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Publications (150)
Early life maltreatment can have severe and long-lasting consequences for the directly affected individual as well as for the next generation. Data from our research including mother-child dyads from Heidelberg and Berlin showed that early life maltreatment is associated with behavioral, hormonal and neural changes including personality traits and...
Attaining self‐regulation is a major developmental task in infancy, in which many children show transient difficulties. Persistent, clinically relevant difficulties in self‐regulation include excessive crying or sleeping disorders. Many families with affected children are burdened with multiple psychosocial risk. This suggests that regulatory probl...
There is a high prevalence of depression in Germany and all over the world. Maternal depressive symptoms during pregnancy have been shown in some studies to be associated with an increased risk of preterm birth and low birth weight. The influence of maternal depressive symptoms during pregnancy on preterm delivery and fetal birth weight was investi...
Background
The COVID-19 pandemic and its accompanying containment measures can be conceptualized as traumatic events. This review systematically investigates trauma-related symptoms in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic and the association of the pandemic and its containment measures with trauma-related disorders or symptoms.
Methods
The EBSCO (M...
Although a substantial part of employees suffers from a mental illness, the work situation of this population still is understudied. Previous research suggests that people with a mental illness experience discrimination in the workplace, which is known to have detrimental effects on health. Building on the stereotype content model and allostatic lo...
In interaction with their mother, infants not only learn how human relationships work, but – on an even more basic level – the continuous bidirectional, interactive regulation between mother and infant shapes the infant’s socioemotional development. Coordinated interactions alternate with uncoordinated ones, the latter resulting in momentary ruptur...
Zusammenfassung. Theoretischer Hintergrund: Die COVID-19-Pandemie stellte in vielen Bereichen eine Belastung für Familien dar, insbesondere durch die einschneidenden Beschränkungen zu Beginn. Fragestellung: Wie wirkte sich dies auf die Belastung von Müttern mit Kindern im ersten Lebensjahr und auf die kindliche Verhaltensregulation aus? Methode: In...
Parental mental disorders increase the risk for insecure attachment in children. However, the quality of caregiver–infant interaction plays a key role in the development of infant attachment. Dyadic interaction is frequently investigated via global scales which are too rough to uncover micro-temporal mechanisms. Prior research found that the latenc...
Introduction
To date, there are only few studies that compare the consequences of peripartum maternal depressive disorders (PD) versus depressive with comorbid anxiety disorders (PDCA) for infant and child development. As comorbidity is associated with greater impairment and symptom severity related to the primary diagnosis, comorbidity in mothers...
A milestone of child development is theory of mind (ToM): the ability to attribute mental states, especially beliefs and desires, to other persons and to understand that their behavior is guided by mental states. The learning process about the mental world also takes place in social communication and interaction, beginning in infancy. Infancy is as...
Background: Compared to adult psychotherapy training, there is little knowledge about the use of standardized actor-patients (SPs) for the development of professional competencies for younger patient populations. Objective: We assessed the effectiveness of two university-based training programs for diagnostic as well as intervention skills in child...
Existing research shows consistent links between boredom and depression, somatic complaints, substance abuse, or obesity and eating disorders. However, comparatively little is known about potential psychological and physical health-related correlates of academic boredom. Evidence for such a relationship can be derived from the literature, as boredo...
Existing research shows consistent links between boredom and depression, somatic complaints, substance abuse, or obesity and eating disorders. However, comparatively little is known about potential psychological and physical health-related correlates of academic boredom. Evidence for such a relationship can be derived from literature, as boredom ha...
Introduction:To date, there are only few studies which compare the consequences of peripartum maternal depressive disorders (PD) versus depressive with comorbid anxiety disorders (PDCA) for infant and child development. As comorbidity is associated with greater impairment and symptom severity related to the primary diagnosis, comorbidity in mothers...
Existing research shows that high achievement boredom is correlated with a range of undesirable behavioral and personality variables and that the main antecedents of boredom are being over- or under-challenged. However, merely knowing that students are highly bored, without taking their achievement level into account, might be insufficient for draw...
Background:
Early life maltreatment (ELM) has a high risk of transmission across generations, known as "the cycle of abuse." ELM is also an important risk factor for developing mental disorders, and having a mental disorder increases the risk of child abuse. Both the abuse potential in mothers with ELM and in mothers with a history of mental disor...
