Search

Abstract: The present study examined differences in social criticism and maternal distress and in household, maternal, and infant characteristics between families who co‐slept with their infants beyond 6 months and those who moved their infants to a separate room by 6 months. Data for infant sleeping arrangements, preferences for their sleeping arrangement choices, criticism, depressive and anxiety symptoms, and worries about infant sleep were collected from 103 European American mothers during the infant's first year. Mothers who co‐slept with their infants beyond 6 months (persistent co‐sleepers) were more likely than mothers who moved their infants to solitary sleep by 6 months to receive criticism and report depression and worry about infants' sleep behaviour, even after controlling for preference for the sleep arrangement they used. Interestingly, criticism was associated with maternal depression and worries only for persistent co‐sleeping mothers. Further, these mothers had lower income, reported greater space constraints; were younger, single, or unemployed; were less likely to have a Bachelor's degree; and were more likely to have infants with greater negative affectivity or problematic night waking, compared to mothers of solitary sleeping infants. Adherence to cultural norms regarding infant sleeping arrangements may be a strong predictor of social criticism and maternal well‐being. Highlights: The present study examined differences in levels of criticism and maternal distress and in sample characteristics by infant sleep arrangements. The covariance pattern models revealed that persistent co‐sleeping mothers reported greater social criticism, depressive symptoms, and worry about infants' sleep behaviour than mothers of solitary sleeping infants. Social criticism was associated with maternal depressive symptoms and worries only for mothers in the former group, consistent with the cultural model of sleep. Co‐sleepers' household and maternal characteristics reported by past work may be most applicable to European American families. The European American families who persistently co‐slept with their infants in our study may be reactive co‐sleepers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective.The goals of the current article were to test the presence of an association between mothers’ neural activity (measured by frontal cortical alpha asymmetry) and their specific emotions (measured by observed facial expressions) in response to infant distress and the moderation of this relation by mothers’ appraisal processes (measured by sense of parenting efficacy).Design.Mothers of 5- to 8-month-olds (n= 26) watched videos of their own infants expressing distress while their brain activity was recorded via electroencephalogram and their facial expressions were videotaped for later microcoding. Mothers also completed a questionnaire measure of parenting efficacy.Results.Greater neurophysiological withdrawal in response to infant distress videos, indexed by frontal alpha asymmetry, was associated with longer sad and tense expressions in mothers with average or below average parenting efficacy, but not in those with above average efficacy.Conclusions.Previous research showing that patterns of parents’ brain activity in response to child stimuli are associated with parenting behavior often interpret results in relation to parental emotion, but rarely measure specific concurrent emotions. The current study helps fill this gap in the literature by showing that maternal neurophysiological withdrawal (together with parenting efficacy) was associated with simultaneously measured facial expressions of negative emotion in response to infant distress stimuli. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present study examined observations of parenting quality (mothers’ emotional availability – EA) during infant bedtimes at 4 points across the infants’ first year, assessing relations between levels and trajectories of EA and infant attachment at 12 months and the role of infant temperament in moderating these associations. The sample (N = 128) was predominantly Euro-American (82.5%) and at low socioeconomic risk. Latent growth curve modeling with latent basis coefficients indicated substantial individual differences in initial levels and slopes in EA trajectories across the first year. Both levels of maternal EA and EA trajectories across the first year predicted 12-month infant attachment security. Although maternal EA tended to decrease across the first year in the full sample, EA trajectories that showed a “bounce-back” between 6 and 12 months, suggesting more successful maternal adaptation to an expanding infant developmental repertoire, predicted greater infant security at 12 months. In addition, linkages between latent EA trajectories and 12-month attachment were moderated by 3-month infant temperamental reactivity and regulation. These findings indicate that infant attachment security is sensitive to both static and dynamic aspects of parenting quality across the first year, and that infant temperament can interact with both in predicting infant attachment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Mothers' depressive symptoms, coparenting quality, maternal and infant sleep, and infant temperament during infants' first 6 months were examined as predictors of mothers' emotional availability (EA) at bedtime with their infants at 9 months. Maternal EA was assessed from video recordings of mother-infant interactions. Whereas mother-reported coparenting quality was both directly and indirectly predictive of EA, changes in depressive symptoms during the first 6 months only predicted lower EA when infants were temperamentally highly surgent. These results suggest that the influences on emotional availability during bedtime are complex, with maternal resources as well as infant temperament playing important influential roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maternal affect dysregulation and maternal depressive symptoms were examined as predictors of maternal emotional availability (EA) during mother-infant interaction in a nonclinical sample. In particular, we investigated if affect