Early styles of interaction in mother-twin infant dyads and maternal mental health
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Early styles of interaction in mother-twin infant dyads and maternal mental health Cristina Riva Crugnola 1
& Elena Ierardi
1
& Laura Elvira Prino
2
3
& Piera Brustia & Loredana Cena
4
& Luca Rollè
3
Received: 18 December 2019 / Accepted: 12 May 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Transition to parenthood is considered a critical process for mothers of twins. There are, however, few studies on the subject. This study aims to evaluate the differences between mother-twin infant dyads and mother-singleton infant dyads with regard to maternal depression, anxiety, parenting stress, and the quality of mother-infant interaction. Mothers of twin infants (N = 40) were compared to mothers of singletons (N = 72). At infant 3 months, maternal depression, anxiety, and parenting stress were assessed via a questionnaire and styles of interaction with the Care-Index. The results indicated that mothers of twins (vs mothers of singletons) had significantly higher state anxiety and higher scores on the Difficult Child Scale of the Parenting Stress Index at infant 3 months. No significant differences between the two groups were found with regard to maternal depression. Mothers of twins had significantly lower sensitivity and were more unresponsive than mothers of singletons. Twin infants had significantly more difficult and compliant behaviours than singleton infants. Assisted reproductive treatment (ART) and prematurity had no effect on any of the examined variables. State anxiety was shown to partially mediate the relationship between twin parenthood and maternal sensitivity and to completely mediate the relationship between twin parenthood and infant difficult style. Maternal unresponsiveness was shown to be exclusively linked to being the parent of twins. The study shows that twin parenthood has a significant effect on maternal mental health and on the quality of mother-infant interaction and highlights the importance of early prevention programmes for twin parents. Keywords Twins and singletons . Mothers of twins . Mother-infant interaction . Maternal anxiety . Parenting stress . Maternal depression
Introduction Despite the progressive increase in twin and multiple births in the last few decades rising from 1 to 3.41% in the US of all births in recent years (Anderson et al. 2017; ASRM 2012), also due to the growth in infertility treatment and the use of assisted reproductive treatment (ART), there are fewer studies
* Cristina Riva Crugnola [email protected] 1
Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
2
Department of Philosophy and Educational Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
3
Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
4
Department of Experimental and Clinical Sciences, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
that have analyzed the impact of this phenomenon on the mental health of parents and on their parenting styles in the infant’s first year.
Twin parenthood and maternal mental heal
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