THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL SUPPORT ON MATERNAL-INFANT ATTACHMENT IN TURKISH SOCIETY

Objective: to investigate the influence of social support in post-partum period on the level of maternalinfant attachment and risk factors. method: the descriptive study was composed of 135 mothers with 4-6 month-old babies and giving birth in 2009. to collect data, a questionnaire, “maternal attachment inventory” and “multidimensional scale perceived social support” were used. in the analysis of data, percentage, mean, standard deviation and the tests of mann whitney u, kruskal wallis variance analysis, spearman correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis were used. results: mean maternal attachment inventory score of mothers was 96.53±9.25. a statistically significant assosation was determined between mean maternal attachment inventory and multidimensional scale perceived social support scores (p<0.05). such factors as the location where mothers lived for a long time, the existence of social security, wanted pregnancy, baby’s distinguishing the mother from others, the existence of a disorder in the baby after delivery, parental intercourse after the delivery, the support to the mother in baby care by the affinity family, and multidimensional scale perceived social support were also determined to affect maternal-infant attachment in post-partum period at the rate of 46.9%. conclusion: it was determined that a significant relation is present between multidimensional scale perceived social support and mother-infant attachment.