The importance of Family Support profiles in the wellbeing of parents of an infant: loneliness and positive affect. Preliminary analysis

Abstract

the main aim of this study has been to analyze potential differences between parents of an infant who report high, medium or low levels of family support on indicators of mental health (positive affect and perceived loneliness). A total of 64 parents of an infant child participated in the study. All participants resided in the Community of Madrid (Spain). The inclusion criteria for participation in the study were: (a) being over 18 years and (b) having a child between the ages of 0 and 6 years old. As Table 1 shows, the mean age of the participants was 40.36 years, most of the participants were female, had between 1 and 4 children aged 0-19 years, and most were married.The results show new results regarding the protective effect of family support, specifically in relation to the association between higher levels of family support and lower levels of loneliness and greater levels of positive affect in parents. These results suggest the importance of attending to family support for those preventive or interventive actions aimed to reduce psychological distress in parents of an infant, including frequent feelings of loneliness and reduced positive affect.