Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Oct;20(5):663-672.
doi: 10.1007/s00737-017-0746-5. Epub 2017 Jun 21.

From prenatal anxiety to parenting stress: a longitudinal study

A C Huizink  1   2   3 , B Menting  4   5   6 , M H M De Moor  7   5 , M L Verhage  7   5 , F C Kunseler  7   5 , C Schuengel  7   5 , M Oosterman  7   5
Affiliations

From prenatal anxiety to parenting stress: a longitudinal study

A C Huizink et al. Arch Womens Ment Health. 2017 Oct.

Abstract

The objective of this study was to explore how maternal mood during pregnancy, i.e., general anxiety, pregnancy-specific anxiety, and depression predicted parenting stress 3 months after giving birth, thereby shaping the child's early postnatal environmental circumstances. To this end, data were used from 1073 women participating in the Dutch longitudinal cohort Generations2, which studies first-time pregnant mothers during pregnancy and across the transition to parenthood. Women filled out the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Pregnancy-Related Anxiety Questionnaire-revised (PRAQ-R), and Beck Depression Index (BDI) three times during pregnancy: at 12, 22, and 32 weeks gestational age. Three months postpartum, a parenting stress questionnaire was filled out yielding seven different parenting constructs. Latent scores were computed for each of the repeatedly measured maternal mood variables with Mplus and parenting stress constructs were simultaneously regressed on these latent scores. Results showed that trait anxiety and pregnancy-specific anxiety were uniquely related to almost all parenting stress constructs, taking depression into account. Early prevention and intervention to reduce maternal anxiety in pregnancy could hold the key for a more advantageous trajectory of early postnatal parenting.

Keywords: Depression; Parenting stress; Pregnancy anxiety; Prenatal.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Standardized path estimates for the paths between the pre-birth mood variables and the post-birth parenting stress (PS) constructs in the model with t1-t3 latent pre-birth pregnancy specific anxiety (PRAQ), state anxiety (State), trait anxiety (Trait), and depression (Depr). Only significant (p < .01) links are shown. Correlational links are estimated between the latent t1-t3 mood variables, and between the seven t4 PS constructs. Residual variances are estimated for all variables. Higher scores on the parenting stress constructs indicate higher parenting stress. *p < .01, **p < .001
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Abidin RR. Parenting stress index. 3. Odessa: Psychological Assessment Resource; 1995.
    1. Austin MP, Hadzi-Pavlovic D, Priest S, Reilly N, Wilhelm K, Saint K, Parker G. Depressive and anxiety disorders in the postpartum period: how prevalent are they and can we improve their dectection? Arch Wom Men Health. 2010;13(5):395–401. doi: 10.1007/s00737-010-0153-7. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Barnett B, Parker G. Possible determinants, correlated and consequences of high levels of anxiety in primiparous mothers. Psychol Med. 1986;16:177–185. doi: 10.1017/S0033291700002610. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bates JE. The concept of difficult temperament. Merrill-Palmer Q. 1980;26:299–319.
    1. Beck AT, Ward CH, Mendelson M, Mock J, Erbaugh J. An inventory for measuring depression. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1961;4:561–571. doi: 10.1001/archpsyc.1961.01710120031004. - DOI - PubMed

MeSH terms