF.

Keywords: PRFQ; maternal postnatal attachment; maternal–fetal attachment; mediation analyses; parent-to-infant bonding; parental reflective functioning; perinatality; prospective study.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Child
Female
Humans
Infant
Mother-Child Relations* / psychology
Mothers / psychology
Object Attachment*
Postpartum Period
Pregnancy
Prospective Studies

Grants and funding

This study was partially funded by the research grant “Precursori del funzionamento riflessivo genitoriale: dalla gravidanza ai primi mesi di vita del bambino, Finanziato con il Fondo Ricerca di Base, Anno 2018 dell’Università degli Studi di Perugia” (Precursors of parental reflective functioning: from pregnancy to the first months of a child’s life, Fondo Ricerca di Base, Year 2018, University of Perugia).