Do prenatal coparenting predict post-natal family interactions? An Italian replication study.

Background: this study combines the interactive-relational perspective, which describes early development in terms of quality of adult-infant interactions, and the Lausanne developmental systems approach, which focuses on father-mother-infant primary triangle, beginning with its formation during pregnancy and is based on the Lausanne Trilogue Play observational paradigm. The aims were to investigate a) the psychometric characteristics of the administration and coding of the pre-natal and post-natal LTP procedure in the Italian culture and the comparison with the Lausanne validation studies; b) the characteristics of the triadic interactions during pregnancy; c) the patterns of stability and change in the triadic family interactions from pregnancy to 9 months. Method: 150 non-observational data were collected at the 7th months of pregnancy and the 4th and 9th month of baby's life through the LTP procedure. Results: aim 1: the data show a good reliability of the LTP coding (a = 73) and a consistent factorial structure in line with the Lausanne validation studies (Carneiro et al., 2006; Favez et al., 2006).(The Italian group shows a specific distribution in the Structure of the Play with a time mean of 7.13, higher with respect to the coding system.) Aim 2 : the Structure of the Play and the Intuitive Behaviours Scales seem the most representative dimension in the prenatal period, which are also predictive of family interactions at 9th months post-natal). Aim 3: whereas the Lausanne longitudinal results show a relative stability of the family alliance over the first two years, the Italian multilevel analysis highlight an improvement of the family alliance over the first year. Findings show a linear relation between the time and the quality of family interactions (t = 4.78; p<.001; B=2.36), that improves by 2.35 points in each observational phase: there is no stability of family interactions, but the quality of triadic family interactions increases from pregnancy to parenthood. Conclusion: coparental capacities in pregnancy represent an interactive matrix for the construction of the early family relations in the first year and may be considered as protective factors in the child development of early triadic interactive abilities.