dysregulation predicts EA and is more important than are depressive symptoms in predicting EA. Questionnaire measures and 30 min of free play were obtained from 46 mothers of 4- to 5-month-old infants. Mothers' self-reported affect dysregulation was inversely related to EA, but mothers' depressive symptoms were not related to EA. More specifically, mothers' tendency to use unhealthy externalizing behaviors to reduce tension and distress predicted less EA. These results suggested that even in relatively low-risk samples, mothers' self-reported affect dysregulation, particularly the tendency to act out inappropriately in response to tension and distress, may be a more proximal predictor of EA than are depressive symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the links between mothers' frontal EEG asymmetry at rest and during videos of their 5- to 8-month-old infants expressing three emotion states (joy, anger/distress, and neutral interest), mother–infant emotional availability (EA) in the home, mothers' depressive and anxious symptoms, and mothers' emotional experience in response to infant emotion cues. Greater relative right frontal activity at rest was associated with greater maternal anxiety, but was unrelated to EA or mother-reported emotional experience in response to infant emotion cues. A shift toward greater relative right frontal activation in response to infant emotional stimuli was associated with lower maternal anxiety, greater mother–infant EA, and mothers' experience of sadness, concern, irritability, and the absence of joy in response to seeing their own infant in distress. These findings suggest that mothers' in the moment empathetic responding to their infant's emotions, indexed by a shift in frontal EEG asymmetry in response to infant emotional displays, is related to mother–infant EA in the home. Implications for conceptualizing parenting risk are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background:  Ecological and transactional theories link child outcomes to accumulated risk. This study hypothesized that cumulative risk was negatively related to attachment, and that maternal sensitivity mediated linkages between risk and attachment. Methods:  One hundred and twelve high‐risk African‐American premature infant–mother dyads participated. Psychosocial (maternal depression, stress and self‐efficacy) and sociodemographic risk (poverty, maternal education, marital status) were maternal self‐report (0–4 months). Infant health risk was obtained from hospital charts. Infant–mother attachment (12 months) and maternal sensitivity (4 months) were assessed with Q‐sort measures. Findings:  Psychosocial and sociodemographic risk, but not infant health risk, negatively related to attachment. Both were mediated by maternal sensitivity. Conclusions:  The impact of risk domains on attachment security was mediated by maternal sensitivity. Results emphasize the need for early intervention programs targeting premature infants to identify and address environmental and personal factors that place parenting at risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, linkages were examined between parental behaviors (maternal practices) at bedtime, emotional availability of mothering at bedtime, and infant sleep quality in a cross-sectional sample of families with infants between 1 and 24 months of age. Observations of maternal behaviors and maternal emotional availability were conducted independently by 2 sets of trained observers who were blind to data being coded by the other. With infant age statistically controlled, specific maternal behaviors at bedtime were unrelated to infant sleep disruptions at bedtime and during the night. By contrast, emotional availability of mothering at bedtime was significantly and inversely related to infant sleep disruption, and. although these links were stronger for younger infants, they were significant for older infants as well. Maternal emotional availability was also inversely linked with mothers' ratings of whether their infants had sleep difficulties. These findings demonstrate that parents' emotional availability at bedtimes may be as important, if not more important, than bedtime practices in predicting infant sleep quality. Results support the theoretical premise that parents' emotional availability to children in sleep contexts promotes feelings of safety and security and. as a result, better-regulated child sleep. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined the independent and joint relations of parental self-efficacy beliefs and parent knowledge of child development to maternal behavioral competence among mothers of high-risk infants. Sixty-five mothers completed questionnaires regarding parental self-efficacy and knowledge of child development and were assessed for behavioral competence during a 10-min free-play session with their infants. There were no independent contributions of parental self-efficacy or parent knowledge of development in predicting parenting competence. However, the relation between parental self-efficacy and parenting competence was moderated by parent knowledge of development. Consistent with Bandura''s [Psychol. Rev. 84 (1977) 191; Am. Psychol. 44 (1989) 1175] formulations, parental self-efficacy and parenting competence were positively associated when parental knowledge of development was high. By contrast, parental self-efficacy beliefs and parenting competence were inversely associated when knowledge of development was low. Mothers reporting high parental self-efficacy, but low knowledge of development, were the least sensitive with their infants in play interactions, suggesting that these mothers were naively confident about their parenting abilities. Implications for designing interventions for naively confident mothers are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study tests the idea that mothers' self-efficacy beliefs mediate the effects on parenting behavior of variables such as depression, perceptions of infant temperamental difficulty, and social-marital supports. Subjects were 48 clinically depressed and 38 nondepressed mothers observed in interaction with their 3-13-month-old infants (M = 7.35 months). As predicted, maternal self-efficacy beliefs related significantly to maternal behavioral competence independent of the effects of other variables. When the effects of self-efficacy were controlled, parenting competence no longer related significantly to social-marital supports or maternal depression. In addition, maternal self-efficacy correlated significantly with perceptions of infant difficulty after controlling for family demographic variables. These results suggest that maternal self-efficacy mediates relations between maternal competence and other psychosocial variables and may play a crucial role in determining parenting behavior and infant psychosocial risk. