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The relationship between digital media use during pregnancy, maternal psychological wellbeing, and maternal-fetal attachment

The widespread accessibility and use of the internet provides numerous opportunities for women to independently seek out pregnancy-related information and social and emotional support during the antenatal period. Given the heightened psychological vulnerability of the pregnancy period there is a cri...

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Autores principales: Smith, Melissa, Mitchell, Annaleise S., Townsend, Michelle L., Herbert, Jane S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7743947/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33326465
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243898
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author Smith, Melissa
Mitchell, Annaleise S.
Townsend, Michelle L.
Herbert, Jane S.
author_facet Smith, Melissa
Mitchell, Annaleise S.
Townsend, Michelle L.
Herbert, Jane S.
author_sort Smith, Melissa
collection PubMed
description The widespread accessibility and use of the internet provides numerous opportunities for women to independently seek out pregnancy-related information and social and emotional support during the antenatal period. Given the heightened psychological vulnerability of the pregnancy period there is a critical need to examine digital media use within the context of the feelings that women have about themselves and towards their fetus. The current study examined the relationship between digital media use during pregnancy, psychological wellbeing and their maternal-fetal attachment using an online survey. Forty-eight pregnant women completed a self-report questionnaire on their reasons for using digital media, and standardised measures of self-criticism, negative affect, social quality of life (QOL), and maternal-fetal attachment. The mean age of participants was 29.4 years (SD = 5.26), with a mean of 24.3 weeks gestation (SD = 9.95). Information seeking, emotional support and social support were highly endorsed reasons for digital media use (85.42%, 66.67%, 62.5% respectively). However, digital media use was positively correlated with negative affect (p = .003) and self-criticism (p < .001). Digital media use was also negatively correlated with QOL (p = .007). There was no evidence of a relationship between digital media use and maternal-fetal attachment (p = .330). Digital environments may be an important social context within which a pregnant woman develops her own maternal identity and knowledge. There are a number of benefits and limitations of this medium for providing information and support for women during pregnancy. Enhancing the opportunities to promote pregnant women’s wellbeing in this context is an important avenue for further research and practice.
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spelling pubmed-77439472020-12-31 The relationship between digital media use during pregnancy, maternal psychological wellbeing, and maternal-fetal attachment Smith, Melissa Mitchell, Annaleise S. Townsend, Michelle L. Herbert, Jane S. PLoS One Research Article The widespread accessibility and use of the internet provides numerous opportunities for women to independently seek out pregnancy-related information and social and emotional support during the antenatal period. Given the heightened psychological vulnerability of the pregnancy period there is a critical need to examine digital media use within the context of the feelings that women have about themselves and towards their fetus. The current study examined the relationship between digital media use during pregnancy, psychological wellbeing and their maternal-fetal attachment using an online survey. Forty-eight pregnant women completed a self-report questionnaire on their reasons for using digital media, and standardised measures of self-criticism, negative affect, social quality of life (QOL), and maternal-fetal attachment. The mean age of participants was 29.4 years (SD = 5.26), with a mean of 24.3 weeks gestation (SD = 9.95). Information seeking, emotional support and social support were highly endorsed reasons for digital media use (85.42%, 66.67%, 62.5% respectively). However, digital media use was positively correlated with negative affect (p = .003) and self-criticism (p < .001). Digital media use was also negatively correlated with QOL (p = .007). There was no evidence of a relationship between digital media use and maternal-fetal attachment (p = .330). Digital environments may be an important social context within which a pregnant woman develops her own maternal identity and knowledge. There are a number of benefits and limitations of this medium for providing information and support for women during pregnancy. Enhancing the opportunities to promote pregnant women’s wellbeing in this context is an important avenue for further research and practice. Public Library of Science 2020-12-16 /pmc/articles/PMC7743947/ /pubmed/33326465 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243898 Text en © 2020 Smith et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Smith, Melissa
Mitchell, Annaleise S.
Townsend, Michelle L.
Herbert, Jane S.
The relationship between digital media use during pregnancy, maternal psychological wellbeing, and maternal-fetal attachment
title The relationship between digital media use during pregnancy, maternal psychological wellbeing, and maternal-fetal attachment
title_full The relationship between digital media use during pregnancy, maternal psychological wellbeing, and maternal-fetal attachment
title_fullStr The relationship between digital media use during pregnancy, maternal psychological wellbeing, and maternal-fetal attachment
title_full_unstemmed The relationship between digital media use during pregnancy, maternal psychological wellbeing, and maternal-fetal attachment
title_short The relationship between digital media use during pregnancy, maternal psychological wellbeing, and maternal-fetal attachment
title_sort relationship between digital media use during pregnancy, maternal psychological wellbeing, and maternal-fetal attachment
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7743947/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33326465
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243898
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