Prenatal parental representations: Influences on perceived romantic couple adjustment and infant's temperament during pregnancy and after the infant's birth

• Published date: 01 April 2022
• Author: Laura Vismara,Loredana Lucarelli,Cristina Sechi
• Date: 01 April 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12628

RESEARCH

Prenatal parental representations: Influences on

perceived romantic couple adjustment and infant’s

temperament during pregnancy and after the infant’s

birth

Laura Vismara|Loredana Lucarelli|Cristina Sechi

Department of Pedagogy, Psychology,

Philosophy, Faculty of Human Studies,

University of Cagliari, Italy

Correspondence

Laura Vismara, Department of Pedagogy,

Psychology, Philosophy, University of

Cagliari, Via Is Mirrionis 1, 09123 Cagliari

Italy.

Email: vismara@unica.it

Funding information

Italian Ministry for Education, University and

Research (MIUR), Grant/Award Number:

PRIN 2013/2016 - 20107JZAF4

Abstract

Objective: The present work aimed to evaluate the differ-

ences between fathers’and mothers’prenatal parental rep-

resentations, the differences between pre- and postnatal

perceptions of couple adjustment, and whether the quality

of prenatal parental representations is associated with the

perception of couple adjustment and with the perception

of infant temperament at 3 months.

Background: Within a multifactorial, transactional model,

several studies indicated that prenatal parental representa-

tions are relevant to the quality of infant–parent relation-

ship and the child’s development.

Method: Couples experiencing their first pregnancy

(n=40) (mothers: M

age

=33.7 years,SD =5,1 years;

fathers: (M

age

=37.4 years, SD =5.6 years) respondedto

the Parental Representations Interview During Pregnancy

and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale during the seventh

month of pregnancy. When couples’infantwas 3 months

of age, the parents completed the Infant Behavior

Questionnaire-R to assess infant temperament.

Results: Analyses revealed that mothers and fathers who

had an unbalanced and unintegrated parental representa-

tion perceived their couple adjustment as less cohesive,

and this was related to a more negative perception of the

child’s temperament.

Conclusions: Prenatal parental representations were found

to be a significant variable in terms of their influence on

the quality of pre- and postnatal parents’romantic couple

adjustment and on the infant’s temperament.

Received: 27 January 2021Revised: 8 July 2021Accepted: 15 August 2021

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12628

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits

use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or

adaptations are made.

© 2021 The Authors. Family Relations published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of National Council on Family Relations.

750 Family Relations. 2022;71:750–765.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare

Implications: It is important to include both mothers and

fathers to further our understanding of parental influence

on a child’s development and to enhance the efficacy of

preventive programs since pregnancy.

KEYWORDS

infant temperament, perinatality, postnatal romantic couple adjustment,

prenatal parental representations, prenatal romantic couple adjustment

The study of the children’s development and wellness may be conceptualized as the ongoing

transactions between the child and their environment (Sameroff & Fiese, 2000), following an

epigenetic path. Therefore, it is essential to acknowledge and analyze the interplay among the

variables and processes that co-contribute to the child’s outcome. Within such framework, it is

important to examine in depth the role of prenatal parental representations on parenting and

the child’s development (Ammaniti et al., 2013; Barlow, 2018; Tambelli et al., 2020), a core ele-

ment of the assessment of infants and their parents (Vreeswijk et al., 2012).

However, little attention has been paid to the differences between mothers’and fathers’pre-

natal parental representations. Moreover, the association between prenatal parental representa-

tions and the postnatal perception of both couple adjustment and child’s temperament, which

are critical co-determinants of development, is under-investigated. Hence, these dimensions are

addressed in the current work.

MATERNAL AND PATERNAL REPRESENTATIONS

Several studies with mothers have shown that the quality of early maternal parenting behavior

is affected by her mental representations of herself as a parent and of her child (Barlow, 2018;

Dayton et al., 2010; Rosenblum et al., 2009), which may influence the quality of the child’s

development (Benoit et al., 1997; Tambelli et al., 2020). Indeed, balanced and coherent repre-

sentations of themselves as a parent, of the child, and of the relationship with the baby are asso-

ciated with good mother–infant interactions characterized by high parental sensitivity and

warmth, in contrast to low intrusiveness, negativity, and hostility (Vismara et al., 2021). It also

has been found that the maternal internal subjective experiences of thoughts, perceptions, and

emotions about and expectations of their infants and of their relationship with them are already

present during pregnancy (Ammaniti et al., 2013; Vreeswijk et al., 2012).

There are some studies of mothers in relation to prenatal representation; however, research

with fathers’mental representations of their infant and of themselves as a parent is scarce

(Vreeswijk et al., 2014), even though it is acknowledged that fathers develop an emotional bond

with their child beginning in pregnancy (Palkovitz, 2019; Psychogiou et al., 2018). Hence, it is

plausible to suppose that paternal representations effect fathers’behaviors and perceptions simi-

larly to mothers. Indeed, Hall et al. (2014) demonstrated that fathers who display balanced rep-

resentations were associated with higher levels of sensitivity and lower levels of withdrawal and

intrusiveness. Moreover, infants of fathers with balanced representations showed more sociabil-

ity toward the father and higher levels of sustained attention during interaction.

ROMANTIC COUPLE ADJUSTMENT

The transition to parenthood is a significant stage in the development of marriages and families

(Cowan & Cowan, 2003). Indeed, the birth of a child may yield to transient changes in the qual-

ity of the couple relationship, according to their flexibility in adjusting to this new experience

PRENATAL PARENTAL REPRESENTATIONS AND INFANT TEMPERAMENT751