Bridging the gap: Integrating research on personality and perinatal mental health

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Eva Asselmann
• Subject Area: Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 538685867

The birth of a child represents a life-changing experience that fundamentally affects everyday life for many years. How parents cope with the challenges of pregnancy and parenthood has far-reaching consequences for their own health, the course of pregnancy and childbirth, infant development, family and social relationships, as well as society more broadly. In clinical psychology and medicine, great efforts have been made to examine the prevalences, predictors, course, and outcomes of perinatal (mental) health problems. This research has shown that parental personality plays a fundamental role for the (mental) health of (expectant) parents and their children. At the same time, personality and social psychologists have studied how parental personality and social relationships (e.g., in couples) change before and after the birth of a child. However, these research traditions have rarely been connected, and little crosstalk exists between both research areas. Particularly, a scarcity of studies integrated research on personality traits as potential risk or protective factors with research on personality changes during the perinatal period. Integrating these different research perspectives would contribute to a considerably better understanding of the processes underlying perinatal adjustment. This network aims to bring together junior, mid-career, and senior researchers from different fields of psychology, psychiatry, and related disciples concerned with perinatal mental health to (a) integrate different lines of research on personality and perinatal mental health, (b) identify key synergies and existing research gaps, (c) initiate joint research projects to close these gaps, and (d) establish transdisciplinary long-term collaborations to be continued beyond the funding period. Planned activities during the network period include (1) systematic reviews, (2) combined data analyses of existing (intensive) longitudinal studies on perinatal adjustment, (3) grant proposals, (4) publications in high-impact international scientific journals, (5) joint national and international conference activities, (6) promotion of early-career researchers, as well as (7) outreach and science communication. The overarching goal is to substantially expand our knowledge of the processes underlying perinatal adjustment, thereby providing unique research opportunities and innovative target points for perinatal care, risk assessment, and personalized (family) interventions.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks