Psychological distress in new and expecting parents: the role of attachment, self-concept, and maladaptive perfectionism

This thesis aimed to broaden the understanding of psychological distress experienced in the transition to parenthood. Although depression has been widely researched with postnatal women, there has until recently been a lesser focus on anxiety symptoms, and relatively little research has investigated the experience of obsessive compulsive symptoms. Furthermore, although much research has focused on antenatal and postnatal research, there has been a paucity of research which has focused on this transition for men. Additionally, few studies have compared childbearing groups to those without children, so it is unknown whether predictors of psychological distress in new and expecting parents are reflections of those in general populations. This thesis aimed to test a model of psychological distress in new and expecting parents, and a comparison group of adults without children. It was proposed that attachment theory, self-concept, and maladaptive perfectionism could be integrated to provide an explanation of psychological distress. In particular, it was proposed that perceptions of low self-efficacy for the parenting role may be an important predictor of antenatal and postpartum psychological distress for individuals to whom the parenting role is of high importance (parenting self-concept sensitivity). This highlighted the need for a measure to assess parenting self-concept sensitivity, and the first study reported in this thesis developed such a measure with a sample of 131 women (aged 18-42 years) with children aged no older than 3 years of age. This measure showed a clear factor structure and good reliability in both the pilot study and with main study participants. It was further hypothesised that the direct effect of attachment anxiety on psychological distress would be mediated by global self-worth, maladaptive perfectionism, and parenting self-concept sensitivity, and that the effect of maladaptive perfectionism would be moderated by self-esteem. The final sample resulted in only six new fathers and six expectant fathers completing the study, and they were unable to be analysed as separate groups, instead men were compared as a whole. Thus, a total of 218 participants completed the study (46 men, 77 women without children, 43 first-time expectant mothers, and 52 postpartum women), who ranged in age from 18 to 45 years. Results showed that there were no significant differences in terms of levels of psychological distress between groups, and compared with normative data, the sample experienced lower levels of distress. Overall, anxious attachment was positively associated with all measures of psychological distress, except for pregnant women, for whom no association was found between anxious attachment and any measures of distress. Global self-worth fully mediated the effect of anxious attachment on depression for women without children. In addition, the proposed model was supported for depression for women without children. This thesis highlights the important role of attachment in the experience of psychological distress. This thesis has also shown that predictors of psychological distress differed between pregnant women and other participants, despite there being no significant differences in levels of distress. This supports the need for further research to develop a better understanding of psychological distress in childbearing samples, particularly with antenatal samples. There also remains a need to adequately address these issues in men, whom it is difficult to access whilst they are making this transition. Treatment implications of this study include consideration of experiences and opportunities in an individual's current romantic relationship as a way of fostering a more secure attachment system.