Exploring the developmental changes in and the relationship between maternal-offspring attachment and depression in...

Despite the critical roles of maternal-offspring bonding and perinatal depression in maternal-child health, research has predominantly investigated static associations or unidirectional effects, overlooking their dynamic longitudinal interplay. This study aims to investigate the independent and joint developmental trajectories of maternal-offspring bonding and perinatal depression, and clarify their temporal sequence of influences at both between-person and within-person levels.

A total of 465 women were assessed at six timepoints using the Maternal Antenatal/Postnatal Attachment Scale to measure maternal-offspring bonding and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale to assess perinatal depressive symptoms. Latent class growth modeling (LCGM) was applied to identify independent trajectories of each construct, followed by parallel process LCGM to characterize their joint trajectories. Finally, random intercept cross-lagged panel modeling clarified temporal relationships between maternal-offspring bonding and depression at both between- and within-person levels.

Maternal-offspring bonding and perinatal depression exhibited 4 and 3 heterogeneous trajectories, respectively. The joint trajectories of the two included two classes: "Adaptive maternal-offspring Bonding-Low Depression" (n = 315, 67.7 %) and "Deteriorating Maternal-Offspring Bonding-increasing Depression" (n = 150, 32.3 %). Cross-Lagged Effects show that higher maternal-offspring bonding at one timepoint predicted significantly lower depression at the subsequent timepoint (all p < .05). Conversely, maternal depression did not significantly predict later maternal-offspring bonding (p > .05).

The findings revealed a significant dynamic interplay between the maternal-offspring bonding and perinatal depression, with particular emphasis on the preceding role of maternal-offspring bonding in modulating depressive symptoms over time.