title: Adult attachment, the transition to parenthood, and depressive symptoms.
abstract: Testing a model suggested by J. Bowlby (1988), this study investigated how a personal vulnerability (attachment ambivalence) interacts with perceptions of deficient spousal support before and during a major life stressor (the transition to parenthood) to predict pre-to-postnatal increases in depressive symptoms. Highly ambivalent women who entered parenthood perceiving either less support or greater anger from their husbands experienced pre-to-postnatal increases in depressive symptoms at 6 months postpartum. The associations between these 2 prenatal interaction terms and pre-to-postnatal increases in depressive symptoms were mediated by perceptions of declining spousal support across the transition period. Moreover, for highly ambivalent women, the association between prenatal and postnatal depression scores was mediated by perceptions of the amount of support available from their husbands.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station 77843-4235, USA. jas@psyc.tamu.edu
authors.forename: Jeffry A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Simpson
authors.forename: W Steven
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Rholes
authors.forename: Lorne
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Campbell
authors.forename: Sisi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tran
authors.forename: Carol L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Wilson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009769:Object Attachment; D016487:Parenting; D011582:Psychological Theory; D014163:Transfer, Psychology