Existing research shows that high scholastic boredom is correlated with a range of undesirable behaviors and personality traits and that the main antecedents of boredom are being over- or under-challenged. No study to date, though, seems to have systematically compared students who are highly bored and low-achieving (thus, likely over-challenged) w...
Testing assumptions proposed by Frenzel’s reciprocal model of teacher emotions (e.g., Frenzel, 2014), this study explored relations between teachers’ appraisals concerning the attainment and importance of their teaching goals, and their emotions. Specifically, we addressed teachers’ goals of high student performance, motivation, discipline, and hig...
Purpose
Maternal mental disorders develop frequently during the perinatal period, and can have detrimental effects on the developing bond between a mother and her child. While depression has already been widely associated with bonding disorders, the link between anxiety disorders and maternal–fetal attachment has received only limited attention. Th...
Introduction: The relationship between endocrine und social interaction mechanisms in the perinatal period is far from understood, while scientific findings increasingly point to a higher risk for peripartal depression and anxiety, when there are social-interactional dysfunctions, in particular within the couple. Deficits in the social support of p...
There is growing evidence that even milder forms of maternal stress or anxiety during pregnancy affect the fetus causing possible long-term consequences for infant and child development. The mechanisms through which prenatal maternal stress may affect the unborn are not yet entirely clarified. Due to limited self-regulatory skills after birth, infa...
To date, studies investigating maternal postpartum depression (PPD) have mainly focused on identifying failures in interactions of postpartum depressed mothers and their infants, often attributed to single dysfunctional maternal behaviors. Intrusiveness has been identified as a dysfunctional behavior characterizing mothers suffering from PPD. Howev...
The study addresses the impact of maternal early life maltreatment (ELM) and maternal history of depression (HoD) on offspring’s mental health. Maternal sensitivity was examined as a potential mediator explaining the relationship between maternal ELM, maternal HoD and child psychopathology. Participants were 194 mothers with and without HoD and/or...
Objectives: Mental disorders are frequent, associated with disability-adjusted life years, societal, and economic costs. Children of parents with a mental illness (COPMI) are at an increased risk to develop disorders themselves. The transgenerational transmission of mental disorders has been conceptualized in a model that takes parental and family...
Frühe Gewalterfahrungen können schwerwiegende und lang anhaltende Auswirkungen auf die direkt Betroffenen, aber auch auf die nächste Generation haben. Anhand vorliegender Daten unserer Untersuchungen von Heidelberger und Berliner Mutter-Kind-Dyaden konnten wir zeigen, dass frühe Gewalterfahrungen zu Veränderungen auf behavioraler und neuronaler Ebe...
Previous research suggests that neuroendocrine mechanisms underlie inter-individual stress coping in couples. The neuropeptide oxytocin (OT), while regulating stress-sensitive HPA-axis activity might be crucial in this process. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of dyadic coping abilities and OT on HPA-axis outcomes and constructiv...
Introduction
Female sexual dysfunction is known to have a huge impact on quality of life and is highly prevalent during the peripartum period. Several influencing variables were found to be associated with impaired sexual function postpartum, among them breastfeeding and partnership quality. However, little is known about the predictive value of th...
Background
This study investigated whether postpartum anxiety disorder is associated to altered patterns of infant as well as maternal engagement in a Face-to-Face-Still-Face interaction (FFSF).
Sampling and methods
n = 39 women with postpartum DSM-IV anxiety disorder and n = 48 healthy mothers were videotaped during a FFSF with their infant (M =...
Infant and Caregiver Engagement Phases (ICEP)—Heidelberg Version.
(PDF)
Minimal anonymized dataset.
(XLSX)
Background:
Early-life maltreatment has severe consequences for the affected individual, and it has an impact on the next generation. To improve understanding of the intergenerational effects of abuse, we investigated the consequences of early-life maltreatment on maternal sensitivity and associated brain mechanisms during mother-child interaction...
Objectives:
In understanding early disturbances in the mother-child relationship, maternal-fetal attachment has become an important concept. To date no study has investigated the reliability and validity of the German version of the Maternal Fetal Attachment Scale (MFAS). The present study aimed to close this gap.
Methods:
Questionnaires were co...
Background:
Few studies have examined the relation between anxiety disorders in the postpartum period and cognitive as well as language development in infancy.
Aims:
This longitudinal study investigated whether anxiety disorder in the postpartum period is linked to infant development at twelve months. A closer look was also taken at a possible l...
