Relationship Between Female And Young Adult Couples And Romantic Attachment Style And Depressive Symptoms

Those with insecure attachments tend to have lower relationship satisfaction compared to those who are securely attached. Those who have a secure attachment style provide a caregiving role, their behaviors are responsive and sensitive, non-controlling and show interest during interactions. Secures are affectionate with touch, enjoy physical contact (intimate & sexual) and are willing to ask for support. Individuals with an insecure anxious attachment are more self-focused and always looking for approval and support from their partner regardless of low and high stress situations. Anxious attachment individuals are also over caring and hyper vigilant. Lastly, individuals with an avoidant attachment value independence and have low levels of self-disclosure. Avoidant individuals are less likely to use touch to express affection and are uncomfortable with intimate sexual contact. In short, being aware of your attachment style and your partners can shed light on marital conflict and possible solutions and corrective behaviors to better marital

Depression during pregnancy impacts the emotional well-being between a mother and child, resulting in a lost connection between the two. It has been suggested that a lesser maternal attachment can be correlated with depression. Women lacking emotion in their relationships often suffer from depression (Haedt, A., & Keel, P., 2007). The deficit of an interpersonal maternal relationship can be linked back to the mother’s onset of depression during pregnancy. Symptoms of depression are known psychological factors that may contribute to higher rates of negative birth outcomes in women (Giurgescu, C., Engeland, C. G., & Templin, T. N. ,2015). This lack of emotion between a mother and her child can have ultimately negative effects on the child’s attachment and emotional well-being. Just as women with postpartum depression, it is difficult for women with depression during pregnancy to feel close to their offspring, which could lead to emotional or physical

Individual attachment style and its effects on adult romantic relationships were examined. The hypothesis of this literature review was that insecure attachment style would negatively affect the overall dynamic of adult romantic relationships while secure attachment would promote positive and healthy romantic relationships. Empirical studies looking at attachment style and relationship issues such as one’s views of self and others, communication, sexual intimacy, childhood family dynamic and God were evaluated. Reviews of studies were in line with the hypothesis indicating that insecure attachment does negatively affect the overall dynamic of romantic

During the last two decades, researchers have intensified their efforts to expand the findings about paternal perinatal depression. The study conducted by Goodman in 2004, has shown that the postpartum depression’s prevalence among fathers varied from 1.2% to 25% in the population sample. Furthermore, these percentages rose to achieve 24 to 50 per cent when the paternal postpartum depression was associated with maternal postpartum depression. The literature review and studies asserted the detrimental consequences of paternal perinatal depression on child wellbeing and development (Children, C. on D., Parenting Practices, and the Heaslthy Development of, Medicine, I. of, Education, D. of B. and S. S. and, & Council, N. R., 2009) such as hyperactivity, emotional deregulations, behavioral problems (Davis, Davis, Freed, & Clark, 2011, van den Berg et al., 2009). These studies outlined the importance of prevention and intervention to foster the paternal perinatal depression issue, through developing screening, diagnosis and management guidelines.

The three prototypes explored are avoidant, anxious-ambivalent, and secure attachments which describes how partners will behave in close relationships and how caring and supportive each individual is within their relationship. Avoidant attached individuals are withdrawn from relationships and untrustworthy of others. Anxious-Ambivalent individuals worry often about their partner’s needs being fulfilled as well as theirs and analyze if they’re moving too fast in the relationship when compared to their partner. Secured individuals are completely trustworthy of their partner and confident in their feelings and

Attachment styles influence relational patterns between a married couple and their children. These attachment relational patterns known as anxious, avoidant, and secure base styles are a product of the interactions experienced in early childhood with their caregivers. It affects people’s intercommunication with others all through their life span. Individuals’ attachment style involves a systematic pattern of relational assumptions, emotions, and behavior that develop from the subjective constructs definitive of attachment experiences throughout their lives. Negative relational patterns increase the likelihood of marital violence in the home. When experiencing stress related life issues, conflicts may arise due to substandard communication skills leading to physical violence, aggressiveness, resulting in harsh spousal disputes. A positive upswing in marital and family harmony occurs when healthy communication skills develop along with secure based attachment characteristics, such as, humility, gratitude, and forgiveness of self and others. These characteristics provide coping mechanisms that establish a positive self-identity and healthy social interaction with others. As the anxious and avoidant relational styles exercise these positive characteristics, in time, they develop a positive view of self and others while learning to work through life stressors, which benefit the marriage and family.

Depression is a major public health problem that is twice as common in women as men during the childbearing years. Postpartum depression is defined as an episode of non-psychotic depression according to standardized diagnostic criteria with onset within 1 year of childbirth (Stewart D., et. al, 2003, p. 4). For women aged 15 to 44 years around the world, Postpartum Depression is second to HIV/AIDS, in terms of total disability (World Health Organization, 2001). Depression has a profound impact on parameters of interpersonal behavior. Post-Partum depression

Women who have previously suffered with depression prior to childbirth have a higher chance of experiencing the debilitating depression. Teenage mothers have an increased risk of postpartum depression “with prevalence estimates ranging from 26% to over 50%” (Springer). Adolescent mothers can experience the consequences of postpartum more so than non-adolescent mothers because of “their increased risk of adverse birth outcomes, low self-esteem, little social support and parenting difficulties” (Springer) at such a young age.

