The Role of Pregnant Women’s Couple Satisfaction and Psychological Symptoms in Their Infant’s Temperament

• In Event: Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Topic - Social, Emotional, Personality

Abstract

Background: Temperament refers to individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation in children and plays a fundamental role in trajectories of social-emotional and personality development (Rothbart & Bates, 2006). Even though genetically informative studies showed that temperament is moderately to highly explained by heritability, the environment in which a child grows up may also contribute in explaining how genes will be expressed (Lemery-Chalfant et al., 2013; Scott et al., 2016). This study aimed to extend our knowledge on prenatal maternal characteristics that contribute to infant temperament. We specifically examined the contribution of pregnant women’s couple satisfaction and psychological symptoms to their infant’s temperament, given that both variables have been previously linked to child’s behavioral and temperamental characteristics. Whereas the quality of interactions between parents is known to be a protective factor with regard to offspring behavioral development (see the review by Vaez et al., 2015), maternal prenatal distress has been found to be significantly associated with offspring temperament (Van den Bergh et al., 2017).

Methods: A sample of 98 women completed self-reported measures of couple satisfaction (Dyadic Adjustment Scale), depressive symptoms (Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale), post-traumatic stress symptoms (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for DSM-5), and personality disorders (Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire for DSM-IV revised) during pregnancy. They were followed-up around 12 months postpartum (Mage = 11.85, SD = 0.77) and completed a questionnaire measuring three dimensions of their infant’s temperament: surgency, effortful control, and negative affectivity (Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised Very Short Form).

Results: Preliminary correlations showed that significant associations were found between couple satisfaction, surgency, and effortful control only. Therefore, negative affectivity and all measured psychological symptoms were excluded from the main analysis. As surgency and effortful control were significantly and moderately associated (r = .42), a path analysis model regressing surgency and effortful control on couple satisfaction was performed with Mplus to take into accompt the shared variance between these two dimensions of temperament. Results revealed that greater prenatal couple satisfaction significantly predicted higher surgency and effortful control in infants.

Clinical and scientific implications: Our study is among the first to prospectively document that couple satisfaction during pregnancy is associated with offspring temperament. A possible explanation for these results is that greater couple satisfaction may favor the couple coordination required for effective infant socialization, which stimulates both surgency and effortful control.

Authors

• Kristel Mayrand, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR)
  Presenting Author

• Tristan Milot, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jean-Pascal Lemelin, Université de Sherbrooke
  Non-Presenting Author

• Roxanne Lemieux, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nicolas Berthelot, Universite du Quebec a Trois-Rivieres
  Non-Presenting Author