Early life maltreatment (ELM) is associated with different neurobiological alterations. Lower oxytocin and altered grey matter volumes (GMV) in brain regions associated with the central oxytocin system, such as the hypothalamus, amygdala, and nucleus accumbens, have been reported in women with ELM. However, the association between peripheral oxytoc...
Maternal self-confidence has become an essential concept in understanding early disturbances in the mother-child relationship. Recent research suggests that maternal self-confidence may be associated with maternal mental health and infant development. The current study investigated the dynamics of maternal self-confidence during the first four mont...
Early life maltreatment (ELM) poses a risk for the development of insecure attachment and depression over the life span, depending on the type of maltreatment (physical, sexual, emotional, neglect) and its severity. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of ELM and lifetime depression on adult insecure attachment in a female sample...
Background:
There is a well-established link between maternal depression and child mental health. Similar effects have been found for maternal history of early life maltreatment (ELM). However, studies investigating the relationship of children's quality of life and maternal depression are scarce and none have been conducted for the association wi...
Previous studies have found that a stressful observational context challenges the mother-child relationship, thus highlighting negative interactive behavior. However, the impact of observational context has only been investigated in infants and preschoolers without specifically using the Emotional Availability Scales. Nor have they explored whether...
PurposeReduced sexual activity and dysfunctional problems are highly prevalent in the perinatal period, and there is a lack of data regarding the degree of normality during pregnancy. Several risk factors have been independently associated with a greater extent of Female Sexual Dysfunction (FSD). Therefore, this study aimed to assess the prevalence...
Aim: It is assumed that pathological Internet use (PIU) is a result of insecure attachment styles and unmet attachment needs. The following pilot study investigates the connection between PIU and attachment styles. Method: Ten study participants with PIU were compared to a control group consisting of 10 participants with the same sex, age, and educ...
Purpose:
To analyze the current proportions and characteristics of women using Internet (eHealth) and smartphone (mHealth) based sources of information during pregnancy and to investigate the influence, this information-seeking behavior has on decision-making.
Methods:
A cross-sectional study was conducted at two major German university hospital...
Maternal depression poses a risk for the developing mother-infant relationship. Similarly, maternal insecure attachment styles may limit the ability to adequately connect with the newborn during the postpartum period. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of maternal depression and insecure attachment (insecure and dual/disorganized)...
Purpose:
This study aimed to investigate socio-demographic, medical and psychological factors that have an impact on breastfeeding.
Methods:
Questionnaires were administered to 330 women prenatally (TI third trimester) and postpartum (TII 3-4 days, TIII 4 months). Medical data were collected from the hospital records. Self-reported data on initi...
Background/aims:
High maternal emotional availability (EA) positively affects various domains of child development. However, the question of which factors promote or hinder maternal EA has not been investigated systematically. The present study investigated several maternal characteristics, namely maternal psychopathology, maternal attachment styl...
Background:
Maternal depression and anxiety disorders are risk factors for the development of internalizing disorders in offspring. Maternal attachment has been discussed as one factor accounting for transmission. The aim of this study was to investigate child internalizing behavior at preschool age on a symptomatic and behavioral level and possib...
Maternal bonding has been described as the quality of the affective tie from a mother to her infant. This early bond's mental components and its longitudinal impact on child outcome have been markedly understudied. Although most researchers assume impaired maternal bonding to have a negative impact on child development, there is a lack of prospecti...
In diesem Kapitel wird auf die Bedeutung der Mutter-Kind-Interaktion eingegangen und die Notwendigkeit aufgezeigt, diese im therapeutischen Setting bei postpartalen psychischen Störungen einzubeziehen. Es wird aufgeführt, in welchem Maße die Qualität der Mutter-Kind-Interaktion die kindliche Entwicklung beeinflusst und erklärt, welche Dimensionen d...
Research investigating maternal bonding and parenting stress in the course of postpartum depression is lacking. Aim of the study was to investigate the development and potential mediation of both constructs in the course of postpartum depression. n = 31 mothers with postpartum depression according to DSM-IV and n = 32 healthy controls completed the...
Children’s level of inhibitory functioning has been shown to be positively associated with child adjustment over the course of development. Examining a sample of 194 mothers and their five to twelve year old children, we analyzed whether children of mothers with a history of childhood abuse (n = 30), mothers with remitted depression (n = 38), mothe...
