Article

Maternal Responsiveness, Intrusiveness, and Negativity During Play with Infants: Contextual Associations and Infant Cognitive Status in A Low‐Income Sample

January 2013
Infant Mental Health Journal 34(1)

Authors:

City University of New York - Brooklyn College

Maternal parenting behaviors during a mother–infant play interaction were examined in a sample of 160 low-income mothers and their 15-month-old infants. Maternal responsive/didactic, intrusive, and negative behaviors were coded from videotapes and examined in relation to mothers’ age, marital status, stressful life events, and depressive symptoms, and infants’ cognitive scores at 15 and 25 months. Younger maternal age and increases in stressful life events were associated with increases in mothers’ negative behaviors whereas being married was positively associated with mothers’ responsive/didactic behaviors and inversely associated with their negative and intrusive behaviors. Mothers’ depressive symptoms were inversely associated with both responsive/didactic and intrusive behaviors and predicted lower cognitive scores in infants at 15 months, but not 25 months. Maternal responsive/didactic behaviors predicted infant cognitive scores at both ages after controlling for maternal characteristics and other parenting behaviors. Intrusiveness moderated associations between both responsive/didactic and negative parenting behaviors and infant 25-month cognition. Maternal age, marital status, psychological resources, and contextual sources of stress play a central role in the quality of parenting among low-income mothers, and positive mother–infant interactions are strong predictors of infants’ early cognitive status.

Parenting and Temperament in the Context of Risk: An Investigation of Determinants of Inter- and Intraindividual Differences in Parenting Behavior and Temperament Development under Risk Exposure

Thesis

Jan 2019

Judith Fößel

Daily interactions with their caregivers build an important proximal environment for children. These early experiences shape children’s internal working model, comprising mental representations that guide future expectations and behavior. Moreover, early positive relationships are considered as a source of resilience for the child and his/her future life. It is very relevant to identify risk and protective factors for sensitive caregiving, especially for families who are highly burdened and at risk to show insensitive caregiving. Importantly, as parent-child interactions have a dyadic nature, also factors of the child should be taken into account when determinants of parenting behavior are examined. The present study analyzed psychosocial family risk, parenting stress, and children’s temperamental disposition as determinants of three dimensions of parenting behavior in the infant-toddler period in a sample including a substantial proportion of high-risk families. Furthermore, the effect of situational demand on parenting behavior was explored. Additionally, the development of three dimensions of children’s temperament in the context of family risk and parents’ parenting stress was investigated, and the effect of parents’ behavior on their children’s temperament development was analyzed. The German Development Study, a cooperative project of four research groups, has a sequential cohort design with children from two age cohorts and data assessed at two measurement points, which were about seven months apart. Taking data from a pre-assessment in which 21 distal and proximal risk factors were assessed into account, low-, medium-, and high-risk families were selected for the study. At wave 1, the sample of the German Development Study consisted of 197 children at the ages of 12 and 19 months in the younger and the older cohort, respectively, and their primary caregivers. At both waves, data assessment was conducted during home visits which followed an equivalent semi-structured procedure. Parenting behavior was assessed by two videotaped parent-child interactions, a free play situation and a structured situation, which put higher demands on the parent-child dyad. Child temperament, parenting stress, and psychosocial risk were assessed by parent report questionnaire. Our results showed that when a cut-off-score of four risk factors in the family’s life was reached, maternal responsivity was significantly lowered whereas maternal intrusiveness was significantly heightened. Interestingly, when distal and proximal risk factors were considered separately, analyses revealed that mainly distal risk factors were predictive of lower parenting quality. Results regarding the effect of parenting stress on parenting behavior were partly surprising as mothers’ stress experience due to personal restrictions was related to higher parenting quality. Furthermore, besides child temperament being influenced by parenting behavior, we mainly found parenting behavior to be influenced by child temperament. Interestingly, the effect of child temperament on parenting behavior was partly moderated by family’s risk exposure: Children’s negative affectivity predicted higher maternal responsivity in low-risk families, but lower maternal responsivity in high-risk families. Additionally, children’s effortful control predicted higher maternal sensitivity in the context of a given child-related (negative affectivity) or environmental risk (distal risk). Moreover, an interplay between the temperament dimensions negative affectivity and effortful control and the parenting dimension responsivity was found: In the context of high maternal responsivity, high negative affectivity predicted high effortful control, showing how external regulation (maternal responsivity) fosters internal regulation (effortful control). Besides interindividual differences in parenting behavior, also intraindividual differences were found: Particularly when mothers reported high child-related parenting stress, their parenting quality decreased when the situational demands of the mother-child interaction increased. Finally, regarding the effect of family risk on children’s temperament, results revealed more difficult temperamental characteristics under risk exposure, particularly in boys. Moreover, also parenting stress was found to be related to difficult temperament, particularly mothers’ stress experienced as feelings of incompetence in regard to parenting: Maternal feelings of incompetence predicted regulative and reactive aspects of child temperament. Our findings indicate that high-risk families with children who bring along demanding characteristics, such as regulatory problems, should be of special interest regarding prevention and intervention programs. As negative effects of risk on parenting behavior and children’s temperament had already emerged at the end of infants’ first year of life, these programs should start as early as possible, in order to prevent families from a consolidation of negative parenting behaviors and difficult child characteristics mutually enhancing each other.

Temperament und Interaktionsqualität in den ersten Lebensjahren - Das längsschnittliche Wechselspiel frühkindlichen Temperaments und mütterlicher Interaktionsqualität vor dem Hintergrund ungleicher psychosozialer Ressourcen

Thesis

Full-text available

Jan 2018

Jan-David Freund

Die Bedeutung der frühen Kindheit für die weitere Entwicklung findet in der Forschung zunehmend Beachtung. In dieser Hinsicht gelten die mütterliche Interaktionsqualität und das Temperament des Kindes für sich genommen beide als wichtige Prädiktoren. Verstärkt werden könnte ihr Effekt durch ihre Wechselwirkung, über die seit Jahrzehnten diskutiert wird. Die Befundlage gestaltet sich uneindeutig, jedoch gibt es Hinweise, dass die psychosozialen Ressourcen der Mutter eine Rolle dafür spielen könnten, wie sie insbesondere mit einem schwierigen Temperament ihres Kindes umgeht. Des Weiteren wurde bisher versäumt, das längsschnittliche Zusammenspiel der Variablen zu untersuchen, obwohl der Forschungsstand eine transaktionale wechselseitige Beeinflussung vermuten lässt. Zur Untersuchung dieser Thesen wurden zwei Studien durchgeführt, die um eine dritte Studie ergänzt wurden, die der Untersuchung grundlegender Fragen rund um die Erfassung und das Verständnis frühkindlichen Temperaments diente. Die vorgelegte Synopse fasst die relevanten Theorien und Befunde zusammen, zeigt aktuelle Forschungsdesiderata auf, stellt Design und Ergebnisse der drei Studien vor und diskutiert schließlich deren Implikationen für tangierte Forschungs- und Praxisfelder. Die Studien greifen im Wesentlichen auf Daten des Nationalen Bildungspanels zurück, das an einer für das untersuchte Alter außergewöhnlich großen Stichprobe Befragungs- und Beobachtungsdaten erhoben hat, die eine Analyse der untersuchten Fragestellung ermöglichen. Studie 1 stützt die Validität der verwendeten Einschätzungen der Mutter zum Temperament ihres Kindes und liefert Ansatzpunkte für eine Neubewertung des Forschungsstandes zu dieser Frage. Studie 2 und 3 zeigen, dass eine geringere Interaktionsqualität auf komplexe Weise mit einem schwierigeren Temperament assoziiert ist. Für Mütter, deren psychosoziale Ressourcen nicht eingeschränkt sind, fällt die Höhe dieses negativen Zusammenhangs im ersten Lebensjahr minimal aus, nimmt jedoch bis zum dritten Lebensjahr kontinuierlich zu. Lagen hingegen mehrere Risikofaktoren vor, für die von einer belastenden Wirkung auf die psychosozialen Ressourcen der Mutter ausgegangen wird, war nicht nur eine deutlich geringere Interaktionsqualität, sondern auch ein wesentlich stärkerer Effekt des Temperaments zu beobachten. Im ersten Lebensjahr zeigten belastete Mütter eine besonders niedrige Interaktionsqualität, wenn ihr Kind ein schwieriges Temperament aufwies, wohingegen ein einfaches Temperament die negative Wirkung der Belastungsfaktoren auf die Interaktionsqualität sogar zu einem großen Teil kompensieren konnte. Im zweiten und zu Beginn des dritten Lebensjahres zeigte sich kein solcher Interaktionseffekt und auch kein Zusammenhang eines schwierigen Temperaments mit der Interaktionsqualität belasteter Mütter. Somit konnten die Studien die besondere Rolle des frühkindlichen Temperaments bestätigen, da sie zeigen, dass der negative Effekt eines schwierigen Temperaments im ersten Lebensjahr nicht nur konditional an das Vorliegen kumulierter Belastungen geknüpft ist, sondern umgekehrt auch deren negative Wirkung auf die Interaktionsqualität konditional davon abhängt, ob die Mutter vom Temperament ihres Kindes herausgefordert ist. Dass ab dem zweiten Lebensjahr kein querschnittlicher Zusammenhang mehr zu beobachten ist, zeigt in Verbindung mit der hohen festgestellten Prädiktivität der Interaktionsqualität im ersten Lebensjahr, wie wichtig es ist, betroffene Mutter-Kind-Dyaden bereits im ersten Lebensjahr zu identifizieren und zu unterstützen, um weiteren ungünstigen Entwicklungen vorzubeugen. Daher sollten sowohl die Forschung zu frühen Interaktionen als auch die Kinder- und Jugendhilfe dem Temperament im ersten Lebensjahr künftig mehr Beachtung schenken.

Maternal Responsive-didactic Caregiving in Play Interactions with 10-month-olds and Cognitive Development at 18 months

Article

Feb 2016

Maternal responsive–didactic caregiving (RDC) and infant advanced object play were investigated in a sample of 400 mothers and their 10-month-old infants during video-recorded semistructured play interactions. Three maternal behaviours: contingent response, cognitively stimulating language and autonomy promoting speech were coded and infant object play. Factor analysis confirmed the three maternal behaviours loaded onto one underlying factor, labelled RDC. Based on ecological and transactional theories of development, associations between RDC and infant (advanced object play), maternal (age, education, ethnicity and first language) and family (size and home adversity) factors were investigated. Multiple regressions (1) explored the predictors of maternal RDC and (2) tested the possible role of maternal RDC in predicting infant intellectual development at 18months. At 10months, infants showing higher levels of play maturity experienced more maternal responsive and didactic feedback. All mother and family characteristics predicted variations in maternal RDC. Predicting 18-month cognitive development, RDC had significant effect over and above maternal education, home adversity and infant play. Mother’s first language remained significant, reflecting that RDC, in this investigation, relies heavily on language input. The findings highlight the importance of both contingent response and didactic contributions in interactions to subsequent cognitive development as early as the first year.

Multiple Adverse Experiences and Child Cognitive Development

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2015
Pediatr Res

During childhood and adolescence, children's social environments shape their cognitive development. Children exposed to multiple adversities in their social environment are more likely to have poorer cognitive outcomes. These findings have prompted interest among pediatric and public health communities to screen and connect youth to appropriate interventions that ameliorate the detrimental effects of adverse exposures. Such intervention efforts can be improved with a stronger conceptual understanding of the relationship between multiple adverse exposures and child cognitive development. This includes disentangling adverse exposures from other risk factors or underlying mechanisms, specifying mechanisms of action, and determining when adverse exposures are most detrimental. This review summarizes findings from the literature on each of these areas and proposes a conceptual model to guide further research and intervention.Pediatric Research (2015); doi:10.1038/pr.2015.195.

