Background and objectives

The current study compared mental time travelling in a group of first-time pregnant women with that in a group of non-pregnant women. We predicted that specificity of birth-related events would be negatively associated with psychological distress.

Methods

Fifty-nine pregnant women and 59 controls were assessed twice. Pregnant women were assessed before (Time 1) and after (Time 2) childbirth, controls before and after an identical time period. Time travelling was evaluated under two different conditions, where participants generated memories and future predictions in response to neutral words.

Results

No significant changes in psychological distress were observed over time. At Time 1, pregnant women were more likely to mentally travel to the future, and in general travelled further away from the present. Overall, they generated fewer specific events, which in turn was associated with less worry. The number of birth-related events was negatively associated with worry and positively with positive affect, whereas the number of specific birth-related events was negatively associated with positive affect, and positively associated with both symptoms of psychological distress, negative affect, and worry.

Limitations

The potential negative effect of specificity should be replicated in future studies, in longitudinal studies or experimentally, in order to address causal relations.

Conclusions

Pregnancy involves alterations in mental time travel, and specificity in events, recalled or imagined, was associated with more worry within the pregnant group, indicative of a detrimental effect. This goes counter to many previous studies assigning a positive role of specificity and warrants further exploration.

中文翻译：

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产前心理时间旅行：调查时间旅行的特异性和内容及其与心理困扰的关联。

背景和目标

目前的研究比较了一组首次怀孕妇女和一组未怀孕妇女的心理时间旅行。我们预测出生相关事件的特异性与心理困扰呈负相关。

方法

59 名孕妇和 59 名对照者接受了两次评估。孕妇在分娩前（时间 1）和分娩后（时间 2）进行评估，对照组在相同的时间段前后进行评估。时间旅行在两种不同的条件下进行评估，参与者根据中性词产生记忆和未来预测。

结果

随着时间的推移，没有观察到心理困扰的显着变化。在时间 1 时，孕妇更有可能在精神上旅行到未来，并且通常离现在更远。总体而言，它们产生的特定事件较少，这反过来又与较少的担忧相关。出生相关事件的数量与担忧呈负相关，与积极情感呈正相关，而特定出生相关事件的数量与积极情感呈负相关，并与心理困扰、负面情感和担忧这两种症状呈正相关。

限制

特异性的潜在负面影响应该在未来的研究、纵向研究或实验中复制，以解决因果关系。

结论

怀孕涉及心理时间旅行的改变，回忆或想象的事件的特异性与怀孕组内更多的担忧有关，表明存在不利影响。这与许多先前认为特异性具有积极作用的研究背道而驰，值得进一步探索。