Change in mother-infant interactive behavior: Relations to change in the mother, the infant, and the social context

doi:10.1016/S0163-6383(97)90018-7

Infant Behavior and Development

Volume 20, Issue 2, April–June 1997, Pages 151-163

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0163-6383(97)90018-7 Get rights and content

Abstract

This study examines relations between change in mother-infant interaction and change in parental and infant traits. Forty-seven mother-infant dyads were observed at 3 months in face-to-face interaction and at 9 months in two play situations, face-to-face social play and exploratory play interaction. Following Belsky's (1984) “determinants of parenting” model, changes in maternal anxiety, infant temperament, and spousal support were assessed. Decreases in maternal trait anxiety and in infant difficult temperament from 3 to 9 months predicted an increase in mother sensitivity in the two play situations. A decrease in infant difficulty and an increase in father involvement were related to a reduction in maternal intrusiveness during social play. Finally, decreases in maternal anxiety and in infant difficulty and an increase in father involvement predicted an increase in infant exploratory play. The data suggest the importance of change in paternal, maternal, and infant traits as additional dimensions to be included in ecological theories of infant development.

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We further suspected that physiological biases linked to regulatory elements in temperament (Rothbart, 2011) may influence infants’ emerging co-regulation abilities. Specifically, we anticipated that traits linked to better regulatory abilities (more adaptability, predictability, and less negative emotionality) would more positively influence infants’ capacity to engage in mutual co-regulation (Feldman et al., 1997). However, findings did not support this anticipated outcome.
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In contrast to depression, symptoms of anxiety did not show a clear and direct connection to parenting stress when all other variables were accounted for. Although symptoms of anxiety during the postpartum period have been associated with less sensitive responses to infants’ cues and less optimal quality of parenting (Britton, 2011; Crugnola et al., 2016; Feldman et al., 1997; Nicol-Harper et al., 2007), some researchers did not find comparable effects of maternal anxiety on the quality of postpartum parenting when compared to symptoms of depression (Dubber et al., 2015; Edhborg et al., 2011; Tietz et al., 2014). Although further research may help more fully characterize the effects of maternal anxiety on postpartum parenting, the results of our study suggest that symptoms of depression and anxiety influence caregiving in different ways.
To examine the associations of maternal self-efficacy (MSE) and perceived social support with parenting stress during the postpartum period during the COVID-19 pandemic and whether these two psychosocial factors account for variance in parenting stress in addition to the effects of COVID-19–related experiences and sociodemographic factors.
Cross-sectional survey.
Online survey, the Perinatal Experiences and COVID-19 Effects (PEACE) study, launched in May 2020.
Participants included 310 women who gave birth in the past 24 weeks.
The survey included self-report quantitative measures of MSE, social support, COVID-19–related experiences, parenting stress, symptoms of depression and anxiety, and a range of sociodemographic factors.
Hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that MSE and social support were negatively associated with postpartum parenting stress in addition to the effects of COVID-19–related experiences, maternal symptoms of depression and anxiety, and a range of demographic factors. Furthermore, MSE interacted with COVID-19–related experiences such that higher levels of MSE mitigated the effects of COVID-19–related experiences on parenting stress.
Our findings underscore the importance of protective factors at the individual and interpersonal levels and provide insights for prevention and intervention programs aimed at mitigating postpartum parenting stress during a wide-scale disaster such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
The association between maternal-fetal bonding and prenatal anxiety: An explanatory analysis and systematic review
2018, Journal of Affective Disorders
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In contrast, women with general anxiety might stay more self-centered and avoid focusing on and bonding with the fetus. Empirical studies indicate that impaired maternal mental health is a generally destabilizing factor that might negatively influence bonding to the child (Alhusen, 2008; Pollock and Percy, 1999) as well as influence maternal sensitivity and emotional tone during mother-child interaction (Feldman et al., 1997; Nicol-Harper et al., 2007). These results implicate a negative association between maternal anxiety and prenatal maternal bonding.
The prenatal period can be associated with an increase in distress and anxiety. Research indicates that impaired mental well-being influences the development of prenatal maternal-fetal bonding, which manifests in representations, emotions and behaviors. However, the impact of prenatal anxieties on maternal-fetal bonding is still not fully understood, partly due to heterogeneity in the conceptualization and the measurement of both constructs. The aims of this review were to identify studies assessing the relation between both constructs and to investigate direction and size of effects for different types of prenatal anxiety and conceptualizations of maternal-fetal bonding.
A systematic search was carried out on January 7, 2017, and updated on October 23, 2017, based on four electronic databases and a targeted reference search. Of the 3845 identified publications, K = 31 studies fit the eligibility criteria.
While components of maternal-fetal bonding centering around pregnancy or maternal role were not affected, the quality of perceived emotional proximity to the child, as assessed by the Maternal Antenatal Attachment Scale, was impaired by anxieties across studies. Associations were overall negative and of low to moderate size.
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Allomothering, the caregiving to offspring by adults other than the biological mother including fathers and other group members, has characterized human societies throughout hominin evolution. Allomothering is common across the animal kingdom and carries long-term fitness benefits to offspring. Guided by our biobehavioral synchrony conceptual frame, we present research from our lab and others addressing the behavioral, hormonal, and neural systems that underpin human allomaternal care by fathers and studies on the coparental bond. Several important aspects of human allomothering are discussed: (i) father-child synchrony, (ii) longitudinal effects of fathering and coparenting on child outcomes (iii) cultural variability in paternal care, (iv) the role of oxytocin, vasopressin, prolactin, and testosterone in the formation and maintenance of human fathering, (v) evolutionary changes in fathers' brains within the parent-offspring interface and their contribution to children's long-term social adaptation, and (vi) the neural correlates of human coparenting. Based on our findings we propose that in the course of hominin evolution fathers' neuroendocrine systems, brain functionality and integrity, and behavioral responses to infant cues have undergone profound natural selection to accommodate the great variability in the paternal role across time and place, culminating in the contemporary cooperative, highly involved coparent observed in modern societies of the developed world.
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Few studies have examined the relation between anxiety disorders in the postpartum period and cognitive as well as language development in infancy.
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Change in mother-infant interactive behavior: Relations to change in the mother, the infant, and the social context

Abstract

Infant Behavior and Development

Infant Behavior and Development

Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry

Patterns of attachment

Early interaction: Consequences for social and mental development at three years

Child Development

The concept of difficult temperament

Merrill-Palmer Quarterly

Temperament in infancy

Measurement of infant difficultness

Child Development

The determinants of parenting: A process model

Child Development

Continuity and discontinuity in infant negative and positive emotionality: Family antecedents and attachment consequences

Developmental Psychology

Infant positive and negative emotionality: One dimension or two?

Developmental Psychology

Sex typing and division of labor as determinants of marital change across the transition to parenthood

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

The Pennsylvania infant and family development project II: The development of reciprocal interaction in the mother-infant dyad

Child Development

Patterns of marital change and parent-child interaction

Journal of Marriage and Family

Direct observation of maternal sensitivity and dyadic interactions in the home: Relations to maternal thinking

Developmental Psychology

Lives through time

Effects of neonatal risk, maternal attitude, and cognitive style on early post-partum adjustment

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

Activities and interactions of mothers and their firstborn infants in the first six months of life: Covariation, stability, continuity, correspondence and prediction

Child Development

Toward and experimental ecology of human development

American Psychologist

Ecology of the family as a context for human development: Research Perspectives

Developmental Psychology

The meaning and measurement of neuroticism and anxiety

Facilitating mother-infant communication: A treatment model for high risk and developmentally delayed infants

Infant Mental Health Journal

Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences

A comparison of microanalytic and rating-scale approaches to assessing mother-infant affect and synchrony

Mother-infant face-to-face interaction: The sequence of dyadic states at 3, 6 and 9 months

Developmental Psychology

Marriage, adult adjustment, and early parenting

Child Development

Minor parenting stresses with young children

Child Development

Change in maternal behavior during the baby's first year of life

Child Development

How we should measure “change”-or should we?

Psychological Bulletin

Social support, infant temperament and parenting self-efficacy: A mediational model of post-partum depression

Child Development

Infant-mother attachment: Factors related to its development and change over time

Child Development

The affective self: Continuities and transformations from infancy

Individuality, context, and the search for meaning

Child Development

Emotional expression in infancy: A biobehavioral study

Pregnancy problems, post-partum depression and early mother-infant interactions

Developmental Psychology

Developing through relationships: Origins of communication, self, and culture

Social process theory of emotion: A dynamic systems approach

Social Development