This study aimed to investigate the
association between maternal
psychological distress and impairment in
mother-child relationship in a sample from a Northeast
capital city in
Brazil with a low
Human Development Index , using directed acyclic graphs (DAG). A total of 3,215
women were evaluated for the presence of
psychological distress through the
Self Reporting Questionnaire instrument and for the
mother-child relationship by the first factor of
Postpartum Bonding
Questionnaire , considered the most appropriate in the
literature . Demographic and socioeconomic variables were used to construct a
theoretical model and, after this, multivariate
logistic regression was performed using variables suggested by Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAG).
Psychological distress was present in 22.7% of the
women and 12.6% of them presented impaired
mother-child relationships . After
adjustment , the variable 'maternal mental distress' remained associated with impaired
mother-child relationship (RR=3.03), and among the explanatory variables only '
primary school level' (RR=1.48) was associated as a
risk factor to this outcome. The results indicated that, in this
population ,
women with
psychological distress and lower schooling are more likely to present impaired
mother-child relationships .