Developmental burden of childhood adversity: Insight from longitudinal perspectives

Thesis

Full-text available

May 2022

Tochukwu Nweze

Childhood adversity has been implicated in poorer developmental outcomes such as behavioral problems, poorer mental health and cognitive deficits. Studies have also linked adversity to alterations in cortical brain structures. To date however, almost all knowledge of the effects of adversity on outcomes has come from cross-sectional studies or longitudinal studies that used cross-sectional data analysis method. In an attempt to bridge this gap, across three empirical studies, this thesis sets out to implement series of longitudinal data modelling aimed at disentangling the intricacies of the effects of childhood adversity on mental health, cognitive abilities and brain development. In study 1, I analyzed a large sample (N=13,287) of 5 wave longitudinal data obtained from the Millennium Cohort Study in an attempt to understand how early-life adversity, mental health and cognition affect one another or how the effects unfold over time. To achieve this, I used focused longitudinal mediation model via path model approach. Results showed that early-life adversity was associated with poorer performance in spatial working memory and vocabulary performance. Notably, current and previous mental health mediated a substantial proportion (working memory: 59%; vocabulary: ¬70%), of these effects. Findings also showed that adversity has an enduring adverse effect on mental health, and that poorer mental health is associated with poorer cognitive performance later on in development. Moreover, the adverse effects of mental health were cumulative: poor mental health early on is associated with poorer cognitive scores up to 11 years later, above and beyond contemporaneous mental health. Based on this evidence, I suggested that the academic and cognitive competence of vulnerable children may be enhanced if their early mental health conditions are given deliberate clinical attention. In a follow-up study 2, I attempted to provide empirical support for dimensional model of adversity which argues that childhood adversity can be classified into subgroups, known as dimensions. For this purpose, I analyzed rich set of adverse childhood experiences obtained from a subset of ALSPAC cohort sample (N = 2,965) using latent class analysis. Findings showed evidence of five distinct adversity subgroups, namely, low adversity, dysfunctional family, parental deprivation, family poverty and global adversity. To establish a pathway to cognitive functioning among the adversity subgroups, a further analysis using latent class regression revealed that family poverty subgroup performed poorest in working memory and inhibition tasks. A separate analysis revealed that the effects of each individual adversity types on cognitive outcomes were mostly consistent with the observed class performance in which they co-occurred. Regardless, sensitive periods (timing of adversity exposure) explained more variability in these observed effects compared to accumulation hypothesis. In study 3, I analysed a subset of IMAGEN cohort sample (N = 502) using latent change score model and complete longitudinal mediation model via autoregressive path approach, aimed to understand the long-term interrelations between adverse life events, cortical development and cognitive functioning. Results of latent change score model showed that greater baseline adverse life events predicted a marginal reduction in the right anterior cingulate surface area. In addition, baseline right orbitofrontal cortical thickness predicted a decrease change in adverse life events. I found no evidence of association between adverse life events and volumes of cortical structures or cognitive outcomes. In separate longitudinal analyses, I found no evidence of indirect effects in the two neurocognitive pathways that link adverse life events in adolescence to brain and cognitive outcomes. Although the results of latent change score model appear to support the robust cross-sectional studies which have implicated adverse events in brain alterations, especially in the prefrontal, however, the magnitude of effects observed in this study 3 are smaller than have been reported in the cross-sectional studies, suggesting that potential long-term impact of adverse life events on brain structures may likely be more modest than previously noted. I end the thesis by articulating the implications of these findings across the 3 empirical studies, indicating the strengths and limitations, and suggesting areas for future directions. Generally, it is my hope that new insight drawn from these longitudinal studies will inform the right policies in the society. Such policies may include but not limited to increase clinical intervention for the vulnerable and most underprivileged children as well greater financial aids to families living in poverty, given recent reports that such aid package can alter the trajectories of developmental outcomes of children in a positive way.

Maternal responsive behaviours and child language outcomes in a cohort of mothers and children facing adversity

Article

May 2022

Children facing adversity are at greater risk of experiencing language difficulties than their peers. This study aims to examine the association between specific maternal responsive behaviours at 24 months and language outcomes at the age of 5 years in a cohort of mothers and children facing adversity. Mother–child dyads (n = 138) facing adversity were observed and videoed at home at 24 months in mother–child free play. Four maternal responsive behaviours were coded from these videos: imitations, responsive questions, labels, and expansions. Child language was assessed using the CELF-4 at the age of 5 years. Linear regression was used to examine associations, in both adjusted and unadjusted models. In unadjusted models, imitations, responsive questions, and labels predicted better child language scores at age 5. Imitations continued to positively predict language scores after adjusting for confounding factors, including earlier communication skills. Findings demonstrate the importance of considering maternal responsive behaviours with respect to stages of child development.

What to Look for in Relationships: Development, Inter-Rater Reliability, and Initial Validity Estimates for a Young Child-Caregiver Relationship Assessment

Preprint

Full-text available

Oct 2021

Observational assessments are important for understanding a range of behaviors and emotions in the young child-caregiver relationship. Given the importance of observational assessments and the skill and experience that is required to learn to do them, the What to Look for in Relationships (WLR) interaction rating system was developed. The goal was to provide a multidimensional assessment for professionals who work with young children and their caregivers to assist providers in evaluating both strengths and areas for improvement in five areas of young child-caregiver relationship dimensions. This paper reports on the development, interrater reliability, initial convergent and discriminant validity, and incremental utility of the scales. Data were collected from caregiver-child dyads, who participated in a semi-structured observational caregiver-child interaction session as part of a clinic evaluation for relationship-based therapeutic services for young children in child protection. Eighty-five children (57% male) and 146 caregivers (parents or other custodial caregiver) participated in this study. Recorded interactions were coded using the WLR scales with 146 interactions coded by at least two independent observers for interrater reliability analyses. The scales showed adequate internal consistency, good inter-rater reliability, strong convergent associations with a single dimension measure (i.e., the Parent-Infant Relationship Global Assessment Scale; PIR-GAS) and discriminated those in the clinical range from those with adaptive functioning on the PIR-GAS. This study provides initial support for the usefulness of the WLR scales for assessing dimensions of caregiver-child relationships during early childhood that may be useful targets of intervention.

Parenting quality from observational ratings at age 2: validation from Norwegian and U.S. Samples

Article

Oct 2020
EARLY CHILD RES Q

This study investigated the construct validity of a proposed measure of parenting quality derived from extensively used observational ratings of parenting in mother-child interaction procedures with 2-year-olds in two large samples. Data included global ratings of mother-child interaction in an unstructured free-play and a semi-structured teaching task from the Behavior Outlook Norwegian Developmental Study (N = 1157) and from the Three Boxes procedure used in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 1364). Confirmatory Factor Analyses, including ratings of mothers’ sensitivity, detachment, intrusiveness, cognitive stimulation, positive regard and negative regard, revealed a similarly structured latent parenting construct across samples and observational procedures, supporting the structural and content validity, and the generalizability of the measure. In the Norwegian sample, better predictive validity to child outcomes at age 4 was found from the semi-structured teaching task than from the less structured free-play task. Comparable predictive validity to child outcomes was found for the U.S. sample’s latent parenting quality construct. The results hold implications for the careful selection and study of observational procedures for measuring parenting quality in early childhood.

Latino Caregivers’ Interactions With Their Children With Language Delays: A Comparison Study

Article

Apr 2020

Evidence-based treatments for young children with developmental language delays include caregiver-implemented naturalistic interventions. However, there is little research on culturally appropriate interventions for Spanish-speaking caregivers from low–socioeconomic status (SES) households and their young children with identified language delays. We compared interaction strategies of Latino Spanish-speaking caregivers from low-SES backgrounds and non-Latino English-speaking caregivers from high-SES backgrounds with their children with language delays. Caregivers’ interactions were coded for (a) interaction characteristics, (b) use of naturalistic language support strategies, and (c) linguistic input. Results indicated Spanish-speaking Latino caregivers from low-SES backgrounds used a more directive, responsive, and warm interaction style than non-Latino caregivers. Non-Latino, English-speaking caregivers from high-SES backgrounds used more cognitively stimulating strategies, spent more time observing and narrating play, and used longer utterances and more lexical diversity. Findings provide directions for future research and guidance for clinicians working with Latino families from low-SES households.

Fetal and Infant Outcomes in the Offspring of Parents With Perinatal Mental Disorders: Earliest Influences

Article

Full-text available

May 2019

Mental illness is highly prevalent and runs in families. Mental disorders are considered to enhance the risk for the development of psychopathology in the offspring. This heightened risk is related to the separate and joint effects of inherited genetic vulnerabilities for psychopathology and environmental influences. The early years of life are suggested to be a key developmental phase in the intergenerational psychopathology transmission. Available evidence supports the idea that early exposure to parental psychopathology, during the pregnancy and first postpartum year, may be related to child psychological functioning beyond the postpartum period, up to adulthood years. This not only highlights the importance of intervening early to break the chain of intergenerational transmission of psychopathology but also raises the question of whether early interventions targeting parental mental disorders in this period may alleviate these prolonged adverse effects in the infant offspring. The current article focuses on the specific risk of psychopathology conveyed from mentally ill parents to the offspring during the pregnancy and first postpartum year. We first present a summary of the available evidence on the associations of parental perinatal mental illness with infant psychological outcomes at the behavioral, biological, and neurophysiological levels. Next, we address the effects of early interventions and discuss whether these may mitigate the early intergenerational transmission of risk for psychopathology. The summarized evidence supports the idea that psychopathologyrelated changes in parents’ behavior and physiology in the perinatal period are related to behavioral, biological, and neurophysiological correlates of infant psychological functioning in this period. These alterations may constitute risk for later development of child and/or adult forms of psychopathology and thus for intergenerational transmission. Targeting psychopathology or mother-infant interactions in isolation in the postnatal period may not be sufficient to improve outcomes, whereas interventions targeting both in the postnatal period, or parental psychopathology, seem promising in alleviating the risk of early transmission.

