The investigation of relationship between pregnant women's and theirspouses'prenatal and postnatal attachment, prenatal expectations and marital adjustment: A longitudinal study

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between pregnant women and theirs spouses' prenatal and postnatal attachment, prenatal expectations and marital adjustment with a longitudinal study. For this purpose, 155 pairs of mothers and farthers to be for the first time have been reached in the last three months of pregnancy. Mothers-to-be filled out that Prenatal Attachment Inventory, Prenatal Maternal Expectations Scale and Dyadic Adjustment Scale and father-to-be filled out that Father-Fetus Bonding Scale, Prenatal Paternal Expectations Scale and Dyadic Adjustment Scale. In the second phase of this study, 75 mothers who agreed to proceed to study filled out Maternal Attachment Scale and Dyadic Adjustment Scale and 71 fathers filled out Paternal Attachment Scale and Dyadic Adjustment Scale. According to regression analysis which conducted to show whether there is predictive effect of prenatal attachment on postnatal attchment and predictive effect of prenatal dyadic adjustment on posnatal dyadic adjustment. Both regression analysis was confirmed. The analysis about whether prenatal unrealistically positive expectations mediated and postnatal dyadşc adjustment moderated the relationship between prenatal attachment and postnatal attachment. The prenatal unrealistically positive expectations fully mediated the relationship between prenatal attachment and postnatal atachment for both mothers and fathers. However, the moderating role of postnatal dyadic adjustment on relationship between prenatal attachment and postnatal atachment wasn't confirmed. Lastly, total score of postnatal dyadic adjustment was lower in women than in men. The results are discussed in the light of literature.