The role of antenatal and postnatal maternal bonding in infant development: A systematic review and meta‐analysis
Open accessAbstract
The purpose of this study was to systematically review the empirical literature on maternal bonding and associations with infant physical, psychological, and social development. Nineteen articles met inclusion criteria and were included in a qualitative synthesis (79 effect sizes); 15 articles were suitable for aggregation in a series of 14 meta‐analyses (51 effect sizes). All mean effects were in the expected direction, with higher maternal bonding contributing to infant developmental outcomes, including higher attachment quality (r = .35) and parent‐reported lower colic rating (r = .22), easier temperament (r = .19), and positive infant mood (r = .27). Consistent with theoretical explanatory models, the review provides support for the hypothesis that maternal bonding plays a role in fostering more optimal infant development. The review also identifies a paucity of empirical work on this topic and provides directions for future research.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Reduced maternal bonding is associated with poorer infant outcomes, including less secure attachment, difficult temperament, higher colic ratings, and less positive infant mood.
“Reduced maternal bonding is associated with poorer infant outcomes, including less secure attachment, difficult temperament, higher colic ratings, and less positive infant mood (Le Bas et al., 2020).”
From Associations between maternal psychological distress and mother-infant bonding: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2023) · cites this paper as Le Bas et al., 2020
Brief observation or verbal self-report may not be sufficient to detect problems in the affective bond that are associated with adverse offspring outcomes.
“While most guidelines support assessment of mother-infant relationships through brief observation or verbal self-report (Austin et al., 2017), this may not be sufficient to detect problems in the affective bond (Brockington et al., 2017a) that are associated with adverse offspring outcomes (Le Bas et al., 2020).”
From Associations between maternal psychological distress and mother-infant bonding: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2023) · cites this paper as Le Bas et al., 2020
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 62 · Cited by 126
- Authors
- Le Bas, G. A., Youssef, G. J., Macdonald, J. A., Rossen, L., Teague, S. J., Kothe, E. J., McIntosh, J. E., Olsson, C. A., & Hutchinson, D. M.
- Affiliations
- School of Psychology, Faculty of Health, Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development Deakin University Geelong Victoria Australia
- Royal Children's Hospital (AU)
- UNSW Sydney (AU)
- Deakin University (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Hutchinson, Delyse M.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Social Development
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2019-08-14
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 3-20
- ISSN
- 0961-205X (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9507
- OpenAlex
- W2953951207
- Cited by
- 126
- References
- 62
- Citations by year
- 2026: 21 · 2025: 31 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 24 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 3
- FWCI
- 1.40
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- figshare.com
- Locations
- Social Development (publishedVersion)
- ResearchOnline - JCU (James Cook University) (submittedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Minerva Access (University of Melbourne) (submittedVersion)
- OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Pharmacy › Infant Health and Development
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Keywords
- maternal bonding, infant development, infant attachment, infantile colic, infant temperament, parent-infant relationship
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
