The association between pregnancy-related anxiety and behavioral development in 18-month-old children: The mediating effects of parenting styles and breastfeeding methods

Abstract

Background: Pregnancy-related anxiety (PRA) is a distinct type of anxiety from general anxiety, affects many pregnant women, and is correlated with poor behavioral development in children. However, the mediation paths were unclear.

Methods: A total of 2032 mother-infant pairs from the Ma'anshan Birth Cohort were included in the current study. Maternal PRA was assessed in the second and third trimesters. Children's behavioral development was evaluated at the age of 18 months. In addition, information on parenting styles and breastfeeding methods was obtained at postpartum. Multivariate regression and structural equation modeling were used to examine the associations between maternal PRA and children's behavioral development.

Results: Significant intercorrelations were found between maternal PRA, the potential mediators (parenting styles and breastfeeding methods), and 18-month-old children's ASQ scores. Parenting styles played an intermediary role in the relationship between maternal PRA and children's behavioral development (β = 0.030, 95 % confidence interval: 0.017-0.051), and the mediating effect accounted for 29.1 % of the total effect. However, breastfeeding methods did not mediate the link between PRA and children's behavior.

Limitations: Depression and postpartum anxiety were not controlled for in our analysis, which left us unable to estimate the independent impact of PRA on children's behavior.

Conclusions: Parenting rather than breastfeeding is the mediating factor of behavioral problems in children caused by PRA.

Keywords: Breastfeeding; Child behavioral development; Parenting; Pregnancy-related anxiety.