Logo: to the web site of Uppsala University

uu.sePublications from Uppsala University
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Adult attachment's unique contribution in the prediction of postpartum depressive symptoms, beyond personality traits
Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Medicine and Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Neuroscience, Psychiatry, University Hospital.
Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Medicine and Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Neuroscience, Psychiatry, University Hospital.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-3142-5111
Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Medicine and Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Neuroscience, Psychiatry, University Hospital.
Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Medicine and Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Research group (Dept. of women´s and children´s health), Obstetric research.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-4935-7532
2017 (English)In: Journal of Affective Disorders, ISSN 0165-0327, E-ISSN 1573-2517, Vol. 222, p. 177-184Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Background:

Personality traits such as neuroticism can help identify pregnant women at risk of postpartum depressive symptoms (PPDS). However, it is unclear whether attachment style could have an additional contribution to this risk elevation. This study aimed to examine the overlap of adult attachment insecurity and neuroticism/trait anxiety as PPDS predictors, taking into account baseline depressive symptoms.

Methods:

A Swedish population-based sample of pregnant women reported on adult attachment and either neuroticism (n = 1063) or trait anxiety (n = 555). Depressive symptoms were assessed at baseline, and at six weeks and six months postpartum. Correlations between attachment and neuroticism/trait anxiety were calculated. Generalized linear models of PPDS tested the effect of attachment anxiety and avoidance, adjusting for neuroticism/trait anxiety and baseline depression. Logistic regression models with combined high attachment anxiety and-neuroticism/trait anxiety visualized their value as risk factors beyond antenatal depression.

Results:

Attachment and neuroticism/trait anxiety were highly correlated (r = .55.77). Attachment anxiety exerted a partially independent effect on PPDS at six weeks (p < .05) and at six months (p < .05) adjusting for neuroticism. Among antenatally non-depressed, combined high attachment anxiety and high neuroticism or trait anxiety was predictive of PPDS at both assessment points. Limitations: Low acceptance rate, exclusive use of self-reports.

Conclusions:

Beyond personality, attachment anxiety had a small independent effect on the risk of PPDS. Combining items of adult attachment and neuroticism/trait anxiety could prove useful in antenatal screening for high risk of PPDS.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2017. Vol. 222, p. 177-184
Keywords [en]
Adult attachment, Neuroticism, Trait anxiety, Personality, Pregnancy, Postpartum depression
National Category
Psychiatry
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-333735DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2017.07.005ISI: 000407657100027PubMedID: 28709025OAI: oai:DiVA.org:uu-333735DiVA, id: diva2:1158332
Available from: 2017-11-20 Created: 2017-11-20 Last updated: 2018-10-24Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Anxious personality traits in pregnant women: Associations with postpartum depression, delivery complications and health care use
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Anxious personality traits in pregnant women: Associations with postpartum depression, delivery complications and health care use
2018 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Anxious personality traits, including those encompassed by negative emotionality (neuroticism) and the tendency to worry about close relationships (attachment anxiety) during pregnancy were the focus of this thesis. The overall aim was to examine perinatal correlates of these characteris-tics in terms of psychiatric and obstetric health as well as antenatal care (ANC).

Papers I-II were part of a large population-based project on pregnant women in Uppsala in 2009-2012 (n=2160). Papers III-IV adjoined participants from several projects in 2005-2011, on oral contraceptive use, infertility, induced abortion, premenstrual mood disorder, and perina-tal depression (n=2819). The participants reported on the Swedish universities Scales of Per-sonality for neuroticism (papers II-IV) and the Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ) for attachment anxiety (papers I-II). The participants also answered the Edinburgh Postnatal De-pression Scale on depressive symptoms (paper II). In paper III, information on obstetric com-plications for primiparous women with singleton pregnancies (n=1969) was extracted from Swedish national health registers. In paper IV, ANC use was derived from medical records of obstetric low-risk women residing in Uppsala (n=1052).

The ASQ had similar psychometric properties in pregnant women (n=1631) as in previous reports (paper I). In non-depressed pregnant women (n=1431), the combination of neuroticism and attachment anxiety was the best risk indicator of postpartum depressive symptoms (paper II). Whereas high neuroticism was not related to obstetric complications (paper III), it was associated with higher use of ANC (paper IV).

Summarized, this thesis illustrates how anxious personality traits may predispose for post-partum depression and higher use of ANC in the absence of obstetric complications. Future development of these findings should be to evaluate individual and societal benefits of a greater emphasis on psychological support in ANC.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 2018. p. 67
Series
Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Medicine, ISSN 1651-6206 ; 1510
Keywords
Personality, neuroticism, adult attachment, perinatal depression, postpartum depression, obstetric complications, health care use
National Category
Psychiatry
Research subject
Psychiatry
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-359600 (URN)978-91-513-0488-5 (ISBN)
Public defence
2018-12-14, Auditorium minus, Museum Gustavianum, Akademigatan 3, Uppsala, 13:00 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2018-11-21 Created: 2018-10-24 Last updated: 2018-11-30

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full textPubMed

Authority records

Axfors, CathrineSylvén, SaraRamklint, MiaSkalkidou, Alkistis

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Axfors, CathrineSylvén, SaraRamklint, MiaSkalkidou, Alkistis
By organisation
Psychiatry, University HospitalObstetric research
In the same journal
Journal of Affective Disorders
Psychiatry

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
pubmed
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
pubmed
urn-nbn
Total: 762 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf