Maternal Self-Efficacy Reduces the Impact of Prenatal Stress on Infant’s Crying Behavior

doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2011.12.044

The Journal of Pediatrics

Volume 161, Issue 1, July 2012, Pages 104-109

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2011.12.044 Get rights and content

Objective

To determine whether prenatal stress is associated with behavioral and emotional regulation problems (crying/fussing) in infants, after controlling for confounding factors. Furthermore, the study investigated the stress-buffering effect of maternal self-efficacy.

Study design

Data were collected in 120 pregnant women (29 ± 3.2 weeks gestation) and their infants at 6 weeks of age. Expecting mothers completed a structured interview and self-report questionnaires on prenatal stress and self-efficacy. Crying/fussing data were obtained with a validated parental diary.

Results

After controlling for confounding variables, multiple regression analyses show that prenatal stress and self-efficacy accounted for 20% of the variance of infant’s fussing and crying behavior. Results suggest a mediating role of self-efficacy. Babies of mothers reporting high levels of prenatal stress cried less when their mother had high levels of self-efficacy compared with mothers with low self-efficacy. In addition, mothers of infants with excessive crying reported more symptoms of stress, depression, and anxiety in pregnancy.

Conclusion

To foster the development of well-adapted parent-infant relationships and potentially to reduce infant crying in the early postpartum phase, health care professionals need special education about the effects of prenatal stress and interventions that promote self-efficacy.

Section snippets

Methods

The study protocol was approved by the ethics committee of Basel and is consistent with the revised Helsinki Declaration of 1975. Expectant mothers were recruited from birth preparation classes (n = 163). After giving informed consent, a structured interview on sociodemographic information was conducted by trained research assistants. Questionnaires on stress and self-efficacy were provided to the participants in their third trimester (29 ± 3.2 weeks gestation) in a single session. Six weeks after

Results

Demographic characteristics of the sample (n = 120) are displayed in the Table. Mothers had a mean age of 32.12 years (SD, 3.6 years) and were predominantly Swiss (73.3%). A total of 19.2% of mothers were German, 5.8% were from the European Union, and 1.7% were from countries outside of Europe. Most of the participants were married (80.0%) and highly educated; 53.3% had a university degree.

The effects of demographic variables (maternal age, parity, family net income), lifestyle (alcohol and

Discussion

In this prospective study, we found that at 6 weeks of age, infants of mothers reporting more emotional distress in late gestation cried and fussed more than infants of mothers with lower stress scores. We also found a trend between prenatal stress and maternal self-efficacy, indicating that maternal self-efficacy during pregnancy moderates the postpartum effect of prenatal stress on infant’s fussing and crying. Thus, maternal beliefs and attributions about the capacity to manage stressful