Mother-Child Interactive Behaviors and Cognition in Preschoolers Born Preterm and Full Term

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2018
J Child Fam Stud

The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between child-mother interactive behaviors and cognition in preschoolers born preterm (<32 weeks gestation; n = 82) and full term (>37 weeks gestation; n = 53). Child-mother interactive behaviors were assessed during a videotaped free play session. Maternal education and neonatal medical factors were included as covariates. Although the preterm and full term groups showed some differences in child and mother interactive behaviors, we found that the child and mother behaviors associated with Verbal IQ (VIQ) and Performance IQ (PIQ) were the same for both children born preterm and full term and for both sexes. Child positive affect and quality of communication; and maternal responsiveness to verbal cues remained significantly associated with VIQ after controlling for sociodemographic variables. Children born preterm showed significantly less responsiveness to their mother and lower levels of play sophistication compared with children born full term. Mothers of children born preterm showed less emotional attunement, lower responsiveness to nonverbal cues, and lower quality of communication compared with mothers of children born full term. Models predicting VIQ and PIQ included maternal education, gestational age, maternal and child interactive behaviors, and one uniquely significant combined mother-child (interaction) term in each model. Child-mother interactive behaviors associated with VIQ and PIQ are the same for both children born preterm and full term and for both sexes, suggesting that similar interactive behaviors may be important in facilitating cognitive development. © 2018, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Maternal insightfulness protects against the detrimental effect of postpartum stress on positive parenting among at-risk mother-infant dyads

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2018
ATTACH HUM DEV

The current study evaluated whether maternal insightfulness can buffer the negative influence of postpartum stressful life events on maternal parenting behaviors. Participants were 125 mother–infant dyads (55% boys) who present a subsample of a larger longitudinal study on maternal maltreatment during childhood and its impact on peripartum maternal adjustment. Women were primarily white and middle class. At 4 months postpartum, mothers reported on the stressful life events experienced after the child’s birth and current depressive symptoms. At 6 months postpartum, maternal parenting quality was assessed using videotaped mother-infant interactions and maternal insightfulness was evaluated using the Insightfulness Assessment. Insightfulness significantly moderated the effect of postpartum stressful events on maternal parenting behaviors. Mothers who were insightful displayed high levels of positive parenting during interactions with their infant regardless of the amount of stressful life events experienced. In contrast, mothers classified as non-insightful showed less positive parenting as they experienced more stressful life events. Findings highlight the protective role of maternal insightfulness in the face of postpartum stress, and suggest that efforts to enhance insightfulness during the early postpartum period may be particularly relevant for women in high-risk contexts.

Bedingungen sensitiver Mutter-Kind-Interaktionen

Chapter

Full-text available

Oct 2016

In early childhood sensitive mother-child-interactions are presumed to be especially beneficial to children’s language, cognitive and socio-emotional development. Sensitivity is defined as a behaviour that reacts and refers to a child’s needs and interests in an appropriate way (Ainsworth et al., 1974). International studies identified characteristics of the child as well as of the mother and the context as relevant for sensitivity. Considering the child, it is essential to take its active role in the interaction into account to accommodate the dyadic nature of sensitivity. Hence, this article addresses the question which general and context specific variables are relevant to sensitive interaction behaviour within a German context by means of representative data from the National Educational Panel Study. For this purpose, semi-standardized play situations of mothers with their seven-month-old children were videotaped and analysed. Afterwards, the relevant conditions of sensitive mother-child-interaction were identified by bivariate and multivariate methods. On average, sensitive interaction behaviour ranged on a medium level. Socio-economic context variables (e.g. poverty in income and educational background of the mother) proved to be relevant predictors. Other characteristics of the mother, such as age and experienced psychological strain as well as the everyday perceived temperament of the child, showed merely small to no correlations. The child behaviour in the interaction turned out to be most relevant for sensitivity. Thereby, these results emphasize the active role of the child within the interaction and basically confirm international findings.

Förderliche Mutter-Kind-Interaktion in der frühen Kindheit – Befunde des Nationalen Bildungspanels (NEPS) zum Einfluss von Mutter, Kind und Kontext

Conference Paper

Sep 2016

Die Qualität häuslicher Lernumwelt und insbesondere einer sensitiven als auch im Sinne des Scaffolding Konzepts anregenden Mutter-Kind-Interaktion in der frühen Kindheit wird als bedeutsamer langfristiger Prädiktor einer günstigen sprachlichen, kognitiven und sozio-emotionalen Entwicklung postuliert. Internationale Längsschnittstudien konnten diesen Zusammenhang wiederholt belegen. Günstiges Interaktionsverhalten steht mit Charakteristika der Mutter, des Kindes und des Kontextes in Zusammenhang. Von Seiten der Mutter wurden beispielsweise Bildungsstand und psychische Belastung als Einflüsse ausgemacht. Der Kontext scheint besonders über mangelnde Ressourcen wie geringes Haushaltseinkommen oder Abwesenheit eines unterstützenden Partners zu wirken. Das Kind selbst nimmt in doppelter Hinsicht Einfluss auf die Interaktion: Zum einen über Verhalten und die Klarheit der Signale in der Situation, zum anderen über generelle Merkmale wie Geschlecht oder Temperament. Insbesondere für ein schwieriges Temperament wird ein negativer Effekt auf die Interaktionsqualität vermutet. Dieser Effekt zeigte sich in einer Metastudie von Paulussen-Hoogeboom und Kollegen (2007) jedoch nur in Gruppen mit kontextuellen Risikofaktoren deutlich ausgeprägt. Dieser Befund zeigt, dass viele bisherige Studien zu kurz greifen, wenn sie die Einflüsse separat betrachten und Interaktionseffekte vernachlässigen. Daher untersuchen wir in der vorgestellten Studie neben der Interaktionsqualität auch zentrale Indikatoren der drei Einflussgrößen und ihre Interaktion. Dazu analysieren wir Daten der repräsentativen Stichprobe der NEPS-Geburtskohorte von 2183 Kindern im Alter von 6-8 Monaten. Interaktionsqualität und Verhalten des Kindes wurden anhand von Videoaufnahmen halb-standardisierter Spielsituationen im häuslichen Kontext erfasst. Kindliches Temperament, Charakteristiken der Mutter und Kontextfaktoren wurden via Elterninterview erfragt. Der Vortrag berichtet und diskutiert verschiedene Befundmuster, die u.a. auf die prominente Bedeutung der aktiven Rolle des Kindes hinweisen und ordnet diese ein.

Preconditions of Interaction Behaviour – Considering the Active Role of the Child

Presentation

Aug 2016

The importance of interactions for child development is not only postulated by learning and developmental theories (e.g. Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2000), but also internationally substantiated by results of various studies (e.g. Melhuish et al., 2008). In early childhood sensitive mother-child interactions are presumed to be especially beneficial to different domains of child development. Not only associations of sensitivity with socio-emotional development are well evidenced (Bigelow et al., 2010), sensitive interactions also seem to foster language and cognitive development (e.g. Nozadi et al., 2013). Sensitivity is defined as a behaviour that reacts and refers to a child’s needs and interests in an appropriate manner (Ainsworth, Bell, & Stayton, 1974) and therefore includes at least three major components: (1) the mothers perception of a child’s signal, (2) the correct interpretation, and (3) a reaction to the child’s signal which is prompt and appropriate for the child’s needs and developmental status. While early definitions of sensitivity only focussed on reactions to children’s attachment needs, recent concepts (Kindler & Grossmann, 2004) not only focus on soothing behaviour but also on support of exploration. But, like every interaction behaviour, sensitivity is closely related to characteristics of the mother, the child, and the context it takes places in (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2000). When investigating variables affecting sensitivity, all three dimensions should be considered. Studies have focused on single aspects of these different dimensions: Concerning context and mother, possible distal stressors or resources influencing the maternal ability to perceive and react to child signals have been studied, such as low household income or the lack of a supporting partner (Gudmundson, 2012), or psychological strain and educational background (Hänggi et al., 2013). Concerning the child, conditions that influence the child’s ability to send clear signals and provide feedback on maternal behaviour should be studied. This active role of the child as a creator of his/her own learning environment has been postulated by different theories. But up to now, studies have mainly focused on general characteristics of the child, like his/her general temperament (Therriault, Tarabulsy, Lemelin, & Provost, 2011) and not on situation specific characteristics with a direct effect on the interaction situation itself by eliciting or preventing sensitive interactions. Therefore, our study focuses not only on central indicators of all three dimensions simultaneously but also on situation specific child characteristics. We analyse household composition, income, psychological strain, educational background, and temperament as possible preconditions of sensitivity and additionally broach the issue of the active role of the child by not only including the general temperament of the child, but also his/her interaction behaviour. Thus, our research explores the question (1) to what extent sensitive behaviour is visible in interactions with 7-month old infants and (2) how general context, maternal and child variables as well as situation specific child characteristics are associated with sensitivity. Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used We use data from the first wave of the Birth Cohort of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS; Blossfeld, Roßbach, & von Maurice, 2011). The analysed sample covers N=2183 families with 7 month old children (M= 6.96, SD=.81; 51% boys) with German speaking mothers, for whom information of a parent interview and a videotaped interaction sequence were available. The interaction sequence was administered as a semi-standardized play situation in which time (five minutes) and play material was prearranged, but mothers were free to interact with their child without specific guidelines. The video data was rated by trained coders using a rating system (Sommer & Mann, 2015), with which behaviour of the mother and the child was coded using 5-point Likert-scales (inter-rater-agreement=90%). As dependent variable we operationalized mothers’ sensitivity as an appropriate, stimulating reaction to child’s signals which is characterized by a positive manner and emotional involvement (Cronbach’s alpha=.80). As independent variables we included situation specific as well as general child characteristics. Situation specific characteristics were rated with the above mentioned rating system and provide information about positive mood, sustained attention, and sociability during the play situation. General characteristics, like the child’s temperament, were derived from a very short form of the Infant Behaviour Questionnaire (IBQ-R; Gartstein & Rothbart, 2003), used in the parent interview. Additionally, we considered psychological strain (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.64), and educational background as maternal characteristics. As contextual characteristics we considered poverty (< 60% of the mean net equivalent income) as well as partner and siblings in the household. To investigate how situation specific characteristics of the child as well as general child, maternal, and contextual characteristics are related to sensitivity we calculated bivariate correlations and multiple linear OLS-regressions. Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings The average sensitivity of the mother in the interaction situation ranges on a medium level (M = 3.18; SD = 0.74). As a first step we analysed the association of sensitivity with single predictors. It becomes visible that sensitivity is closely related to characteristics of the child in the interaction situation. Especially positive mood of the child (r = 0.25, p < 0.001) and sociability (r = 0.51, p < 0.001) are highly correlated with mother’s sensitivity. General characteristics of the child, as well as maternal and contextual characteristics seem to play a minor role for sensitivity: Temperament of the child, psychological strain of the mother, and the presence of a partner show no to low associations. Educational background (r = 0.19, p < 0.001) and being poor (r = -0.17, p < 0.001) are related to sensitivity on a medium level. In a second step, we consider characteristics of the child, the mother, and the context simultaneously: Again child characteristics in the interaction situation are important and they are the strongest predictor of maternal sensitivity that loses hardly its importance when including mother and context variables in the model. The importance of child’s interaction behaviour for sensitivity seems to be reasonable, because on the one hand certain actions of the child (e.g. expressing positive mood) can elicit sensitive reactions, and additionally child signals can be perceived and interpreted more easily when certain behaviours of the child are given (e.g. sustained attention). This finding underlines the dyadic and reciprocal nature of sensitivity. On the other hand, the behaviour of the child might be a result of previously experienced sensitive interactions; therefore these results cannot be interpreted as unidirectional causality. References Ainsworth, M., Bell, S., & Stayton, D. (1974). Infant-mother attachment and social development: Socialization as a product of reciprocal responsiveness to signals. In M. Richards (Eds.), The integration of a child into a social world (p. 99-135). Cambridge, London, New York: Cambridge University Press. Bigelow, A. E., MacLean, K., Proctor, J., Myatt, T., Gillis, R., & Power, M. (2010). Maternal sensitivity throughout infancy: Continuity and relation to attachment security. Infant Behavior and Development 33(1), 50-60. Blossfeld, H.-P., Roßbach, H.-G., & von Maurice, J. (Hrsg.). (2011). Education as a lifelong process. The German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. Bronfenbrenner, U., & Morris, P. A. (2000). Die Ökologie des Entwicklungsprozesses. In A. Lange und W. Lauterbach (Eds.), Kinder in Familie und Gesellschaft zu Beginn des 21sten Jahrhunderts (p. 29-56). Stuttgart: Lucius und Lucius. Gartstein, M. A., & Rothbart, M. K. (2003). Studying infant temperament via the Revised Infant Behavior Questionnaire. Infant Behavior and Development 26(1), 64-86. Gudmundson, J. A. (2012). Links between maternal education and parenting quality during children's first three years: The moderating role of income and partner status. University of North Carolina at Greensboro, North Carolina at Greensboro. Hänggi, Y., Benz-Fragnière, C., Haberkorn, K., Furler, K., & Perrez, M. (2013). Determinanten elterlicher Sensitivität. Kindheit und Entwicklung 22(1), 23-30. Kindler, H., & Grossmann, K. (2004). Vater-Kind-Bindung und die Rolle der Väter in den ersten Lebensjahren ihrer Kinder. In L. Ahnert (Eds.), Frühe Bindung. Entstehung und Entwicklung (p. 240-255). München: Reinhardt. Melhuish, E. C., Phan, M., Sylva, K., Sammons, P., Siraj-Blatchford, I., & Taggart, B. (2008). Effects of the home learning environment and preschool center experience upon literacy and numeracy development in early primary school. Journal of Social Issues, 64(1), 95–114. Nozadi, S. S., Spinrad, T. L., Eisenberg, N., Bolnick, R., Eggum-Wilkens, N. D., Smith, C. L., Gaertner, C.L., Kupfer, B., & Sallquist, J. (2013). Prediction of toddlers' expressive language from maternal sensitivity and toddlers' anger expressions: A developmental perspective. Infant Behavior and Development 36(4), 650-661. Sommer, A., & Mann, D. (2015). Qualität elterlichen Interaktionsverhaltens: Erfassung von Interaktionen mithilfe der Eltern-Kind-Interaktions Einschätzskala im Nationalen Bildungspanel. NEPS Working Paper (No. 56). Bamberg: Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories, National Educational Panel Study. Therriault, D., Tarabulsy, G. M., Lemelin, J.-P., & Provost, M. A. (2011). Direction des effets entre le temperament de l’enfant et la sensibilité maternelle. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science 43(4), 267-278. Intent of Publication We intend to publish parts of our analysis in a book chapter (H.Wadepohl, K. Mackowiak; K. Fröhlich-Gildhoff & D. Weltzien (Eds.): Interaktionsgestaltung in Familie und Kindertagesbetreuung [Interactions in Family and Child Care]. Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag)

Frühe Mutter-Kind-Interaktion – Sensitives Interaktionsverhalten und der Zusammenhang zu Kind-, Mutter- und Sozialkontextbedingungen

Presentation

Mar 2014

Anja Linberg

Sensitives elterliches Interaktionsverhalten gerade in der frühen Kindheit gilt als zentral für die Entwicklung von bildungsrelevanten Kompetenzen. Mütterliche Sensitivität wird in der Bindungsforschung definiert als prompte und angemessene mütterliche Reaktion auf kindliche Signale. Aktuellen Forschungsergebnissen zufolge, wird Sensitivität jedoch zunehmend als multidimensional und als Charakteristik der Mutter-Kind-Dyade (nicht nur der Mutter) spezifiziert. Zudem gibt es Evidenz dafür, dass Sensitivität kein zeitlich stabiles Phänomen ist, sondern mutter-, kind-, und kontextabhängigen Veränderungen unterliegt. Kindliches Temperament, mütterliches Wohlbefinden sowie sozioökonomische Faktoren sind hier bereits als bedeutende Einflussfaktoren identifiziert worden. Das Zusammenspiel dieser Faktoren in Bezug auf die Veränderung der Sensitivität ist bisher jedoch unklar, da bisherige Studien auf zu kleinen und wenig diversifizierten Stichproben basierten. Vor allem waren bisherige Studien meist beschränkt auf nicht erwerbstätige Mütter. Unsere Studie nutzt die Daten einer repräsentativen Stichprobe der Kleinkindkohorte des Nationalen Bildungspanels. Die umfangreiche Stichprobe (n = 3000) enthält sowohl die verschiedenen Kombinationen von Mutter- und Kindcharakteristiken, sowie eine hinreichende Zahl voll und teilweise berufstätiger Mütter. Allgemeine Informationen zur Person der Mutter und des Kindes sowie relevante Kontextinformationen wurden mittels eines telefonischen Interviews erhoben. Die multidimensionale Struktur von Sensitivität wird mit einem neu entwickelten time-sampling Instrument an Videodaten einer Spielsituation zwischen Mutter und Kind (im Alter von 7 und 16 Monaten) erfasst. Dieser Beitrag berichtet und diskutiert Ergebnisse der Pilotstudie der ersten Welle (n = 170).

Non-Intrusive Maternal Style as a Mediator between Playfulness and Children's Development for Low-Income Chilean Adolescent Mothers

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2023

The aim of this study was to describe the relationship between low-income Chilean adolescent maternal playfulness and mothers' non-intrusiveness in their children's development and to analyze whether a mother's non-intrusiveness mediates the relationship between maternal play-fulness and children's development. The Parental Playfulness Scale and the Subscale of Intrusive-ness from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project were used to assess maternal play-fulness and mothers' non-intrusiveness respectively. Ages and Stages Questionnaire 3rd Edition (ASQ-3) was applied to measure the children's communication, gross and fine motor skills, problem solving and personal-social development. The sample consisted of 79 mother-child dyads with children aged 10-24 months (M = 15.5, SD = 4.2) and their mothers aged 15-21 years old (M = 19.1, SD = 1.7). A bivariate analysis showed that maternal playfulness was significantly associated with communication, fine motor, problem-solving and personal-social development. Moreover, higher levels of communication, fine motor skills and problem-solving development were observed in the children of less intrusive mothers. Maternal playfulness had a significant effect on children's development of language, problem-solving and personal-social skills when their mothers showed less intrusiveness during interaction. These findings contribute to the understanding of the interaction between adolescent mothers and their children. Active play and less intrusiveness can enhance child development.

Mother and father interaction with their 3-month-old infants: Similarities and differences in parenting behaviour in well-resourced parents

Article

Feb 2023

Infancy is characterized by intensive parenting which may affect later child development. However, little is known about similarities and differences in maternal and paternal parenting behaviour, as the majority of the studies have mainly focused on mothers. The present study investigated similarities and differences in mothers' and fathers' parenting behaviour during parent-infant interaction in 56 mothers and 56 fathers of 3-months-old infants in a good-resourced sample. Parent-child interactions were videotaped and coded by the Global Rating Scales. Results suggested similar parenting behaviour in terms of maternal and paternal sensitivity, intrusiveness and remoteness. Moreover, regardless of sex infant's behaviour was similar during interactions with mothers and fathers. The low-risk and non-clinical nature of our sample may have had a positive influence on mother-child and father-child dyadic exchanges. These findings suggest including family system models in research and clinical practice.

Sleep SAAF responsive parenting intervention improves mothers’ feeding practices: a randomized controlled trial among African American mother-infant dyads

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2022
INT J BEHAV NUTR PHY

Background/objective: Parents shape children's early experiences with food, influencing what is served, children's food choices, and how much children eat. Responsive parenting (RP) interventions such as INSIGHT have improved maternal infant feeding practices, but have only been tested among predominantly White families. This secondary analysis of data from the Sleep SAAF (Strong African American Families) RCT tests the effects of an RP intervention designed to prevent rapid infant weight gain on African American mothers' infant feeding practices. Methods: Primiparous African American mother-infant dyads (n = 194) were randomized to an RP or safety control intervention delivered by community research associates at infant age 3 and 8 weeks. At 16 weeks, mothers completed the Babies Need Feeding questionnaire, the Infant Feeding Styles Questionnaire, and the Babies Need Soothing questionnaire. Logistic regression and general linear models examined the effect of study group on infant feeding practices. Moderation analyses explored whether effects varied by feeding mode (any breast milk versus exclusive formula), maternal age (≥ 20 years versus < 20 years), and maternal pre-pregnancy BMI (with obesity versus not). Results: RP mothers reported more responsive feeding (p = 0.005, partial η2 = 0.02), lower likelihood of using beverages other than breast milk/formula to soothe their infant (p = 0.01, OR = 0.42, 95% CI [0.2-0.8]), and less pressure with cereal than control mothers (p = 0.09, partial η2 = 0.02). RP mothers also reported less pressure to finish/soothe than controls (p = 0.007, partial η2 = 0.04); feeding mode (B = 0.74, p = 0.003) and maternal age (B = 0.53, p = 0.04) moderated this effect. There were no significant group differences in bottle-feeding practices (e.g., adding cereal to bottle, using an appropriate nipple/bottle size), or in context-based or emotion-based food to soothe. Conclusions: Responsive parenting education influenced some feeding practices of African American mothers. Mothers reported using less pressure, a control-based feeding practice, and more responsive feeding than controls. Trial registration: Sleep SAAF: A Strong African American Families Study. www. Clinicaltrials: gov NCT03505203. Registered 3 April 2018.

Risk and Protective Processes Linking Racial Discrimination and Chinese American Mothers’ Psychologically Controlling Parenting

Article

Mar 2022
Cult Divers Ethnic Minor Psychol

Abstract Objectives: Racial-ethnic minority parents’ experiences with racial discrimination may function as a contextual stressor that negatively impacts psychological functioning to shape less effective parenting practices, including the use of more psychological control. Moreover, various factors can enhance or diminish psychological functioning in the face of racial discrimination. Accordingly, we examined the associations between Chinese American mothers’ experiences of racial discrimination and three sub-dimensions of psychologically controlling parenting by considering the mediating roles of negative (depressive symptoms) and positive (psychological well-being) psychological functioning and the moderating role of maternal acculturation towards the mainstream culture as a protective factor. Method: Participants comprised 226 Chinese American mothers of preschoolers (Mage = 37.65; SDage = 4.39). Two separate moderated mediation models with depressive symptoms or psychological well-being as mediators were tested using maximum likelihood estimation. Results: Findings revealed significant direct positive associations between racial discrimination and all three sub-dimensions of psychological control (love withdrawal, guilt induction, and shaming practices), as well as indirect associations through depressive symptoms but not psychological well-being. Importantly, the indirect associations were further moderated by maternal acculturation towards the mainstream culture. Conclusions: Results illustrate the importance of incorporating the contextual stressor of perceived racial discrimination in parenting determinant models and examining specific and nuanced processes in understanding the role of psychological adjustment. Support for Chinese American mothers’ engagement in and access to various resources in the mainstream cultural context may help alleviate the adverse impact of racial discrimination on mothers’ psychological health and ultimately on their negative parenting behaviors.

Predictors of Maternal Bonding and Responsiveness for Mothers of Very Preterm Infants

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2022
J CLIN PSYCHOL MED S

Identify predictors of maternal bonding and responsiveness for mothers of very preterm infants (< 32 weeks gestational age) at 6 weeks and 12 months corrected-age (CA). Cross-sectional and longitudinal study containing 39 mothers of very preterm infants. At 6 weeks CA maternal self-efficacy made a significant unique contribution to the variance in self-reported maternal bonding and responsiveness (21% and 26%, respectively). At 12 months CA maternal trauma symptoms, depressive symptoms and self-efficacy made a significant unique contribution to the variance in bonding (14%, 9% and 9%, respectively). Maternal self-efficacy made a significant 31% unique contribution to the variance in responsiveness. The combined effects of maternal trauma symptoms, depressive symptoms and self-efficacy at 6 weeks CA predicted maternal responsiveness at 12 months CA (p = .042). Supporting maternal self-efficacy is key to facilitating bonding and responsiveness up to 12 months CA following a very preterm birth. Trial registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry: ACTRN12612000194864.

