Stressful Life Events and Intimate Partner Acceptance Rejection in the Perinatal Period: The Mediating Role of Alexithymia

Stressful life events during perinatal period can significantly influence intimate partner relationship dynamics, leading to the negative relational perceptions. The current study explored the relationship between SLEs and intimate partner acceptance rejection across four dimensions; warmth-affection, indifferent-neglect, hostility-aggression and undifferentiated-rejection, while analyzing the mediating role of alexithymia in these relationships. Using cross-sectional design, purposive sampling technique was employed to collect the sample of 284 participants. Participants completed self-report measures, assessing stressful life events, Alexithymia, and intimate partner acceptance and rejection. Regression and mediation analysis were conducted using SPSS and process MACRO by Hayes (2004). Findings revealed that SLEs significantly predicted reduced warmth-affection (β = –.380, p < .001) and positively predicted indifferent-neglect (β = .344, p < .001), hostility-aggression (β = .336, p < .001), and undifferentiated rejection (β = .336, p < .001). while alexithymia emerged as significant mediator in relationship between SLEs and intimate relationship dynamics. The findings highlight the significant influence of SLEs on relationship dynamics with alexithymia serving as potential psychological mechanism exacerbating the effect. The result emphasize the importance emotional regulations difficulties among perinatal women to reduce close relationship difficulties and promote healthier relationship and maternal well-being.