Description:
Problems in the psychological or physical development of children seem to increase in Western Societies, probably also due to suboptimal interactions with caregivers and insecure attachments, and can be observed already in early childhood. In the present study, the association of children’s abnormal development until the age of 18 months with attachment representation, prenatal attachment and postpartum depression of their 161 primiparae mothers with a relatively high educational background were investigated. A high level of maternal attachment disorganization and even medium levels of postpartum depression were significantly linked to noticeable problems with physical and behavioral development in the regular child screening exams (at 6 and 12 months) and with the problem behaviour reported by the mothers. This suggests that also mothers without obvious and known risk factors, who are usually not targeted by early interventions, would profit from professional support. A simple indicator for a screening would be maternal depression at 6 months postpartum.