Attachment and social support matters: a longitudinal moderated mediation on the link between maternal depression and maternal behaviours in at-risk adolescent mothers

ABSTRACT

Adolescent motherhood tends to occur among vulnerable backgrounds, with increased environmental stressors which might jeopardize the quality of mother-infant interaction. One important factor affecting mother-infant interactions is mothers’ depressive symptoms. However, dispositional (e.g. attachment orientation) as well as external characteristics (e.g. social support) might affect this relation. This study examined longitudinally the effects of postpartum depression on maternal behaviours and explored the role played by social support and attachment orientation on this link in a sample of 35 low-income Brazilian adolescent mothers of infants 12 months old. Self-reported maternal depression and social support scales were answered by mothers and maternal behaviours were videotaped and coded at 6 and 12 months postpartum. Self-reported attachment was obtained at 12 months postpartum. Perceptions of social support mediated the association between mothers’ depression and mothers’ positive behaviours only for those with higher levels of attachment anxiety. Findings could be helpful to intervention programmes targeting adolescent mothers to promote the quality of interaction.

KEYWORDS:

• Adolescent mother
• maternal behaviours
• maternal depression
• self-reported attachment
• social support
• vulnerability

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Counsel of Technological and Scientific Development (CNPq) under Grant number 506368/2013-0.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development under [grant number 506368/2013-0].

Notes on contributors

Eva Diniz

Eva Diniz is a Junior Reseracher in William James Center for Reasearch – ISPA–Instituto Universitário, Lisbon, Portugal. Her research mainly focus on personal and social aspects affecting parenthood. She has also been involved with research assessing psychosocial determinants of health and health inequalities.

Tânia Brandão

Tânia Brandão, MS Psychology, PhD, is Professor at Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa Luís de Camões (UAL), and researcher at the Center for Research in Psychology (CIP) and the Centre for Psychology at University of Porto (CPUP), Portugal. Her research within clinical and health psychology focuses on relational and emotional factors involved in the process of adaptation to normative (e.g., transition to parenthood) and non-normative events (e.g., chronic diseases).

Silvia Koller

Silvia H. Koller, PhD Psychology, is a Full Professor and Chair of the Center for Psychological Studies of At-Risk Populations in the Department of Psychology at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, Brazil. She was a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University, USA. Collaborator Professor at North West University, in Vanderbijlpark, South Africa. Her research focues on psychosocial aspects related to human development, namely of people living in vulnerable backgrounds.