Prenatal attachment in future parents of twins

The present study aims at contributing to a better understanding of prenata l attachment in parents expecting twins. In particular, the relationship be tween prenatal attachment (measured with the Questionnaire for Antenatal Em otional Attachment) and three other psychosocial factors-the parents' psych osocial well-being and the quality of the marital relationship (respectivel y assessed with the General Health Questionnaire and the Relational Interac tional Satisfaction Scale) and the presence of older children in the family -was investigated in both future mothers and fathers at 27 weeks of gestati on. Multiple regression analysis revealed no significant relationship betwe en the intensity of prenatal attachment and either of the three variables. For the mothers, a significant positive relationship was found between the quality of attachment on the one hand and psychosocial well-being and quali ty of the marital relationship on the other hand. For the fathers, the qual ity of attachment was only significantly predicted by the quality of the ma rital relationship. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.