Abstract

ANDRADE, Luísa; MARTINS, Maria Manuela; ANGELO, Margareth  and  MARTINHO, Júlia. Mental health in parenting of twins: literature review. Revista Portuguesa de Enfermagem de Saúde Mental [online]. 2014, n.spe1, pp.109-116. ISSN 1647-2160.

Mental health is constrained by multiple factors: personal, family and social. Knowing that we exercise the parental role is the most demanding, we believe this may affect the quality of life. When this role is exercised with twins there is admittedly higher requirement may itself compromise the mental health of those who exercise it. OBJECTIVES: Knowing the risks to mental health of parents in twin pregnancy. Identifying psychosocial factors that influence parental experience in twinning. METHODOLOGY: A systematic review of primary studies published between 2000-2012 in reference databases: ISI Web of Science and Scopus database. RESULTS: 483 articles (Scopus: 274 and Web of science: 275, with 66 common to both of these reference databases) were identified. We proceeded to read the summaries after which we selected 15 articles, taking into account the inclusion criteria (availability of articles in the databases consulted, centrality of the studies in the experience of parenthood in twin pregnancy). The reviewed studies aim to identify variables that influence the quality of life in parents, focusing in particular on mental health, psychosocial well-being and parental stress. Motherhood is the central focus of research. The best mental health in mothers, one year after the birth of the twins, was associated with lower levels of stress, anxiety in maternal attachment, marital adjustment, being a first time mom and full-term twins. CONCLUSIONS: The experience of parenting twins is more demanding and complex. Understanding this issue becomes critical as it establishes facilitative interventions to their performance and therefore are promoting better mental health.

Keywords : Parents; Twins; Mental health.

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