One of the most striking characteristics of early life maltreatment (ELM) is the risk of transmission across generations, which could be linked to differences in maternal behavior. Maternal sensitivity includes appropriate and positive affective exchanges between mother and child. Mothers with a history of ELM have been found to show a lower sensit...
Children’s level of inhibitory functioning has been shown to be positively associated with child adjustment over the course of development. Examining a sample of 194 mothers and their five to twelve year old children, we analyzed whether children of mothers with a history of childhood abuse (n = 30), mothers with remitted depression (n = 38), mothe...
Background:
The association between maternal depression and adverse outcomes in children is well established. Similar links have been found for maternal childhood abuse. One proposed pathway of risk transmission is reduced maternal emotional availability. Our aim was to investigate whether sensitive parenting is impaired in mothers with depression...
Background:
The latency to reparation of interactive mismatches (interactive repair) is argued to regulate infant distress on a psychobiological level, and maternal anxiety disorders might impair infant regulation.
Sampling and methods:
A total of 46 dyads (19 mothers with an anxiety disorder, 27 controls) were analyzed for associations between...
To enhance understanding of impaired socio-emotional development in children of postpartum depressed or anxious mothers, this longitudinal study addressed the question of whether maternal postpartum depression and anxiety disorders result in deficits in children's processing of facial emotional expressions (FEEs) at pre-school age. Thirty-two mothe...
Affective behavioural matching during face-to-face interaction fosters the transition from mutual regulation to infant self-regulation. Optimum midrange models of mother-infant interaction hold that moderate degrees of dyadic matching facilitate infant socio-emotional development. The aim of this study was to examine which degree of dyadic matching...
Fragestellung: Die Bedeutung des Stillens ruckt zunehmend in den Vordergrund. Sowohl die kurz- als auch die langfristigen Vorteile fur die Gesundheit des Kindes und der Mutter liefern schlagkraftige Argumente, den bis jetzt doch erstaunlich geringen Anteil an voll gestillten Kinder in Deutschland zu erhohen. Dabei existiert eine Vielzahl an Einflus...
Objective
Validated questionnaire assessment of fathers’ experiences during childbirth is lacking in routine clinical practice. Salmon's Item List is a short, validated method used for the assessment of birth experience in mothers in both English- and German-speaking communities. With little to no validated data available for fathers, this pilot st...
Adverse effects of perinatal depression on the mother-child interaction are well documented; however, the influence of maternal-fetal bonding during pregnancy on postpartum bonding has not been clearly identified. The subject of this study was to investigate prospectively the influence of maternal-fetal bonding and perinatal symptoms of anxiety and...
Targets for psychodynamic psychotherapy are the core conflictual relational mode and its consequences for mood, social behaviour, and self image. Libido- and conflict-based concepts of the relational mode are increasingly being replaced by the concept of intersubjectivity, which includes also nonconflictual, healthy modes of relations as a basic hu...
Ca. 10 bis 15% aller Frauen entwickeln in der Zeit nach der Geburt eine Depression oder eine Angststörung. Postpartale psychische Störungen können sich nachteilig auf die Entwicklung des Kindes und den Aufbau einer stabilen Mutter-Kind-Beziehung auswirken, da die kindlichen Aff ekte in enger Beziehung zum mütterlichen Verhalten stehen, das seinerse...
Depressive Störungen und Angststörungen
im Postpartalzeitraum stellen mit einer Prävalenz von ca. 10% ein ernst zu nehmendes Risiko für die Gesundheit der Frau, für die Entwicklung einer intakten Mutter-Kind-Beziehung
sowie für die emotionale und kognitive Entwicklung des Kindes dar.
Hardly any research has examined the link between postpartum anxiety disorder and maternal bonding. This study examined if postpartum anxiety disorder and maternal bonding are related in the postpartum period. Thereby, subclinical depressive symptoms and specific aspects of an anxious symptomatology were also taken into consideration. The German sa...
The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of maternal postpartum depression and/or anxiety disorders according to DMS-IV on maternal self-confidence throughout infancy and early childhood. Exploratively, associations between maternal attachment insecurity and maternal self-confidence at pre-school age were examined. The sample (N = 54) of thi...
Depressive disorders have shown an increasing prevalence over the past decades. Growing evidence suggests that pregnancy and childbirth trigger depressive symptoms not only in women but likewise in men. This study estimates the prevalence of paternal perinatal depressiveness in a German community sample and explores its link to partnership satisfac...
