Stability of maternal postnatal bonding between 3 and 6 months: associations with maternal mental health and infant temperament

This database includes the raw data linked with the paper “Stability of maternal postnatal bonding between 3 and 6 months: Associations with maternal mental health and infant temperament”, published on Infant Behavior and Development Journal, doi: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2023.101826. This publication is part of the longitudinal project “Measuring the outcomes of maternal COVID-19-related prenatal exposure (MOM-COPE)” research project. In this paper we report on longitudinal data on the link between maternal mental health, infant temperament, and maternal postnatal bonding between 3-6 months of the infant life.

Procedures: When the infants were 3 and 6 months old, the mothers filled in the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II: Beck et al., 1996); the state anxiety scale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-Y: Spielberger, 1983), the Infant Behavior Questionnaire - Revised short-form (IBQ-R: Gartstein & Rothbart, 2003) and the Maternal Postnatal Attachment Scale (MPAS: Condon & Corkindale, 1998).

Analytical plan: For the 3-month and 6-month measures linear regressions were fitted to assess the effect of concurrent maternal mental health and infant temperament dimensions (surgency, negativity and regulation) on maternal postnatal bonding. 3-to-6 months changes in bonding were assessed via repeated measures ANOVA. At the individual level, 3 groups were created: mothers that reported decreasing, increasing and stable bonding. ANOVA was used to test for differences in 3-to-6 months changes in maternal mental health and infant temperament between these groups.

Findings in brief: At 3 months, higher levels of maternal bonding were predicted by lower levels of anxiety and depression in the mothers and by higher infants' regulation scores. At 6 months, lower levels of anxiety and depression predicted higher levels of bonding. No statistically significant differences emerged between 3- and 6-month bonding scores in the whole sample. However, mothers showing higher than 1 SD from sample mean decreases in bonding showed higher 3-to-6-month increases in depression and anxiety compared to the stable group, as well as increased difficulties in regulation dimensions of the infant's temperament compared to the other groups