Preconception and Perinatal Maternal Depressive Symptoms and Ambivalent Offspring Attachment

This thesis investigated the prospective relationships between preconception histories of depression in mothers and infant insecure-ambivalent attachment at 1-year postpartum. Findings showed considerable continuity in maternal depression from adolescence through to the perinatal period and pointed to compromised maternal sensitivity as the most critical variable of the ambivalent attachment profile.