A Personalized Remote Video-Feedback Universal Parenting Program: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Article

Oct 2021

The randomized controlled trial examined the efficacy of a personalized remote video feedback parenting program to improve parenting and child behavior outcomes. Ninety-two mothers of 2-6-year-old children were randomly allocated into the intervention group (n = 50) and waiting-list control group (n = 42). The Strengthening Bonds preventive program was performed to improve positive parenting. The mothers participated in one in-person group session. During six weeks, the mothers received, via smartphone, remote personalized video feedback about their mother-child interactions in a play situation. Parenting was the primary outcome, and child behavior was the secondary one. Pre- and post-intervention assessments were performed. The generalized estimating equation analysis showed no significant results in the intention-to-treat (ITT). In the treatment-on-the-treated (TOT), there were statistically significant effects of the intervention decreasing mothers’ coercive parenting practices and child behavior problems. The structural equation model analysis showed that the intervention-induced reductions in children’s behavior problems were mediated by improvements in coercive practices. There was a direct effect of the intervention to improve the parental sense of competence. Despite the null findings in the ITT analysis, the TOT analysis showed promising results to strengthen positive parenting behaviors and beliefs and reduce child behavior problems.

Family Processes Underlying Economic Insecurity, Father Involvement, and Child Outcomes in Families with Low Income

Thesis

Jan 2021

Joyce Lee

The theme of the dissertation focuses on examining family processes underlying economic insecurity and young children’s outcomes in unmarried parents with low income. All three studies involved secondary analysis of the Building Strong Families (BSF) data, a large and racially diverse sample of unmarried parent families from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. The dissertation focused on samples of residential father families. The first dissertation study was exploratory in that it used a person-centered approach to discern the existence of latent parenting profiles of unmarried mothers and fathers of preschoolers based on the father-child activation relationship theory (Paquette, 2004). The study used a sample of 672 BSF families. Observations of mother–child and father–child interactions were included in latent profile analysis to reveal 3 distinct parenting profiles for both fathers and mothers (i.e., supportive, activation, and intrusive), with the activation profile showing a pattern of moderate intrusiveness combined with sensitivity, positive regard, and cognitive stimulation. Next, four family configurations were created. Children with supportive mothers and fathers had higher receptive language scores compared with those from other family groups, and had higher prosocial scores compared with children with activation mothers and activation fathers, but not other family groups (i.e., activation father/supportive mother or supportive father/activation mother). Results support activation relationship theory by noting a pattern of parenting behaviors used by fathers (and mothers) in which parents are moderately intrusive, challenging, or directive with their children, yet still sensitive and positive in their interactions. The second dissertation study applied the Family Stress Model (FSM; Conger, Ge, Elder, Lorenz, & Simons, 1994) to test the mechanisms by which economic insecurity contributes to mothers’ and fathers’ mental health and couples’ relationship functioning. The study used a sample of 2,794 BSF families. Bayesian mediation analysis was employed, taking advantage of the prior evidence base of the family stress model. Material hardship worked above and beyond household income to directly predict couples’ destructive conflict for both mothers and fathers. Indirect effects of material hardship on couples’ destructive conflict through parental depressive symptoms was found for mothers only. Overall, the economic stress of meeting the daily material needs of the family sets the stage for parental mental health problems that carry over into destructive interparental conflict, especially through maternal depressive symptoms. Building on the findings of the first and second dissertation studies, the third dissertation study also applied the FSM to examine the links between material hardship, and preschoolers’ prosocial behaviors and an examination of the coparenting alliance, and mother’s and father’s positive parenting as key mediators. The study used a sample of 1,375 BSF families. Structural equation modeling results showed that material hardship was associated with increased levels of father’s positive parenting only and that coparenting alliance was linked with increased levels of both mother’s and father’s positive parenting. Subsequently, both mother’s and father’s positive parenting was related to increased levels of preschoolers’ prosocial behaviors. The results suggest the potentially protective role a strong coparenting alliance plays amongst BSF mothers and fathers in the context of material hardship. That is, when unmarried mothers and fathers maintain a strong coparenting bond amidst economic challenges, they may be able to engage in positive parenting, such as being responsive to their children’s needs and thus promote their children’s prosocial development.

Continuity and Stability of Parenting of Infants by Women at Risk for Perinatal Depression

Article

Feb 2021

SYNOPSIS Objective. The present study aimed to enhance understanding of continuity and stability of positive parenting of infants, across age and different settings in women with a history of depression who are at elevated risk for postpartum depression. Design. Mothers (N = 103) with a history of major depression and their infants were observed during 5-min play and feeding interactions when their infants were 3, 6, and 12 months of age. Summary scores representing mothers’ positive parenting were computed separately for each age and context based on ratings of five parenting behaviors. Mothers’ depressive symptom levels were assessed at each infant age. Results. Continuity (consistency of level) and stability (consistency of rank order) were assessed across age and context at both the group and individual level. Across-age analyses revealed continuity in the play context and discontinuity in the feeding context, albeit only at the group level, as well as weak to moderate stability. Across-context analyses revealed higher positive parenting scores in play than feeding at all time points as well as weak to moderate stability. Variations in positive parenting across age and context were independent of mothers’ postpartum depressive symptom levels. Conclusions. Findings based on normative samples may not generalize to women with a history of depression, who may benefit from interventions aimed at enhancing their positive parenting over the course of infancy, regardless of postpartum depressive symptom level. Results also underscore the importance of assessing parenting at multiple age points and across varying contexts.

Effectiveness of an Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) Group Depression Treatment for Head Start Mothers: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial

Article

Nov 2020
J AFFECT DISORDERS

Background: Maternal depression is known to be a serious problem with higher rates among poor and racial/ethnic minority mothers that can have numerous negative impacts on their children. These mothers have less access to effective care and may be wary of traditional mental health care because of the stigma. The purpose of this study was to test whether an adaptation of an Interpersonal Psychotherapy group for perinatal depression could be effective in reducing depressive symptoms of mothers whose children were enrolled in Head Start. Methods: Forty-nine mothers, randomized by site, were recruited into the intervention group, 70 into the control group. They were measured on depressive symptoms, parenting stress, parenting behavior, and parent child interaction at intake, at end of the group, and 6 months following. Results: The intervention group was lower in depressive symptoms at the end of treatment with a further decrease 6 months post intervention. There was no change in the control group. The intervention group also improved in parenting stress. Limitations: The sample size for the intervention group was smaller than desired. Conclusions: This study supports the effectiveness of this 12 session IPT group which was highly effective for a population of Head Start mothers. It is a strategy that can be adapted to other settings that serve low income mothers.

Developmental delay and parenting: The role of behaviour problems in toddlers

Article

Oct 2020

Developmental delays (DD) are missed early childhood developmental milestones in cognitive, motoric or linguistic domains. DD associated with behaviour problems may compound to impact parenting. This study investigated whether DD would moderate the relation between behaviour problems and parenting in families of toddlers. Data were drawn from an Early Head Start (n = 564) sample. The Ages and Stages Questionnaire‐Third Edition measured developmental status at age 2 (typically developing, in a monitoring zone, or having a DD), behaviour problems were assessed at age 2, and supportive and negative parenting at age 3. Developmental delay moderated the relationship between behaviour problems and supportive parenting such that greater behaviour problems were unrelated to parental supportiveness for children with DD, while greater behaviour problems led to less parental supportiveness for typically developing children. These findings suggest distinct developmental processes, with parental supportiveness acting as potentially protective for children with DD.

Dyadic Synchrony and Responsiveness in the First Year: Associations with Autism Risk

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2020

In the first year of life, the ability to engage in sustained synchronous interactions develops as infants learn to match social partner behaviors and sequentially regulate their behaviors in response to others. Difficulties developing competence in these early social building blocks can impact later language skills, joint attention, and emotion regulation. For children at elevated risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), early dyadic synchrony and responsiveness difficulties may be indicative of emerging ASD and/or developmental concerns. As part of a prospective developmental monitoring study, infant siblings of children with ASD (high‐risk group n = 104) or typical development (low‐risk group n = 71), and their mothers completed a standardized play task when infants were 6, 9, and/or 12 months of age. These interactions were coded for the frequency and duration of infant and mother gaze, positive affect, and vocalizations, respectively. Using these codes, theory‐driven composites were created to index dyadic synchrony and infant/maternal responsiveness. Multilevel models revealed significant risk group differences in dyadic synchrony and infant responsiveness by 12 months of age. In addition, high‐risk infants with higher dyadic synchrony and infant responsiveness at 12 months received significantly higher receptive and expressive language scores at 36 months. The findings of the present study highlight that promoting dyadic synchrony and responsiveness may aid in advancing optimal development in children at elevated risk for autism. Lay Summary In families raising children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), younger siblings are at elevated risks for social communication difficulties. The present study explored whether social‐communication differences were evident during a parent–child play task at 6, 9, and 12 months of age. For infant siblings of children with ASD, social differences during play were observed by 12 months of age and may inform ongoing monitoring and intervention efforts.

Testing the father–child activation relationship theory: A replication study with low-income unmarried parents.

Article

Jun 2020

The current study aims to replicate and extend previous research on father–child activation relationship theory, which suggests that fathers engage in stimulating, challenging, and directive parenting behaviors that are likely to benefit children’s development. A large and racially diverse sample of low-income, unmarried couples with young children (n 􏰀 672) was used to examine whether fathers and mothers exhibited an activation parenting profile (high sensitivity, positive regard, and stimulation of cognitive development, moderate levels of intrusive/directive behavior, and low detachment and negative regard). Observations of mother–child and father–child parenting behaviors during the two-bags task with preschool children were included in latent profile analysis to reveal 3 distinct parenting profiles for both fathers and mothers (i.e., supportive, activation, and intrusive), with the activation profile showing a pattern of moderate intrusiveness combined with sensitivity, positive regard, and cognitive stimulation. Four family configurations were created: (a) supportive mother/supportive father (23.74%), (b) support- ive mother/activation father (9.24%), (c) activation mother/activation father (27.31%), and (d) activation mother/supportive father (39.71%). Children with supportive mothers and fathers had higher receptive language scores compared with those from other family groups, and had higher prosocial scores compared with children with activation mothers and activation fathers, but not other family groups (i.e., activation father/supportive mother or supportive father/activation mother). Results support activation relationship theory by noting a pattern of parenting behaviors used by fathers (and mothers) in which parents are moderately intrusive, challenging, or directive with their children, yet still sensitive and positive in their interactions.