Regulatory problems in infancy are determined by different risk factors. This study aims to examine how psychosocial risk factors are connected, and how they impact the early regulatory ability of 3-month-old infants. In a sample of 57 mother-infant dyads, maternal anxiety and infant crying, sleeping and feeding habits were assessed. As a possible...
Research suggested that maternal anxiety disorders might be related to infants' behavioral inhibition. This study investigated whether maternal postpartum anxiety disorder is associated with infant temperament, more precisely, infant distress to novelty, an early predictor of behavioral inhibition. Differences in the latter were analyzed in a Germa...
Empirical Basis of the Questionnaire for Crying, Feeding and Sleeping The Questionnaire for Crying, Feeding and Sleeping of an infant, constructed based on theory and factor analysis, is assessed for internal consistency, inter-correlations, and its re-lation to a behaviour diary. A clinical and a non-clinical sample are compared. The sample of in...
In the present study, we examined a German sample to determine whether anxiety symptoms during pregnancy had an impact on the duration and method of childbirth. Data of N = 88 women recruited at the Heidelberg University Hospital were used in the analyses. Prepartum anxiety symptoms were assessed with the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI, genera...
The Questionnaire for Crying, Feeding and Sleeping of an infant, constructed based on theory and factor analysis, is assessed for internal consistency, inter-correlations, and its relation to a behaviour diary. A clinical and a non-clinical sample are compared. The sample of in total 704 infants younger than one year consists of different subsample...
There is a high prevalence of depression in Germany and all over the world. Maternal depressive symptoms during pregnancy have been shown in some studies to be associated with an increased risk of preterm birth and low birth weight. The influence of maternal depressive symptoms during pregnancy on preterm delivery and fetal birth weight was investi...
CONCERN: The current care and financial situation of mother-child units for psychic disorders associated with pregnancies in Germany should be documented in preparation for the development of the new reimbursement system for psychiatry and psychosomatics.
In accordance with the last survey of 2005, a brief questionnaire was developed and a nationwi...
This study examines the question whether early childhood temperaments of children of mothers suffering from postnatal depression differs from children of non-depressed mothers. Children of clinically depressed mothers were assessed with regard to their temperament on two different dimensions and compared to a control group. The level of cortisol co...
Low maternal self-confidence may damage the early mother-infant relationship and negatively influence infant development. The goal of this study was to test whether a current and previous history of DSM-IV anxiety and depressive disorders is associated with maternal self-confidence two weeks after delivery. Postpartum anxiety disorder and depressio...
In healthy mother-infant dyads, interactions are characterized by a pattern of matching and mismatching interactive states with quick reparation of mismatches into matches. In contrast, dyads in which mothers have postpartum depression show impaired mother-infant interaction patterns over the first few months of the infant's life. The majority of s...
Ca. 10–15% aller Frauen entwickeln während der Schwangerschaft und postpartal eine klinisch bedeutsame Depression oder Angststörung. Diese können sich nachteilig auf die Entwicklung eines stabilen mütterlichen Selbstvertrauens, auf die erste Bindung an ihr Kind (Bonding) und die Mutter-Kind-Interaktion auswirken. Zumeist wird in der Literatur die A...
Zusammenfassung Müdigkeit und Erschöpfung („fatigue“) stellen einen alltäglichen Zustand für viele Schwangere dar. Ursachen werden häufig
neben der körperlichen Belastung in den ausgeprägten hormonellen Fluktuationen gesucht, die in der Schwangerschaft stattfinden.
Viele Studien berichten von einer Assoziation steigender Estradiol-, Progesteron-, „...
Over the last few decades a large number of studies have investigated mental illness during pregnancy detecting a considerable prevalence of antenatal depression at a level of approximately 10%. Whilst much attention has been paid to the subject in the Anglo-American and Scandinavian world the issue has scarcely been studied in Germany. At present...
Zusammenfassung
Eine Vielzahl von Studien hat sich in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten mit psychischen Störungen während der Schwangerschaft beschäftigt und eine nicht zu vernachlässigende Prävalenz präpartaler Depressionen festgestellt, welche bei rund 10% liegt. Im Gegensatz zum angloamerikanischen und skandinavischen Raum ist das Thema in Deutschland...
Prenatal stress is known to be a potential risk factor for cognitive, behavioural and motor development that even last until adolescence. A consensus of how 'prenatal stress' can be measured, in which trimester of pregnancy women should be studied and whether subjective feelings of being stressed are associated with a hormonal response is still lac...
