Parents bereaved by infant death: sex differences and moderation in PTSD, attachment, coping and social support
Abstract
Objective Parents bereaved by infant death experience a wide range of symptomatology, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that may persist for years after the loss. Little research has been conducted on PTSD in fathers who have lost an infant. Mothers report most symptoms to a greater extent than fathers, but not much is known about other sex differences following infant death.Method The present cross-sectional study examined sex differences in PTSD and sex differences in the relationship between PTSD severity and related variables. Subjects were 361 mothers and 273 fathers who had lost an infant either late in pregnancy, during birth or in the first year of life. Participants filled out questionnaires between 1.2 months and 18 years after the loss (M = 3.4 years).Results Mothers reported significantly more PTSD symptoms, attachment anxiety, emotion-focused coping and feeling let down, but significantly lower levels of attachment avoidance than fathers. Attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance and emotion-focused coping were significantly more strongly associated with PTSD severity in mothers than fathers, but only when examined alone. When all variables and time since the loss were examined together, there were no longer any significant moderation effects of sex.Conclusions Persistent posttraumatic symptomatology exists in both mothers and fathers long after the loss. There are several sex differences in severity and correlates of PTSD, and a few moderation effects were identified for attachment and emotion-focused coping. Overall, more similarities than differences were found between mothers and fathers in the associations between PTSD and covariates.
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- Authors
- Christiansen, D. M., Olff, M., & Elklit, A.
- Affiliations
- University of Southern Denmark (DK)
- Amsterdam UMC Location University of Amsterdam (NL)
- University of Ulster (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Christiansen, Dorte M.
- Venue
- General Hospital Psychiatry
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2014-11
- Volume
- 36
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 655-661
- ISSN
- 0163-8343 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2126024482
- Cited by
- 67
- References
- 51
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 2.36
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- General Hospital Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Pure Amsterdam UMC (publishedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- University of Southern Denmark Research Portal (University of Southern Denmark) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
- Keywords
- infant death, parental bereavement, post-traumatic stress disorder, sex differences, fathers, mothers, attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, emotion-focused coping, social support, time since loss, moderating effect
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Adolescent, Adult, Bereavement, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Humans, Infant, Infant, Newborn, Male, Middle Aged, Object Attachment, Parents, Sex Factors, Social Support, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, Young Adult, Perinatal Death, Infant Death
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