Fetal Attachment and Depression: Measurement Matters

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between Fetal Attachment (FA) and depression. Condon and Corkindale (1997) have found a relationship between the quality of FA and depression, in women, using the Antenatal Attachment Inventory (AAI; Condon, 1993) to measure FA and four different instruments to measure depression. Previous studies have failed to find a consistent relationship between FA and depression when employing the Fetal Attachment Scale (FAS; Cranley, 1981) to measure FA. In a critical review of the FA research, Muller (1992) proposed that inconsistencies were possibly artifacts of the FAS. This study is both a replication and an elaboration of Condon and Corkindale's study. Several modifications were made to the procedures employed by Condon. This study used both the FAS and the AAI to measure FA, to illuminate whether they would perform equally in explicating the relationship between FA and depression. In addition, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies in Depression Scale (CES-D; Rodloff, 1977) was used to measure depression to determine if Condon and Corkindale's results would be upheld with a fifth measure of depression. Other modifications included: testing males to determine any sex differences and comparing persons with and without a history of major depression. There were 68 expecting adults in the study (35 females and 33 male partners). Results from this study, demonstrated that it does matter how FA is measured. As expected, the FAS did not correlate with the CES-D and, as Condon and Corkindale found, the AAI-Quality subscale did. For women, there was a significant inverse relationship between FA-Quality and depression (r = -.62, p KEY WORDS: fetal attachment, pregnancy, depression, measurement, sex differences, risk factors. INTRODUCTION Developing an attachment for one's unborn child is considered an important milestone in the developmental trajectory of adults and families during the transition to parenthood. Fetal attachment (FA) characteristics (i.e., level, quality, and intensity) denote the historical beginnings of the social-emotional environment into which the parent-child attachment relationship will begin to take root and develop after birth. Research has demonstrated that fetal attachment is associated with a variety of parenting factors including, positive health behaviors during pregnancy (Lindgren, 2001), sensitive parenting behavior after birth (Bloom, 1995), and parenting role competence (Grace, 1989). The parent's representation of the child after birth may be influenced by the quality and level of fetal attachment that develops during pregnancy. Research has illuminated a range of individual differences in the timing, quality, and intensity of fetal attachment. For example, parents awaiting results regarding potential chromosomal damage to the fetus seem to postpone developing fetal attachment until after medical results are provided and then attachment increases (Caccia, Johnson, Robinson, & Barna, 1991; Rothman, 1993). …