Maternal and family predictors of infant psychological development in at‐risk families: A multilevel longitudinal study

Article

Oct 2019

The impact of different parenting‐related variables on child psychological development is widely acknowledged. However, studies about the specific influence of maternal and family dimensions on child early developmental outcomes in at‐risk dyads are still scarce. The aim of this longitudinal study was to investigate the short‐ and middle‐term effects of prenatal and postnatal family and maternal features, and child attachment, on child psychological development at 3 and 24 months in at‐risk families. Forty‐two mothers with psychological, social and/or demographic risk conditions and their first‐born infants were assessed longitudinally. Measurements of maternal personality, psychological and depressive symptoms, family socioeconomic status (SES), child–mother attachment, and infant general psychological development were collected at multiple time points, through validated questionnaires and/or mother–child observation. Maternal and family dimensions showed a significant effect on child psychological development over time. The expected detrimental role of reported maternal depressive symptoms was observed both at 3 and 24 months of child's age. Data also highlighted the negative contribution of low family SES and an unexpected positive influence of maternal personality trait of psychoticism on child psychological development at 24 months. We also found a positive association between attachment security and child developmental outcome. These findings might have relevant implications for the implementation of early prevention programs by differentiating the specific predictive role of maternal child and familial factors on child psychological development in at‐risk families.

DigitalCommons@USU Socioeconomic Status Influence on Mothers' Interactions with Infants: Contributions to Early Infant Development

Thesis

Full-text available

Aug 2018

Krista Gurko

Children from different socioeconomic backgrounds often have different long-term outcomes in terms of school, language, and emotional wellbeing. At this time, no reasons for these differences have been agreed upon by experts across disciplines. Parents with different personal characteristics and life situations use different types and amounts of interactions with their infants. The social interactions infants experience during their first year of life provide the start of their developmental path in the areas of language and executive control while also guiding their expectations for interactions with people around them. This study used previously unpublished data from a sample of 79 young infants, age 3 to 9 months, and their mothers. There was a set of five research questions. The first question guided exploration of how socioeconomic status (SES; represented by maternal education and family income) was associated with the parenting behaviors mothers used with their infants. The second question guided exploration of how mothers’ psychosocial resources (represented by child development knowledge and parenting stress) were associated with the parenting behaviors mothers used with their infants. The third question addressed whether associations between maternal education and parenting behavior were directly connected or if the amount of child development knowledge influenced the association. The fourth question addressed whether associations between family income and parenting behavior were directly connected or if the amount of mothers’ parenting stress influenced the association. The final question addressed whether associations between mothers’ psychosocial parenting resources and infant development were directly connected or if the associations were instead connected by mothers’ psychosocial resources. During a single home visit with each mother and her young infant, the research visitor assessed infant development, video recorded the mother and infant playing during a free play session, and asked mothers to fill out questionnaires. Project questionnaires addressed mothers’ education and family income as well as their levels of child development knowledge and parenting stress. None of the findings directly related to the five hypotheses were statistically significant. However, follow-up analyses provided information about potential future directions for investigating the links between SES, parenting interactions, and infant competencies using smaller categories of education and income levels. These findings from follow-up questions may guide potential future directions for identifying SES and psychosocial influences on early parenting interaction behaviors and young infants’ early development.

The relationship between negative parenting and child and maternal temperament

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2021
CURR PSYCHOL

The purpose of the present study was to examine how negative parenting, namely coercive and abusive parenting, relates to maternal and child temperamental characteristics, based on Belsky’s model of parenting. In addition to the unique effects of child temperamental characteristics (approach, perceptual sensitivity, soothability, persistence, and reactivity), we investigated how child temperamental characteristics play a moderating role between maternal temperamental characteristics (negative affect, effortful control, extraversion and orienting sensitivity) and negative parenting. Participants were 209 mothers of preschool children (Mage = 50.01 months, SD = 5.75) from 48 child care centers across the capital city of Turkey. Two sets of hierarchical regression analyses showed that coercive parenting was predicted by child reactivity, perceptual sensitivity, maternal negative affect, and effortful control. In addition, maternal SES and negative affect were related to abusive parenting. Furthermore, interaction between maternal extraversion and child’s persistence predicted coercive parenting. For children with high levels of persistence, maternal extraversion levels did not make any difference in the level of abusive parenting. However, for children with low levels of persistence, mothers who had high levels of extraversion were more likely to display coercive parenting. Consistent with Belsky’s model, both child and maternal characteristics were related to parenting. While both maternal and child characteristics were associated with coercive parenting, only maternal negative effect was associated with abusive parenting.

Supporting positive parenting practices within a community‐based music therapy group program: Pilot study findings

Article

Dec 2018

The aim of this study was to evaluate the benefits of a short‐term, community‐based music therapy group program on positive parenting practices. Parent–child dyads receiving early intervention family services (N = 199) participated in 8 weekly, 45–60 minute, music‐based group play sessions. We analyzed pre–post parent self‐reports that measured parenting competency and clinician‐observed ratings of parental responsiveness that evaluated behavioral domains of play, praise, and consistency. Significant results were found for parent‐reported efficacy (p = 0.008, d = 0.21) and satisfaction (p = 0.004, d = 0.19) but not for interest (p = 0.149, d = 0.12). Significant results were found for clinician‐rated observations of parental responsiveness, including play (p < 0.001), praise (p < 0.001), and consistency (p < 0.001). Short‐term, music‐based parenting programs may be an effective way to improve parents’ sense of competency and foster greater parental responsiveness for those receiving family services.

Associations Between Maternal Control and Child Defiance Among Puerto Rican-Origin Adolescent Mothers and Their Toddlers: A Person-Centered Examination

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2018

Parents use different forms of control to direct children toward their own demands and expectations; however, the literature on Latina parenting has demonstrated mixed findings on the influence of control on child outcomes (Halgunseth, Ispa, & Rudy, 2006). This study tested how maternal control relates to child dysregulated defiance within the cultural context experienced by Latina mother–child dyads. Participants included 122 adolescent mothers of Puerto Rican-origin and their toddlers. Highlighting the importance of ecologically valid and culturally sensitive methods of behavioral observation, mother and child behavior were observed during a clean-up task; mothers also reported on their levels of U.S. acculturation and Puerto Rican enculturation. Using person-centered analyses, we identified groups of mothers by parenting behaviors (i.e., guidance, control, positive affect) and cultural orientation (i.e., acculturation, enculturation). Results revealed four subgroups of mothers with distinct associations to child defiance: (a) enculturated/controlling, (b) bicultural/guiding, (c) bicultural/controlling, (d) acculturated/controlling. Toddlers of the mothers in the acculturated/controlling subgroup displayed greater defiance toward their mothers than those of mothers in the enculturated/controlling subgroup, even though the groups displayed similar levels of control behaviors and positive affect. Toddlers of the enculturated/controlling and the bicultural/guiding mothers displayed similar low levels of defiance, suggesting 2 different parenting approaches with favorable consequences for child behavior in adolescent mother and toddler dyads. Implications for culturally informed research and tailored services for young Latina families are discussed.

CHANGING THE NARRATIVE FOR VULNERABLE CHILDREN: Strengthening ACT systems

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2018

Louise Freebairn

The ACT Children and Young People Death Review Committee (the Committee) is established under the Children and Young People Act 2008 to work towards reducing the number of deaths of ACT children and young people. A key task of the Committee is to undertake research aimed at preventing child deaths. The legislation requires the Committee to report to the Minister on the number, age and sex of children and young people who died during the year. In addition to this the Committee must report on children and young people who, within 3 years before their death were, or had a sibling who was, the subject of a child protection report and on any other matters considered relevant. Research has consistently found that the youngest children are the most vulnerable to early and often preventable deaths (Frederick, Goddard & Oxley 2013; Welch & Bonner, 2013). Consistent with this finding, the Committee’s Annual Reports highlight the high number of deaths of children occurring in the perinatal period and the early years of childhood within the ACT (ACT Children and Young People Death Review Committee, 2017 & 2018). Given the above, it is important that service providers and the Canberra community are made aware of the possible risk factors in the deaths of children aged 0 to 3 years. A purposive sample consisting of eleven children aged 0 to 3 years who died in the ACT prior to 2014 and who were subject to a closed coronial inquiry were selected for this review. A mixed method approach was used in the collection of data. Descriptive statistics regarding the characteristics of child deaths were obtained from the Child Death Register and National Coronial Information System. A constant comparative thematic analysis of the qualitative data contained in Child and Youth Protection Service, ACT Housing, ACT Health and ACT Policing files, where available, was conducted. The review considered 16 risk factors associated with increasing a child’s vulnerability. These factors are found at the individual, parent, community and socio-economic ecological level and include domestic and family violence, drug and alcohol use, housing instability, mental health, physical health and low income. It is also important to emphasise that the small cohort of children and the findings of this review are not representative of all child deaths in the ACT. Nonetheless, the Committee found that the complex characteristics of the lives of the 11 children echo extensive findings in national and international research. All the children experienced one or more risk factors. Analysis of 16 principle risk factors evident prior to birth and in the time leading to each child’s death indicates that for six of the 11 children, life was chaotic with 12 or more risk factors being present. The Committee makes 19 recommendations related to improving system responses to reducing the vulnerability of children aged 0-3 years. The recommendations relate to the policy and practices of government and non-government organisations.

Infants’ Social Experiences in Three African Sociocultural Contexts

Article

Oct 2016

This study introduces a peri-urban context of poverty to the study of child development in Africa in contrast to the more typical assessments in middle-class and rural contexts. Spot observations were used to assess universal caregiving behaviors toward seventy-six 3-month-old infants. Results show that middle-class infants experienced distal parenting behaviors instantiated by mothers, whereas rural children experienced proximal parenting practices in interactions with others. Infants growing up in poverty had mothers and other caretakers involved at mostly low levels. They experienced low levels of body contact, body stimulation, and object stimulation, and high levels of face-to-face positions. The study indicates that caregiving in the context of poverty does not necessarily follow familiar pathways and needs to be contextualized accordingly.

Predictors of maternal sensitivity in at-risk families

Article

Aug 2018

Alex Neuhauser

Full Text: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/TsScvKDW2d97TBu4ABCs/full Maternal sensitivity is of central importance to a child’s healthy development. This study examines how different types of psychosocial stress originating from the child, the parents, the context, and overall stress relate to maternal sensitivity. Psychosocial stress and its impact on maternal sensitivity are assessed in an at-risk sample of 248 mother–child dyads in the first half year of life. The cross-sectional study was realized as a part of the ZEPPELIN project in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland. Results show, first, that maternal sensitivity decreases with increased amounts of overall stress. Second, lack of social support and low maternal education is associated with reduced maternal sensitivity. Finally, reduced sensitivity is associated with the combination of severe material and parental/familial stress. In contrast, child stress indicators appear to have a weaker association to maternal sensitivity. Implications of these results for practice are discussed.

When mum is stressed, is dad just as stressed? Predictors of paternal stress in the first six months of having a baby

Article

Dec 2015
INFANT MENT HEALTH J

The primary aim of this study was to examine predictors of paternal stress within the first 6 months of having a baby in a normative Australian sample, and to compare paternal and maternal stress. In total, 54 fathers and 71 mothers completed self-report measures of postnatal depressive symptoms, parenting stress, efficacy, responsiveness, attachment, and family and social support. Paired sample t test revealed a significant relationship within couples in their level of parenting stress. Fathers reported lower levels of postnatal depression, responsiveness, and attachment than did mothers. Fathers rated their level of social support to be higher than did mothers. Regression analyses indicated that responsiveness and efficacy significantly predicted paternal stress whereas responsiveness and attachment predicted maternal stress when history of psychological diagnosis and financial stability were controlled for. Results have implications for early preventive parenting programs.