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The COVID-19 pandemic context may predispose mothers to increased maternal psychopathology, which may be associated with offspring socioemotional development. The aim of this study is to analyze the relationships between prenatal anxiety and depression and exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic with offspring socioemotional development, controlling for postnatal anxiety and depression. A total of 105 mother-child dyads were assessed in pre- and postnatal periods. Questionnaires were used to assess the impact of the pandemic, indicators of psychopathology, and the socioemotional development of the offspring. Results suggest that negative pandemic experiences are indirectly associated with offspring socioemotional development via prenatal maternal anxiety symptomatology and after controlling for postnatal anxiety and depression. These indicators predispose to emotional deficits and increase the risks of psychopathological and neurodevelopmental disorders. It is important to adopt health policies that provide timely assessment of development in early childhood to reduce the risks associated with these deficits.
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To examine the associations of maternal self-efficacy (MSE) and perceived social support with parenting stress during the postpartum period during the COVID-19 pandemic and whether these two psychosocial factors account for variance in parenting stress in addition to the effects of COVID-19–related experiences and sociodemographic factors.
Cross-sectional survey.
Online survey, the Perinatal Experiences and COVID-19 Effects (PEACE) study, launched in May 2020.
Participants included 310 women who gave birth in the past 24 weeks.
The survey included self-report quantitative measures of MSE, social support, COVID-19–related experiences, parenting stress, symptoms of depression and anxiety, and a range of sociodemographic factors.
Hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that MSE and social support were negatively associated with postpartum parenting stress in addition to the effects of COVID-19–related experiences, maternal symptoms of depression and anxiety, and a range of demographic factors. Furthermore, MSE interacted with COVID-19–related experiences such that higher levels of MSE mitigated the effects of COVID-19–related experiences on parenting stress.
Our findings underscore the importance of protective factors at the individual and interpersonal levels and provide insights for prevention and intervention programs aimed at mitigating postpartum parenting stress during a wide-scale disaster such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Perceived maternal parenting self-efficacy scale: Factor structure and psychometric properties among Portuguese postpartum women
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Citation Excerpt :
When considering women's psychological health, low maternal parenting self-efficacy has been associated with an increased risk of postpartum depression, parenting dissatisfaction and maternal stress (Kohlhoff and Barnett, 2013; Law et al., 2019; Salonen et al., 2009). Other studies have highlighted the protective role of maternal parenting self-efficacy against socioeconomic adversity (Ardelt and Eccles, 2001) and against the impact of prenatal stress on emotional and behavioral regulation problems in the infants (Bolten et al., 2012). Moreover, considerable evidence has shown that the promotion of maternal self-efficacy is an important mechanism in the reduction of postpartum depressive symptomatology (Haslam et al., 2006; Mickelson et al., 2017).
The aim of this study was to investigate the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Perceived Maternal Parenting Self-Efficacy (PMPS-E) Scale among Portuguese postpartum women.
Quantitative cross-sectional study.
Data were collected through an online survey placed on social media websites targeting Portuguese adult women in the postpartum period (0–12 months after delivery).
The total sample consisted of 893 participants who gave birth after 37 weeks of gestation.
After conducting exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, our results revealed that a correlated three-factor model yielded a significantly better fit to the data than the original four-factor model. High reliability was found for the total scale (α= 0.95) and for the three factors (α from 0.88 to 0.94). The PMPS-E presented significant and moderate to large correlations with other measures related to maternal self-efficacy. Participants who were multiparous, had older infants (>5 months old) and perceived their infant temperament as easy reported higher maternal parenting self-efficacy than those who were primiparous, had younger infants (≤5 months old) and perceived their infant temperament as difficult.
The results of this study showed that the European Portuguese version of the PMPS-E is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing maternal parenting self-efficacy among postpartum women.
The PMPS-E may be a valuable instrument to detect parenting self-efficacy difficulties among postpartum women and thus contribute to strategies to improve women's overall psychological adjustment to the postpartum period, with a possible impact on the mother-infant relationship.
How maternal pre- and postnatal symptoms of depression and anxiety affect early mother-infant interaction?
2019, Journal of Affective Disorders
Maternal pre- and postnatal psychological distress, such as anxiety and depression, may negatively affect mother-infant interaction quality. However, more information is needed on the role of specific types and timings of pre- and postnatal distress symptoms on mother-infant interaction. Research on the role of maternal anxiety is especially scarce.
We examined whether maternal pregnancy- related anxiety (gestational weeks 24 and 34), general anxiety or depressive symptoms (gw 14, 24 and 34 and at the infant age of 3 and 6 months) associate with the quality of mother-infant interaction when the child is eight months old. Maternal symptoms (N = 190) were measured with EPDS, SCL-90 anxiety subscale and PRAQ-R2. Mother-infant interaction was measured with the Emotional Availability Scales (EAS).
After controlling for background factors, general anxiety at the 3rd pregnancy trimester was associated with higher maternal intrusiveness in EAS. Depressive symptoms at 6 months postpartum associated with lower maternal structuring behavior and with the child's lower involvement of the mother.
A very small number of mothers with severe symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Prenatal anxiety and postnatal depressive symptoms may each have unique effects on the different areas of mother-infant interaction, suggesting the need to develop more targeted interventions for mothers with different symptom profiles and timings. Prenatally anxious mothers could potentially benefit from early interventions decreasing stress and anxiety symptoms and specifically promoting their ability to read infant cues appropriately. Infants of postnatally depressed mothers may need interventions where both members of the dyad receive help.
A Meta-Analysis of Maternal Prenatal Depression and Anxiety on Child Socioemotional Development
2018, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Observed associations between maternal prenatal stress and children’s socioemotional development have varied widely in the literature. The objective of the current study was to provide a synthesis of studies examining maternal prenatal anxiety and depression and the socioemotional development of their children.
Eligible studies through to February 2018 were identified using a comprehensive search strategy. Included studies examined the association between maternal prenatal depression or anxiety and the future development of their children’s socioemotional development (eg, difficult temperament, behavioral dysregulation) up to 18 years later. Two independent coders extracted all relevant data. Random-effects meta-analyses were used to derive mean effect sizes and test for potential moderators.
A total of 71 studies met full inclusion criteria for data analysis. The weighted average effect size for the association between prenatal stress and child socioemotional problems was as follows: odds ratio (OR) = 1.66 (95% CI = 1.54−1.79). Effect sizes were stronger for depression (OR = 1.79; 95% CI = 1.61−1.99) compared to anxiety (OR = 1.50; 95% CI = 1.36−1.64). Moderator analyses indicated that effect sizes were stronger when depression was more severe and when socio-demographic risk was heightened.
Findings suggest that maternal prenatal stress is associated with offspring socioemotional development, with the effect size for prenatal depression being more robust than for anxiety. Mitigating stress and mental health difficulties in mothers during pregnancy may be an effective strategy for reducing offspring behavioral difficulties, especially in groups with social disadvantage and greater severity of mental health difficulties.

View all citing articles on Scopus

: Supported by a grant of the “Freiwillige Akademische Gesellschaft Basel.” The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

^∗: Contributed equally to this work.

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Original ArticleMaternal Self-Efficacy Reduces the Impact of Prenatal Stress on Infant’s Crying Behavior

Objective

Study design

Results

Conclusion

Section snippets

Methods

Results

Discussion

Neurosci Biobehav Rev

Early Hum Dev

Biol Psychiatry

Brain Res

Neurobiol Aging

J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry

Biol Psychol

Early Hum Dev

Neurosci Biobehav Rev

Early Hum Dev

J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry

Brain Res Rev

Psychoneuroendocrinology

Psychoneuroendocrinology

Systematic review of the occurrence of infantile colic in the community

Arch Dis Child

Persistent crying in early infancy: a non-trivial condition of risk for the developing mother-infant relationship

Child Care Health Dev

Psychosocial distress during pregnancy and the risk of infantile colic: a follow-up study

Acta Paediatr

Long-term effects of prenatal stress on dopamine and glutamate receptors in adult rat brain

Neurochem Res

Prenatal stress enhances stress- and corticotropin-releasing factor-induced stimulation of hippocampal acetylcholine release in adult rats

J Neurosci

Prenatal dexamethasone exposure alters brain monoamine metabolism and adrenocortical response in rat offspring

Am J Physiol

The effects of prenatal stress on temperament and problem behavior of 27-month-old toddlers

Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry

Stress and emotional problems during pregnancy and excessive infant crying

J Dev Behav Pediatr

Original Article
Maternal Self-Efficacy Reduces the Impact of Prenatal Stress on Infant’s Crying Behavior