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The relation between infant-sibling affective involvement and the attachment security of each child to the mother was examined in the present laboratory investigation. In mothers' presence, securely attached infants were less likely to protest and aggress against mothers and older siblings when mothers played only with the older child. In mothers' absence, more secure older siblings were more likely to respond to infant distress with caregiving than were less secure older siblings. Although infant attachment behavior to older siblings was rare, it occurred only when the older sibling was more secure. Sibling dyads with a secure infant and a more secure older child appeared to be most likely to develop nonantagonistic relationships, whereas sibling dyads with an insecure infant and a less secure older child appeared least likely to do so. These findings were discussed in terms of the putative role of attachment security in shaping sibling bonds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined mothers' emotional availability (EA) during daytime free play and bedtime as a mediator of linkages between maternal nighttime sleep and infant-mother attachment. Participants included 153 mothers (85% White) with infants (53% female). When infants were 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months, maternal sleep was assessed using actigraphy and daily sleep diaries for 7 consecutive days. At each time point, mothers' EA was scored from one observation of daytime free play and from one evening observation of infant bedtime by trained observers who were blind to all other participant information. Average scores were created for maternal sleep and EA across the five occasions in the first year. At 12 and 18 months, infant-mother attachment security in the home was scored by blind observers using the Attachment Q-Set, averaged across the two age points, and used in analyses. Mediational analyses revealed that mothers who experienced highly variable sleep and had poor sleep quality were less emotionally available with infants at bedtime during infants' first year of life, which in turn was predictive of lower infant-mother attachment security in the second year, supporting mediation. Linkages between maternal sleep characteristics and daytime EA were less evident. Later maternal sleep timing was also directly predictive of low attachment security, after accounting for maternal EA. Findings emphasize that poor parental sleep places both parenting and infant socioemotional development at risk, and that parental sleep hygiene and sleep habits should be a salient focus of parenting intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examines the influences of mothers’ emotional availability toward their infants during bedtime, infant attachment security, and interactions between bedtime parenting and attachment with infant temperamental negative affectivity, on infants’ emotion regulation strategy use at 12 and 18 months. Infants’ emotion regulation strategies were assessed during a frustration task that required infants to regulate their emotions in the absence of parental support. Whereas emotional availability was not directly related to infants’ emotion regulation strategies, infant attachment security had direct relations with infants’ orienting toward the environment and tension reduction behaviors. Both maternal emotional availability and security of the mother–infant attachment relationship interacted with infant temperamental negative affectivity to predict two strategies that were less adaptive in regulating frustration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Previous work has shown that early experience influences infant cortisol secretion. Few studies, however, have examined associations between parenting quality and cortisol levels and patterning in very young infants. Aims This study examined linkages between maternal emotional availability (EA) during a routine caregiving task, bedtime, and infant cortisol in the first 3 months of life. Concurrent and longitudinal associations between maternal EA and infant cortisol were examined. Study design Families were visited when their infants were 1 and 3 months old. Video equipment was set up in order to record the infant's bedtime routine. Parents were provided with materials with which to take saliva samples from their infants at late afternoon, bedtime, and the following morning. Subjects At 1 month, participants were 96 mothers and infants living in a rural U.S. state. Data were available for 88 mothers and infants at 3 months. Outcome measures Maternal EA was scored from videotapes of bedtime at each age point. Infant cortisol was assessed from the saliva samples taken by parents. Results Regression analyses indicated that at 1 and 3 months of age, infants of more emotionally available mothers showed lower levels of cortisol secretion across the night than infants of less emotionally available mothers. Additionally, multilevel model analyses indicated that infants of more emotionally available mothers showed greater evidence of a decline in their cortisol levels across the evening, followed by an increase across the nighttime into the morning in their cortisol at 3 months. Conclusions Findings suggest that maternal care in the context of a routine caregiving task is associated with lower stress reactivity and with earlier circadian patterning in very young infants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]