Developmental Outcomes of Toddlers of Young Latina Mothers: Cultural, Family, and Parenting Factors

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2015

Children of adolescent mothers are at risk for poor developmental outcomes. This study is among the first to examine how cultural, family, and parenting factors prospectively predict the cognitive and language development of children of young Latina mothers (N=170; Mage=17.9 years). Mothers were interviewed and observed interacting with their children at 18 months (W1). Children were tested at 18 (W1) and 24 (W2) months. Mothers' cultural orientation (W1) was related to aspects of the childrearing environment (W1), which in turn had implications for the children's development (W2). Specifically, a stronger orientation toward American culture was related to higher mother-reported engagement in parenting by their own mothers (grandmothers), which in turn predicted stronger gains in cognitive and expressive language functioning from W1 to W2. A stronger Latino orientation related to the display of more directiveness and greater mother-reported engagement by the children's biological fathers; directiveness, in turn, predicted fewer gains in cognitive functioning only when father engagement was low and did not predict expressive language development. Finally, mothers' display of more positive affect, a stronger American orientation, and higher grandmother engagement uniquely predicted gains in W2 expressive language functioning. Implications for intervention are discussed.

Child Vocabulary, Maternal Behavior, and Inhibitory Control Development Among Spanish-Speaking Children

Article

Mar 2015

Research findings: The roles of child lexical diversity and maternal sensitivity in the development of young children's inhibitory control were examined in 100 low-income Hispanic Spanish-speaking children. Child communication utterances at age 2½ years were transcribed from 10-min mother-child interactions to quantify lexical diversity. Maternal behavior was rated independently from the interactions. Inhibitory control was measured with a battery of tasks at ages 2½ and 3½. Greater maternal sensitivity was correlated with higher vocabulary at 2½. Greater vocabulary predicted positive growth in child inhibitory control skills from ages 2½ to 3½ in multivariable regression models that controlled for maternal education, family income, the home environment, and mothering quality. Practice or policy: These findings suggest that supporting vocabulary development in low-income Spanish-speaking children is important for the development of inhibitory control skills, an important foundation for school readiness and academic success.

Children's negative emotionality moderates influence of parenting styles on preschool classroom adjustment

Article

Aug 2015
J APPL DEV PSYCHOL

Early Parenting, Represented Family Relationships, and Externalizing Behavior Problems in Children Born Preterm

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2014
ATTACH HUM DEV

Through assessment of 173 preterm infants and their mothers at hospital discharge and at 9, 16, 24, 36, and 72 months, the study examined early parenting, attachment security, effortful control, and children's representations of family relationships in relation to subsequent externalizing behavior problems. Less intrusive early parenting predicted more secure attachment, better effortful control skills, and fewer early behavior problems, although it did not directly relate to the structural or content characteristics of children's represented family relationships. Children with higher effortful control scores at 24 months had more coherent family representations at 36 months. Moreover, children who exhibited less avoidance in their family representations at 36 months had fewer mother-reported externalizing behavior problems at 72 months. The study suggests that early parenting quality and avoidance in children's represented relationships are important for the development of externalizing behavior problems in children born preterm.

LA SENSIBILITÉ MATERNELLE LORS DU PLACEMENT : ASSOCIATIONS AVEC LA RÉUNIFICATION FAMILIALE ET LES CARACTÉRISTIQUES INDIVIDUELLESMATERNAL SENSITIVITY IN THE CONTEXT OF CHILD PLACEMENT: ASSOCIATIONS WITH FAMILY REUNIFICATION AND MATERNAL CHARACTERISTICS

Article

Jan 2022

Understanding the Role of Parental Control in Early Childhood in the Context of U.S. Latino Families in the 21st Century

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2022

Marta Benito-Gomez

This review focuses on the role of parental control in the sociocultural context of U.S. Latino families with young children in the 21st century. The review begins with a historical overview of the concept of parental control and a summary of theoretical approaches to the study of parenting in context. Associations between different forms of parental control and children’s adjustment are summarized, with special attention to cultural considerations and the role of maternal warmth in research involving Latino families. Variability and inconsistencies within the literature on parental control within this population are discussed. The review concludes by discussing future directions for research on this topic, and implications of this literature to move the field toward a better understanding of parenting behaviors and its effects on child functioning in families from different ethnic backgrounds in the 21st century.

Maternal postpartum stress and toddler developmental delays: Results from a multisite study of racially diverse families

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2019

Maternal psychosocial stress during pregnancy can adversely influence child development, but few studies have investigated psychosocial stress during the postpartum period and its association with risk of toddler developmental delays. Moreover, given the expanding diversity of the U.S. population, and well‐documented health and stress disparities for racial and ethnic minorities, research examining the effect of postpartum stress on risk of developmental delays in diverse populations is of critical importance. In this study, data from the Community Child Health Network provided the opportunity to test maternal postpartum stress as a predictor of toddler risk of developmental delay in a sample of African American, Latina and non‐Hispanic White women and their toddlers (N = 1537) recruited in urban, suburban, and rural communities. Postpartum maternal stress over 1 year was operationalized as perceived stress, life events, and negative impact of life events. Regression results revealed higher risk of developmental delays in toddlers whose mothers experienced more negative life events, greater negative impact of events, and higher perceived stress over the year. Prenatal stress, pregnancy/birth complications, and postpartum depression did not explain these associations. Maternal postpartum stress may contribute to increased risk for developmental delays and is an important target for psychosocial intervention.

The parent/caregiver involvement scale – Short form is a valid measure of parenting quality in high-risk families

Article

Feb 2019
INFANT BEHAV DEV

Measures of parenting quality that are valid among high-risk families are needed for research and program evaluation. This study investigates the functioning of the Parent-Caregiver Involvement Scale –Short Form (P/CIS-SF) in a high-risk sample. The P/CIS-SF measures several behaviors pertaining to both “amount” and “quality,” as well overall “impressions” of parenting. Participants were 170 six-month-olds and their mothers who were at risk for child abuse, impoverished, single, young, and had multiple children. Mother-infant interaction was videotaped in the home during semi-structured play. These high-risk parents scored in the midrange on most P/CIS-SF items, indicating that mothers engaged with their infants for approximately 50% of the semi-structured play session and the engagement tended to be of moderate quality. There were no floor or ceiling effects with the exception of “teaching behavior” which was rare among these parents. Analysis revealed that while “amount” and “quality” are interrelated, they capture distinct aspects of parenting. Validity of P/CIS-SF scores was indicated by correlation with Ainsworth’s sensitivity scale and the Emotional Availability Scales intrusiveness subscale. P/CIS-SF scores also correlated with maternal education, but were independent of maternal risk (i.e., depression, drug use, domestic violence, and child abuse) within this high-risk sample. Implications are that the P/CIS-SF is valid for measuring parenting quality in high-risk families and is able to distinguish between dimensions of parenting, making it useful for targeted interventions.

Bedingungen sensitiver Mutter-Kind-Interaktionen

Chapter

Jan 2016

In der frühen Kindheit gelten sensitive Mutter-Kind-Interaktionen als besonders förderlich für die sprachliche, kognitive und sozio-emotionale Entwicklung des Kindes. Sensitivität ist dabei definiert als ein Verhalten, das auf kindliche Bedürfnisse und Interessen angemessen reagiert und Bezug nimmt (Ainsworth et al., 1974). In internationalen Studien konnten Merkmale des Kindes, der Mutter und des Kontexts für dieses Interaktionsverhalten als ursächlich identifiziert werden. Hinsichtlich kindlicher Einflüsse gilt es, insbesondere die aktive Rolle in der Interaktion selbst zu berücksichtigen, um der dyadischen Natur von Sensitivität Rechnung zu tragen. Daher wird in diesem Beitrag anhand repräsentativer Daten des Nationalen Bildungspanels der Frage nachgegangen, welche situationsspezifischen und generellen Merkmale im deutschen Kontext für sensitives Interaktionsverhalten relevant sind. Zu diesem Zweck wurden Videoaufnahmen halb-strukturierter Interaktionssituationen von Müttern mit ihren sieben Monate alten Kindern angefertigt und analysiert. Anschließend wurden mittels bivariater und multivariater Verfahren die relevanten Bedingungen der sensitiven Mutter-Kind-Interaktion ermittelt. Das sensitive Interaktionsverhalten bewegte sich durchschnittlich auf einem mittleren Niveau. Sozio-ökonomische Kontextmerkmale (wie Einkommensarmut und der mütterliche Bildungshintergrund) erwiesen sich als relevante Prädiktoren. Andere Merkmale der Mutter, wie ihr Alter und die erlebte psychische Belastung, sowie das alltäglich erlebte Temperament des Kindes, wiesen keinen oder lediglich einen geringen Zusammenhang auf. Als relevantester Prädiktor zeigten sich Merkmale des Kindes in der Interaktionssituation. Damit unterstreichen diese Ergebnisse die aktive Rolle des Kindes in der Interaktionssituation und bestätigen im Wesentlichen internationale Befunde.

Einfluss eines schwierigen frühkindlichen Temperaments auf die Qualität der Mutter-Kind-Interaktion unter psychosozialen Risikolagen

Article

Mar 2018
Z ENTWICKL PADAGOGIS

Quality of early home learning environment, especially of maternal interaction behaviour, strongly influences child development. The study investigated whether this quality is reduced by difficult child temperament in presence of cumulated strains of maternal coping capacities. We draw on 2190 cases of the Starting Cohort 1 of the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) when children were 6-8 months old. Quality of parent-child-interactions was assessed in the household context by video-codings of semi-structured play situations, other variables via computer assisted interviews. While the relationship in the non-risk sample was very low, the risk-sample (with at least 3 cumulated strains) children's negative affectivity but not their regulatory capacities clearly reduced interaction-quality. This suggests that difficult temperament poses an additional developmental risk for children growing up under difficult circumstances.

Ethnic Differences in Mothering Qualities and Relations to Academic Achievement

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2017

Although qualities of mothering behavior have been consistently linked with children’s academic outcomes, mothers from different ethnic groups may emphasize different dimensions with their children. The present investigation aims to evaluate and compare the dimensionality of mothering in low-income African American (n = 151) and Mexican American (n = 182) mothers during early childhood and its predictive utility for children’s academic achievement. Video-recorded mother–child interactions with children at 2½ and 3½ years of age were rated using 6 mothering quality items from a widely used global rating system. A bifactor measurement model of these 6 items yielded a general sensitive support factor and a specific intrusive-insensitive factor. The bifactor model fit the data significantly better at both time points than either a single-factor or a 2-factor model. Invariance testing supported the stability of the measurement model across the 2 time points. Invariance testing by ethnicity indicated differences in factor loadings as well as mean levels of the specific factor of intrusive-insensitivity. The specific factor reflecting intrusive-insensitive mothering at age 2½ years was associated with poorer subsequent reading achievement for African American but not Mexican American children, suggesting the specific factor reflected qualitatively different parenting constructs for the 2 ethnic groups. Critical examination of what constitutes more optimal parenting yielded both similar and dissimilar characteristics and their relations across culturally different groups of families. Such knowledge should contribute to the development of more effective interventions for ethnically diverse families.

Maternal Age, Psychological Maturity, Parenting Cognitions, and Mother-Infant Interaction

Article

Sep 2015

In the context of the trend toward delayed childbearing, the aim of this study was to examine relations among maternal age and the quality of maternal interactive behavior at 7 months assessed using sensitivity and mind-mindedness, while also considering whether age effects were attributable to psychological maturity and parenting cognitions. Participants were 150 Australian mothers (mean age 33-years) and their firstborn infants who were participating in a prospective study of parenthood. Path analysis showed maternal age had both direct and indirect associations with maternal interactive behavior. Older mothers made more mind-related comments to their infants. They were also more sensitive; however, this effect was indirect and explained by greater psychological maturity (hardiness) and a more internal locus of control with regard to parenting. Results suggest that older maternal age may confer some benefits in terms of responsive parenting in infancy.

