Correlates of repetitive negative thinking in postnatal first time mothers

Despite the well-established role of repetitive negative thinking (RNT) in the prediction and maintenance of depression and anxiety, only minimal research to date has investigated RNT in the context of postnatal psychological adjustment.

We examined the relationships between RNT, associated maladaptive cognitive processes, infant responsiveness and psychopathology in a sample of first-time mothers (N = 235) with babies under 12 months.

Participants completed an online battery of measures that indexed RNT, dampening of positive affect, metacognitive beliefs about RNT, infant responsiveness, depression and anxiety symptoms.

As predicted, RNT was correlated with depression. Controlling for depression, RNT was associated with anxiety, dampening positive affect and positive beliefs about RNT. RNT was inversely related to maternal responsiveness, but this relationship was accounted for by depression.

Consistent with findings in the broader literature, RNT was associated with depression, anxiety and other unhelpful cognitive processes in the postnatal period, as well as with poor infant responsiveness. Whilst cross-sectional and preliminary, these data suggest there may be potential clinical utility in targeting RNT in first-time mothers.