The relation between social support, anxiety and distress symptoms and maternal fetal attachment

Objective: The aims of this study were to: (1) examine the relation between social support, trait anxiety, symptoms of maternal distress (including stress, depression and anxiety) and maternal-fetal attachment; and (2) to determine if social support buffers the relation between trait anxiety, symptoms of distress and maternal-fetal attachment. Design: Ninety-four pregnant women completed five self-report questions. Two hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to examine the influence of trait anxiety, symptoms of distress, and social support on two factors of maternal-fetal attachment, quality and intensity/frequency. Results: In the first model with the dependent measure as the maternal-fetal attachment quality score, trait anxiety (=-.24, p<.05) and social support (=.30, p<.01) were significant predictors, accounting for 18% of the variance. In the second model with the dependent measure as the maternal-fetal attachment intensity/frequency score, trait anxiety (=-.23, p<.05) and social support (=.32, p<.01) were significant predictors, accounting for 23% of the variance. In addition, the interaction term contributed a significant 4% of the variance, indicating that when social support is high, the relation between anxiety and maternal-fetal attachment intensity/frequency is attenuated. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that prenatal attachment is related to trait anxiety and social support. These findings suggest that interventions to decrease anxiety and increase social support could enhance maternal-fetal attachment.