Adult attachment styles; affect regulation; self esteem and depressive symptoms: A comparetion of peripartum/postpartum and non peripartum/ postpartum women in Ankara and İstanbul

It is known that pregnancy and postpartum are difficult periods in which women may have important changes and be exposed to some anxiety evoking stimulus. In this period, qualities and abilities of new mothers may have some affects that make her stress more problematic. Previous studies assert that individuals who have an unsecured attachment style, low self-esteem and emotion regulation difficulties would be under high risk at depression. In this study; the relations between attachment styles, self esteem, affect regulation and peripartum/postpartum depression (PPD) are examined on women who were in peripartum/postpartum period in comparison to women who were not in the peripartum/postpartum period. Specifically; affect regulation and self esteem's mediator roles between unsecured attachment styles and depression even in peripartum/postpartum group and comparation group have been examined. Participants of this study were recruited from pediatric unit of hospitals at Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey. They were divided to two groups: a postpartum group of mothers who had delivered a child within 30 months (N=128) and a non-postpartum group of mothers who had not delivered a child in 30 months prior to the study (N=87). Both groups were mostly equal for demographic variables except for mother's age, (p=0,001; p<0,01). Surveys have been fulfilled by two hundred and twenty- five mother participants in this study; however, 35 were excluded as a result of missing data (e.g., skipping at least one item in a scale or entire scale) so in total there are 215 surveys are obtained. Participants in both group completed the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Difficulty of Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), the Close Relationship Scale-II (CRS-II) and the Rosenberg Self -Esteem Scale (RSES). It was found that compare to the non peripartum/postpartum group, the peripartum/postpartum group has shown effects of high level of regulation difficulties and depressive symptoms. Affect dysregulation between unsecured attachment and depression, only has partly mediator affect on peripartum/postpartum group and no meaningful mediator affect has been observed on comparison group. As a second mediator variable, self esteem between unsecure attachment and depression has a partly affect only on anxious attachment style and depression on PPD group, but has no any mediator affect on comparison group. Finally, logistic regression analysis has been used to see which variables has meaningful effects on PPD. According to that; hierarchically while affect dysregulation self esteem and age variables has meaningful effects on PPD, attachment styles has not meaningful effects on PPD. Key Words: Attachment Styles, Affect Regulation, Self-Esteem and Peripartum/Postpartum Depression