Publication details
Mateřské sebehodnocení v těhotenství: souvislost s vybranými charakteristikami ženy a partnerského vztahu
| Title in English | Maternal self-esteem in pregnancy and its relationship with maternal characteristics and characteristics of partnership |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2016 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Ceskoslovenska Psychologie/Czechoslovak Psychology |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Psychology |
| Keywords | maternal self-esteem; depression; anxiety; adult attachment; marital adjustment |
| Description | Objectives. Maternal self-esteem is an essential component of mothering. This study investigated the way women’s depression and anxiety symptoms, adult attachment to their partner and marital adjustment influenced maternal self-esteem of pregnant women. Sample and setting. Pregnant women (N=339, age 17 – 45) filled out an online questionnaire. Hypotheses. It was hypothesized that higher women’s depression and anxiety symptoms, higher attachment-related avoidance and attachment-related anxiety and lower marital adjustment, reduces maternal self-esteem. Statistical analysis. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results. The results showed that higher attachment-related anxiety leads to lower maternal self-esteem. This association is not mediated by marital adjustment or present levels of depression and anxiety symptoms. The effect of attachment-related avoidance, marital adjustment and depression and anxiety on maternal self-esteem was not confirmed. The conclusions of the study imply that the attachment-related anxiety to a women’s partner before birth may lead to difficulties in women’s adaptation to their new maternal role, while more situationally dependent variables as marital adjustment and depressive and anxiety symptoms do not play a significant role. According to our results, attachment-related avoidance also does not affect the maternal self-esteem of pregnant women. Study limitation. The study design limits efforts to evaluate causation and the direction of effects. Another limitation is that we used a particular self-report measure of adult attachment insecurities, and we cannot generalize the results to other measures of adult attachment. In fact, all of the study measures were based on self-report and were therefore susceptible to the common method bias and self-reporting biases. |
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