Maternal perinatal social support and infant social-emotional problems and competencies: a longitudinal cross-cohort replication study

Schuijers, Melanie; Greenwood, Christopher J; McIntosh, Jennifer; Youssef, George; Letcher, Primrose; Macdonald, Jacqui A; Spry, Elizabeth; Le Bas, Genevieve; Teague, Samantha; Biden, Ebony; Elliott, Elizabeth; Allsop, Steve; Burns, Lucinda; Olsson, Craig A; Hutchinson, Delyse M

doi:10.1007/s00737-024-01473-x

Maternal perinatal social support and infant social-emotional problems and competencies: a longitudinal cross-cohort replication study

journal contribution

posted on 2024-12-02, 04:17 authored by Melanie Schuijers, Christopher J Greenwood, Jennifer McIntoshJennifer McIntosh, George Youssef, Primrose Letcher, Jacqui A Macdonald, Elizabeth Spry, Genevieve Le Bas, Samantha Teague, Ebony Biden, Elizabeth Elliott, Steve Allsop, Lucinda Burns, Craig A Olsson, Delyse M Hutchinson

Purpose: Maternal perinatal social support is theorised to promote offspring social-emotional development, yet few studies have prospectively examined this relationship. Findings may inform preventative intervention efforts, to support a healthy start to emotional life. Methods: This study examined whether maternal social support perinatally predicts infant social-emotional development at 12 months of age in two longitudinal cohort studies: The Australian Temperament Project (ATP) (n = 1,052 mother-infant dyads [653 mothers, Mage_at_birth = 32.03, 88% Australian-born; 1,052 infants, 52% girls]) and The Triple B Pregnancy Cohort Study (Triple B) (n = 1,537 dyads [1,498 mothers, Mage_at_birth = 32.53, 56% Australian-born; 1,537 infants, 49% girls]). Social support was assessed at pregnancy (third trimester) and eight-weeks post-birth. Infant social-emotional competencies (ATP: Brief Infant and Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment (BITSEA), Competencies Scale; Triple B: Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development-Social Emotional Scale) and problems (ATP: BITSEA, Problems Scale; Triple B: Ages and Stages Questionnaires: Social-Emotional Scale), were assessed at 12-months of age. Results: In ATP, social support was associated with lower offspring problems (pregnancy: β = -0.15; post-birth: β = -0.12) and greater competencies (pregnancy: β = 0.12; post-birth: β = 0.16) at 12 months. In Triple B, social support also predicted lower offspring problems (pregnancy: β = -0.11; post-birth: β = -0.07) and greater competencies (pregnancy: β = 0.07) at 12 months. Findings did not indicate an association between support at eight-weeks post-birth and subsequent competencies (β = 0.06). Conclusions: Evidence suggests that perinatal social support promotes healthy infant social and emotional development. These results underscore the critical importance of social support for mothers transitioning into parenthood.

Funding

The Australian Temperament Project (ATP) was funded by grants from the Australian Research Council [DP130101459; DP160103160; DP180102447] and the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) [APP1082406]. The Triple B Pregnancy Study (Triple B) was funded by grants from the NHMRC [GNT630517], Australian Rotary Health (2012-2013; 2018-2020), the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (2010-2011), and the Financial Markets Foundation for Children, Australia (2015-2016). Further financial support came from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) at University of New South Wales (UNSW). The Australian Government supported NDARC at UNSW and the National Drug Research Institute at Curtin University under the Substance Misuse Prevention and Service Improvements Grants Fund. Senior authors EE, DH, and CAO are supported by NHMRC Research Fellowships [APP1197488; APP1175086; APP1021480] and EE is additionally supported by a Medical Research Futures Fund Fellowship [MRF1115959]. ES is supported by an Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Deakin University, Australia. MS was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship.

History

Publication Date

2024-12-01

Journal

Archives of Women's Mental Health

Volume

27

Pagination

9p. (p. 1033-1041)

Publisher

Springer Nature

ISSN

1434-1816

Rights Statement

© Crown 2024 This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.