Top-of-the-Head' Descriptions of Baby and Self

Links to Reported Health Behaviors and Social Context in Early Pregnancy

Bibliographic Data

ID2931336
AuthorsSuzanne Laycock Fare, Suzanne Laycock Fares (University of California, San Francisco), Nancy E Adler (0000-0001-6962-0724, University of California, San Francisco)
Year1998
Volume15
Issue4
Pages555-564
Publication date1998-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Social and Personal Relationships (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0265-4075 • E-ISSN: 1460-3608
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0265407598154007
OpenAlexW2098444183
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited22

This research investigated pregnant women's spontaneous descriptions of their babies and themselves as mothers early in pregnancy as related to prenatal health behaviors, family background characteristics and women's work status. In semi-structured interviews, 59 married women in their 4th month of pregnancy described the fetus, the baby after birth, and themselves as mothers to the expected child. Consistent with construct accessibility theory and recent representation based models of parenting, the amount and kinds of content that women used to describe their babies and themselves as mothers varied systematically as a function of women's prenatal health behaviors, parity and marital adjustment. Suggestive evidence also was found for a relationship between the content of women's descriptions of themselves as mothers and women's work status. The authors discuss clinical and methodological implications of the findings

Construct (python library · Context (archaeology · Developmental psychology · Marital status · Population · Pregnancy · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics · Child Abuse and Trauma · Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum · Medicine · Psychology

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