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Determinants of Child Attachment in the Years Postpartum in a High-Risk Sample of Immigrant Women

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Abstract

Our goal was to examine maternal mental health and associated stresses in a sample of high-risk immigrant mothers, and its association with child insecure attachment in the years following childbirth. Mothers and their child (Mage = 37 months) were recruited through a Health and Social Service organization in the Parc-Extension neighborhood in Montreal, Quebec. Mothers completed the Hopkins Symptoms Checklist (HSCL-25), the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MPSS) and a sociodemographic questionnaire that included questions on premature delivery and birth weight. Attachment behaviors were coded out of a videotaped free play sequence using the Preschool and Early School-Age Attachment Rating Scales (PARS). Analysis revealed high levels of clinical anxiety and depression, low social support and low attachment security. Significant mean differences and associations were found between anxiety, depression, social support, preterm delivery and child attachment. These results underscore the importance of screening for anxiety and depression early in the postnatal years, in order to prevent associated consequences such as child insecure attachment. Results also highlight the importance of building positive social networks, especially with immigrant populations.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Josiane Cyr, Diana Miconi, Zoé Richard-Fortier and Omaira Naweed for their valuable implication in the research project.

Funding

This project was funded by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Center (RI-MUHC) (no grant number).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, 7085, Hutchison, Montreal, QC, H3N 1Y9, Canada

    Vanessa Lecompte & Cécile Rousseau

Authors
  1. Vanessa Lecompte
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  2. Cécile Rousseau
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vanessa Lecompte.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional CIUSSS Centre-Ouest de l’ïle-de-Montreal ethical board and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Research Involving Human and Animal Participants

This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Lecompte, V., Rousseau, C. Determinants of Child Attachment in the Years Postpartum in a High-Risk Sample of Immigrant Women. J Immigrant Minority Health 20, 1166–1172 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-017-0662-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-017-0662-9

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