ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to investigate the correlations of the temperament and character, depression, anxiety, and maternal-fetal attachment and the mediating effects of the depression, anxiety on the relationship between temperament and character and maternal-fetal attachment.METHODS: A hundred and eleven high-risk pregnant women were recruited in this study. All subjects were administered a sociodemographic and obstetric questionnaire, Temperament and Character Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory-II, State Trait Anxiety Inventory-State, and Maternal-Fetal Attachment Scale.RESULTS: The results of this study were as follows. Higher scores on the reward dependence, persistence, cooperativeness, and self-transcendence scale were associated with higher scores on maternal-fetal attachment scale. Higher scores on the harm avoidance scale and lower scores on the self-directedness scale were associated with higher depression scores. Higher scores on the harm avoidance scale and lower scores on the persistence, self-directedness, and cooperativeness scale were associated with higher anxiety scores. Higher anxiety scores were associated with higher scores on maternal-fetal attachment scale. The anxiety was found to have a partial mediating effect on the relationship between persistence and the maternal-fetal attachment. It was also found to have a partial mediating effect on the relationship between cooperativeness and the maternal-fetal attachment.CONCLUSION: In this study, we found that the anxiety has partial mediating effect on the relationship between temperament and character and maternal-fetal attachment. Based on these findings, it is suggested that examining temperament and character and screening vulnerable pregnant women can help to prevent negative results for high-risk pregnant women.