Neurotic States of Women and the Features of the Attitude Towards the Newborn in the Situation of “Burdened” Motherhood

Abstract

<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Objectives. </strong>The growing number of children with mental health needs leads to an increase in the need for research on this issue. The subjective phenomenon of "burdened" motherhood is considered as an environmental risk factor for child mental health disorders. The article presents the results that allow us to consider the attitude to the newborn and the pronounced neurotic states of the mother among the unfavorable factors in the formation of the "mother-child" dyad.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Methods</strong>. A total of 228 women participated in the study. Comparison groups of 173 respondents were formed. The unifying criterion of the groups is the special conditions for the formation of the "mother-child" system in the situation of "burdened" motherhood. 55 women with preserved reproductive function, whose pregnancy ended with the birth of a healthy child, are classified as "conditional norm". The Pregnant Woman's Attitude Test by I.V. Dobryakov, the Clinical Questionnaire of Neurotic States by K.K. Yakhin and D.M. Mendelevich, the method of semi-structured interview, the methods of statistical processing of empirical data Mann-Whitney U-test and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient were used.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Results.&nbsp;</strong>Women in a situation of "burdened" motherhood are more likely to transmit an anxious attitude towards the newborn (U = 210.0; p = 0.004235). Positive correlations between anxious and depressive attitudes towards the newborn and indicators on the asthenia scale of the Neurotic States Questionnaire (r = 0.39; &lt;0.05) are described. Empirical data have confirmed the presence of pronounced neurotic states in women in the situation of "burdened" motherhood on the following scales: "anxiety", "hysterical type of reaction", "obsessive-phobic disorders" and "vegetative disorders".</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Conclusions.&nbsp;</strong>The obtained data indicate that the features of the attitude towards the newborn and the level of severity of neurotic states in women in the situation of "burdened" motherhood, can be considered among the risk factors for mental health disorders in infancy and young age.</p>