Attachment representations among substance-abusing women in transition to motherhood: implications for prenatal emotions and mother–infant interaction

ABSTRACT

We studied how attachment representations contribute to central components of transition to motherhood, prenatal emotion processing (EP) and emotional availability (EA) of mother–infant interaction, and whether there are group specific differences. Participants were 51 treatment-enrolled substance-abusing (SA) mothers and their infants and 50 non-using comparison dyads with obstetric risk. Mother’s attachment representations (AAI) and EP were assessed prenatally and EA when infants were four months. Results showed that autonomous attachment only had a buffering effect on prenatal EP among comparisons. All SA mothers showed more dysfunctional EP than comparisons and, contrary to comparisons, autonomous SA mothers reported more negative cognitive appraisals and less meta-evaluation of emotions than dismissing SA mothers. Preoccupied SA mothers showed high negative cognitive appraisals, suggesting under-regulation of emotions. Attachment representations were not associated with EA in either group; rather, SA status contributed to global risk in the relationship. Surprisingly, autonomous SA mothers showed a tendency towards intrusiveness. We propose that obstetric risk among comparisons and adverse relational experiences among almost all SA mothers might override the protective role of mother’s autonomous representations for dyadic interaction. We conclude that prenatal emotional turbulence and high interaction risk of all SA mothers calls for holistic treatment for the dyad.

KEYWORDS:

• Adult attachment
• substance abuse
• transition to motherhood
• prenatal
• emotion processing
• emotional availability

View correction statement:

Erratum

Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely thank the families who have participated in the study as well as the clinicians who have helped to collect the data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The research was supported by grants received from the National Doctoral Programme of Psychology to Sanna Isosävi, from the National Doctoral Programme of Psychology and the Finnish Alcohol Foundation to Marjo Flykt, and from the Yrjö Jansson Foundation and the Finnish Cultural Foundation to Ritva Belt.