Prematurity, Social Support and Maternal Emotional Distress: risk for Infant Social functioning among Bedouin mothers

• In Event: Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Topic - Developmental Disabilities

Abstract

Introduction: The current study was set out to investigate the role of social support as a resilient factor enhancing maternal mental health, and in turn, preterm infants early social development among Bedouin-Arabs, a minority group living in the southern region of Israel. Mothers of preterm infants are at higher risk for postpartum depression and anxiety (i.e., postpartum emotional distress [PPED]). This is a cause for concern because extensive research indicated that mothers’ PPED has a strong effect on infants’ development. This risk is further increased for women from ethnic minority groups, such as the Bedouins, due to cultural stressors (e.g., low socioeconomic status and low levels of education).
Hypotheses: A moderated mediation model proposing that social support would be related to maternal PPED, which in turn would be related to infants’ social functioning at age 12 months, was tested. Furthermore, it was proposed that this mediation model would be more robust among the preterm than the full-term groups.
Sample: One hundred and five Bedouin mothers and their preterm (n = 48) and full-term (n = 57) infants participated in this study. Infants and their mothers were recruited shortly after birth (T1) in the maternity ward or NICU at Soroka Medical Center, Israel, and were followed up at ages 6 months (T2) and 12 (T3) months old.
Methods: Mothers completed questionnaires on maternal postpartum depression, maternal level of anxiety and social support at T1. Additionally, infant social functioning was assessed using the Emotional Social Communication Scale (ESCS) scale at T3.
Results: Results indicated that maternal PPED mediated the relation between social support and the infants’ social functioning only among the preterm (indirect effect β=.18, SE= .08, CI 95% .0058, .35), but not among the full-term (indirect effect β= -.07, SE= .08, CI 95% -.17, .08) groups. This result indicated that, among the preterm group, lower levels of social support predicted higher levels of maternal PPED, and in turn, predicted lower levels of infants’ social functioning. In addition, the interaction effect between maternal PPED and birth status in predicting infants’ social functioning was found to be significant (β= -.27, SE= .11, CI 95% -.49, -.06). The conditional effect among the preterm group was significant (conditional effect β=--.34, SE= .16, CI 95% -.67, -.02), yet among the full-term group was not significant (conditional effect β=.33, SE= .21, CI 95% -.06, .73).
Conclusions: this research highlights the importance of social support among the Bedouin society as a resilience factor for both maternal PPED and Infant social development later. Moreover, these findings stress the notion that preterm infants are more strongly affected by their environments than full-term infants. A main explanation for these findings can rely on the differential susceptibility model (Belsky et al., 2007), since preterm infants suffer from difficulties in biological and behavioral regulation , that difficulties promote their dependency on their environments more than full-term infants, and as a result they may be more strongly affected by their care-givers emotional states, for better or worst.

Authors

• Shuaa Assal Zrike, Ben-Gurion university
  Presenting Author

• Naama Atzaba-Poria, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
  Non-Presenting Author