There is need for people to understand what postpartum depression is and learn how to deal efficiently and effectively with it. According to the national health science (NHS), postpartum depression is defined as a depression that normally occurs after childbirth. To help deal with this issue, a lot of investment has been made for public sensitization on how to handle the issue. However, this effort of public sensitization may yield little results because many people view this problem as a problem of others. This literature review therefore focused on trying to understand the various issues surrounding or leading to postpartum depression and the effects that it has on family experience, starting from the mother, the child, the father and the whole society in general. The study was majorly centered on trying to understand to what extent the depression either directly or indirectly affects the mother, the father and the whole society, in general. The objective of this literature review was to examine and decode a considerable number of relevant articles that had researched and arrived at conclusions that related to postpartum depression. After rigorous review of the literature, it was found out that postpartum depression had a direct effect on the family experience. The findings show how exactly postpartum depression affects the mother, the father/family, the child and the whole society in general. This

Hazan and Shaver (1987) aimed to investigate whether they could classify the responders’ love relationships as secure, ambivalent, and avoidant, whether there was a correlation between the formed attachment pattern from childhood and attachment pattern during the love relationships, and whether there was a correlation between the distribution of childhood attachment patterns and adult love relationships’ attachment patterns.

Only in recent history have significant strides been made to understand and treat postpartum depression. While the psychiatric disorder was written as long ago as 700 BC, by Hippocrates, it was not officially recognized as a medical diagnosis until the nineteenth century. Even in today’s society, individuals tend to harbor ill feelings toward postpartum depression, likely due to cultural beliefs and miseducation. According to the U.S National library of medicine postpartum depression is “moderate to severe depression in a woman after she has given birth, occurring soon after delivery or up to a year later”, (U.S National Library of Medicine, 2014). Women have been most widely identified as being impacted by postpartum depression, and for decades, research has focused on them, with limited data related to males. However, recent studies focusing on male postpartum depression, not only prove that men are affected by the disorder; potentially to the same extent as women, but also suggest that there is a likely correlation between either parent having the condition, and it consequently affecting both parents. Recent studies have found that, “prenatal and postpartum depression was evident in about 10% of men in the reviewed studies and was relatively higher in the 3- to 6-month postpartum period. Paternal depression also showed a moderate positive correlation with maternal depression” (Paulson and Bazemore, 2010, p. 1961). Given this

“Maternal Depression” is a term that includes a range of depressive conditions, which impact mothers while pregnant and up to 12 months after delivery (NIHCM). Such depressive conditions include prenatal depression, postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis (NIHCM). In this paper, current literature that examines both prenatal depression and postpartum depression in relation to infant health will be reviewed. Prenatal depression includes depressive episodes starting during pregnancy and lasting from six months to one year after delivery (NIHCM). The symptoms of prenatal depression are similar to those of major depression and those of postpartum depression (NIHCM). Postpartum depression occurs after the baby is born, usually within the first 2-3 months postpartum, yet onset can be immediate, and may last up to one year after delivery (NIHCM) (Health.gov). It is estimated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that one out of eight women suffer from postpartum depression (CDC). Symptoms of postpartum depression include “feeling disconnected from the baby, worrying that you will hurt the baby, and doubting your ability to care for the baby” (CDC). Most people who experience maternal depression, even those with severe forms, are able to improve with treatment (CDC).

The study titled, “Depressive Symptoms and Associated Factors in Expectant First-Time Father’s”, was completed at McGill University, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In this study, 622 first-time expectant men were selected to

Attachment types, the security of the bond formed between females and their primary caregiver’s, has been found to influence romantic relationships which can affect depressive symptoms (Broderick & Korteland, 2002). Attachment in association with depression and romantic experiences was investigated by Steinberg and Davila (2008). A sample of 83 early adolescent females and their primary caregivers were given questionnaires regarding romantic competence, parent-adolescent security, stress and psychopathology. The results showed that when participant’s had frequent romantic experiences and parent’s emotional availability was low, there was a significant association with higher rates of depressive symptoms. In contrast, when parent’s emotional availability was high and girls had frequent romantic experiences, there was no association with depressive symptoms. These findings highlight how romantic relationships only appear to have a negative influence on girl’s mental health if their emotional relationship with parents is insecure. This suggests that girls with emotionally unavailable parents have increased depressive rates because they have not had the opportunity to develop their emotion regulation systems before their first romantic relationships. However, it appears that romantic involvement still affects girls regardless of attachment types; Steinberg and Davila (2008) also found that the more romantic experiences had, the higher the levels of depressive symptoms.

This paper will explore those who have conducted research on attachment styles in children and adults, parental infidelity and romantic relationships. The main questions that will be involved when constructing this paper, will be the impact of the infidelity on a child and their romantic relationships during adulthood, how attachment styles develop and if it carries on throughout the child’s lifetime. More specifically, studies have been conducted to examine the attachment styles during childhood, and the changes in those styles in adulthood. The center of this study comes from the research on parental infidelity and the implications it has on the child’s development in later latency.