Infant care arrangements and implications for parental wellbeing : an attachment perspective

Abstract

Social trends, government policy and financial necessity are resulting in concurrent increases in maternal employment and non-parental infant care rates across Australia (Australian Bureau of Statistics; ABS, 2008b). These influences coincide with the vulnerable time for parents as they adjust to the demands of a needy infant (Feeney, 2003) and determine how to accommodate each family members multifaceted needs. Internationally this has led to a plethora of research into the impact of changing roles on individual and family wellbeing (Alexander & Baxter, 2005). Despite this research, little is known about the effects on parental wellbeing of placing infants in non-parental care in order to facilitate maternal employment. Further, much research to date lacks theoretical depth with regard to the behavioural systems that motivate parental beliefs and attitudes during the infant care decision process. This is especially interesting when powerful attachment and caregiving systems have evolved to maintain infant-caregiver proximity (Bowlby, 1958), yet society increasingly rewards mothers for delegating the task of caring for her infant to others in the interests of economic and career growth. It is no wonder then that many parents find making non-parental infant care decisions burdensome (Leach, 2006), and it is important to recognize and understand the impact that the decision parents make in the face of often-conflicting pressures has on adult functioning.

This thesis sought to contribute to our understanding of the parental implications of infant care arrangements by presenting the results of two studies that addressed the potential role of attachment in influencing parent's caregiving behaviours, beliefs and propensity to separate from their infant, and thereby affecting their psychological response to the decisions ultimately made. The first study used a nationally representative sample of Australian families (n=3392) to explore the possibility of attachment related differences in parental infant care decisions and the outcomes of these on adult functioning. The second study of this thesis recruited 47 participants to clarify and extend the findings of the first study and to explore the possible role of attachment at greater depth. Contrary to expectations, the results of these studies together reveal no differences across parents of differing infant care arrangements on measures of attachment, psychological distress or relationship satisfaction. Further, the number of hours an infant spends in non-parental care plays no role in the prediction of parent's scores on psychological wellbeing or relationship satisfaction. Some gender differences and differences in the beliefs and caregiving attributes of parents were apparent. Overall, the results do not support the main hypotheses that the attachment and caregiving attributes of parents motivate parents infant care decisions, or that non-parental care of infants predicts psychological distress and relationship satisfaction in parents. However, the results do provide some interesting findings in other areas that were not the primary focus of the study and that are discussed with regard to their implications for parents. Finally, the importance of further research exploring alternative explanations for the theoretical underpinnings of parental beliefs is highlighted.