Mothers' physical interventions in toddler play in a low-income, African American sample

Article

Sep 2015

This mixed method study examined 28 low-income African American mothers' physical interventions in their 14-month-old toddlers' play. Inductive methods were used to identify six physical intervention behaviors, the affect accompanying physical interventions, and apparent reasons for intervening. Nonparametric statistical analyses determined that toddlers experienced physical intervention largely in the context of positive maternal affect. Mothers of boys expressed highly positive affect while physically intervening more than mothers of girls. Most physically intervening acts seemed to be motivated by maternal intent to show or tell children how to play or to correct play deemed incorrect. Neutral affect was the most common toddler affect type following physical intervention, but boys were more likely than girls to be upset immediately after physical interventions. Physical interventions intended to protect health and safety seemed the least likely to elicit toddler upset.

Adolescent Mothers in Later Life

Article

Full-text available

Sep 1987
CONTEMP SOCIOL

Parenting and Children's Behavior at 36 Months: Equivalence Between African American and European American Mother - Child Dyads

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2009

Objective. This study examines the similarity of parenting and the associations between maternal behavior and child problem and prosocial behavior across two racial groups. Design. Using data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care (SECC), analyses included an examination of the comparability of maternal and child behavior between African American (n = 123) and European American (n = 953) families using multiple-group mean and covariance structures analysis (MACS). Observational data from two mother - child activities and maternal report of child behavior were used to construct three parenting and four child latent constructs. Results. Comparable measures of parenting (Responsive, Harsh, and Intrusive), child problem behavior (Externalizing and Internalizing), and child prosocial behavior (Compliance and Expressiveness) were found using partial invariance methods across racial groups. The associations between harsh, intrusive and responsive parenting and child behaviors were found to be similar across racial groups. Conclusions. Generality in the organization of parenting and similarity in their association to child behavior obtain across racial groups.

Boosting Children's Memory by Training Mothers in the Use of an Elaborative Conversational Style as an Event Unfolds

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2003

An experimental methodology was adapted to examine children's language skills and mothers' conversational styles during a specified event as they are linked to the children's event memory. Thirty-nine preschoolers (mean age = 46.82 months) were pretested and grouped as having high or low language skills. Children in each group were then randomly assigned to either maternal-style training or no training conditions. Trained mothers were instructed to use 4 specific conversational techniques to enhance children's understanding of unfolding events: Wh- questions, associations, follow-ins, and positive evaluations. When observed engaging with their children in a specially constructed camping activity, trained mothers did indeed use these elements of style more than untrained mothers. Moreover, assessments of the children's memory after 1-day- and 3-week-delay intervals indicated substantial effects of both maternal training and children's language skills on remembering.

Fathering in Infancy: Mutuality and Stability Between 8 and 16 Months

Article

Full-text available

May 2006

Objective. This longitudinal investigation explores how fathers engage with their infants, how their behaviors matter within and across developmental time, and how demographic and social factors affect the quality of the father infant relationship. Design. Participants were 74 racially and ethnically diverse, low-income fathers from the Father and Newborn Study (FANS) and their 8- and 16-month-old infants (36 boys, 38 girls). Father - infant interactions were videotaped during semistructured free play in participants' homes. The quality of father - infant interactions was assessed using Likert-type ratings of fathers' and infants' behaviors. Fathers also rated their relationship with their infant's mother. Results. Two factors of father engagement emerged at each age (Responsive - Didactic and Negative - Overbearing), 2 factors of infant behavior at 8 months (Mastery, Social - Communicative), and 3 factors of infant behavior at 16 months (Mastery, Social, and Communicative). Responsive - Didactic fathering was concurrently associated with infant behaviors at both ages; although fathering at 8 months only marginally predicted infant 16-month Social behaviors. Fathers who were older, more educated, married to their partners, and who had higher incomes were more Responsive - Didactic at 8 months. Fathers' age and the quality of the mother - father relationship predicted fathers' Responsive - Didactic behaviors at the 16-month assessment. Conclusions. Fathers' responsiveness is important to infants' social and communicative behaviors, and the mother father relationship influences fathering during the formative period of infancy.

Beyond Rough and Tumble: Low-Income Fathers' Interactions and Children's Cognitive Development at 24 Months

Article

Full-text available

May 2002

Objective. The purpose of this investigation was to explore associations between father-child interactions and children's cognitive status in an underrepresented group of low-income, ethnically diverse families. Design. Participants were 65 inner-city fathers and their 24-month-old children (34 boys, 31 girls). Father-child interactions were videotaped for 10 min at home during semistructured free play, and mental scale scores on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development were obtained on children. The quality of father-child interactions was assessed using 14 Likert ratings of fathers (e.g., responsiveness, language quality, and intrusiveness) and 12 of children (e.g., play, participation, emotional regulation, and communication). Results. Factor analyses revealed 2 patterns of engagement in fathers (Responsive-Didactic and Negative-Intrusive) and 3 in children (Playful-Communicative, Social, and Regulated). Thirty-six children scored within normal limits on the MDI and 29 scored in the delayed range. Together, fathers' and children's factor scores explained more than 25% of the variance in children's performance on the MDI. Logistic regressions indicated that fathers with high scores on the Responsive-Didactic factor were nearly 5 times more likely to have children within the normal range on the MDI than were low-scoring fathers. Conclusions. These findings point to the importance of considering fathers' role in early cognitive development, particularly in low-income families in which children begin to exhibit significant declines in their second and third years. Positive father-child interactions appear to obviate cognitive delay.

Adult attunement and child availability: Interaction of mother and caregiver with three-year-old kibbutz children

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2000
INFANT MENT HEALTH J

Relationships of mother and nonmaternal caregiver with 33 three-year-old kibbutz toddlers were investigated. Attunement and intrusiveness of these caregivers in their contact with children were determined by analysis of discrete child–adult interactions rather than by a global assessment of their relationships. The validity of these adult attunement scores was examined first by comparison of the attunement and intrusiveness scores of mother and of caregiver, and second by determining their association with independent scores of child availability to each of these caregiving adults. Results tended to support the validity of the present measures of adult attunement to the child. They indicated that in cases of disagreement mothers were more attuned than nonmaternal caregivers to the signals of the child, and the level of adult attuned agreement to the child was positively associated with cooperative attempts of children to involve caregivers in their activities © 2000 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.

The Effects of Infant Child Care on Infant–Mother Attachment Security: Results of the NICDH Study of Early Child Care

Article

Full-text available

Aug 1997
CHILD DEV

The aims of this investigation were to determine whether Strange Situation attachment classifications were equally valid for infants with and without extensive child-care experience in the first year of life and whether early child-care experience, alone or in combination with mother/child factors, was associated with attachment security, and specifically with insecure-avoidant attachment. Participants were 1,153 infants and their mothers at the 10 sites of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care. Mothers were interviewed, given questionnaires, and observed in play and in the home when their infants were from 1 to 15 months of age; infants were observed in child care at 6 and 15 months and in the Strange Situation at 15 months. Infants with extensive child-care experience did not differ from infants without child care in the distress they exhibited during separations from mother in the Strange Situation or in the confidence with which trained coders assisted them attachment classifications. There were no significant main effects of child-care experience (quality, amount, age of entry, stability, or type of care) on attachment security or avoidance. There were, however, significant main effects of maternal sensitivity and responsiveness. Significant interaction effects revealed that infants were less likely to be secure when low maternal sensitivity/responsiveness was combined with poor quality child care, more than minimal amounts of child care, or more than one care arrangement. In addition, boys experiencing many hours in care and girls in minimal amounts of care were somewhat less likely to he securely attached.

“Maternal Depression and Child Development.” [Annual Research Review]

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2006
J CHILD PSYCHOL PSYC

Maternal Resources, Parenting Practices, and Child Competence in Rural, Single‐Parent African American Families

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2008
CHILD DEV

A family process model was tested that linked maternal education, maternal religiosity, and the adequacy of family financial resources to cognitive and psychosocial competence in the mothers' children. The sample included 156 6- to 9-year-old African American children living in single-mother-headed households in rural areas, 82% of whom lived in poverty. The distal variables of maternal education, maternal religiosity, and adequacy of financial resources were linked with the proximal variables of “no nonsense” parenting, mother-child relationship quality, and maternal involvement in the child's school activities. The proximal variables were, in turn, indirectly linked with children's cognitive competence, social competence, and internalizing problems through their association with the children's development of self-regulation.

The Psychology of Parental Control: How Well-meant Parenting Backfires

Book

Dec 2002

Wendy S. Grolnick

Reintroducing parental psychological control.

Chapter

Jan 2002

Brian K. Barber

Adolescent Mothers in Later Life

Book

Sep 1987

This landmark study traces the life histories of approximately 300 teenage mothers and their children over a seventeen-year period. From interview data and case studies, it provides a vivid account of the impact of early childbearing on young mothers and their children. Some remarkable and surprising results emerge from this unique study of the long term adaptation to early parenthood. It also offers refreshing insights into the unexplored connections between mothers' careers and the development of their children. Adolescent Mothers in Later Life will be an invaluable resource for all those interested in teenage pregnancy.

MATERNAL TEACHING STRATEGIES IN CHICANO AND ANGLO-AMERICAN FAMILIES - THE INFLUENCE OF CULTURE AND EDUCATION ON MATERNAL-BEHAVIOR

Article

Jan 1980

LM LAOSA

MARRIAGE, ADULT ADJUSTMENT, AND EARLY PARENTING

Article

Oct 1989

38 couples maries avec un premier ne de trois mois sont etudies pour analyser l'impact de la qualite des liens maritaux (niveau de communication du couple) sur la qualite parentale (plaisir, acceptation, sensibilite et perception)

ANALYSIS AND REPLICATION OF MOTHER-CHILD RELATIONS AT 2-YEARS OF AGE

Article

Jan 1979

A Conceptual Approach to Early Mental Development

Chapter

Jan 1983

Robert B. McCall

One of the major preoccupations of our discipline is the study of mental development. Our thinking has been focused on several broad issues, namely, (1) the relative contributions of heredity and environment, (2) individual differences and the species-general developmental stages of mental development, and (3) consistency and change.

Play in parent-child interactions

Article

Jan 2002

Parent–child conversations during play

Article

Nov 2012

The language of mothers, fathers, and children was examined in 50 low-income families. Mother–child and father–child dyads were videotaped separately during play when children were 2;0 years old. Language transcriptions were coded for communicative diversity, word types, and grammatical complexity in parents and children. Mother–child and father–child conversations were similar and were strongly correlated at the dyad level, although differences emerged in the repetitions of children’s utterances, closed-ended questions, affirmations, and action directives. Mothers’ and fathers’ language related to children’s language in specific ways. Individual children experience relatively enriched or impoverished language environments, rather than one parent “compensating” for the other. This may explain why some low-income children lag in their language development early on, whereas others are “on track.”

Low-Income Children's School Readiness: Parent Contributions Over the First Five Years

Article

Dec 2009

Early development is likely influenced by quality of early parenting and improvements or declines in quality over time. Little is known about how changes in different dimensions of parenting influence child outcomes, nor the relative sizes of associations when considering several aspects simultaneously. These questions are addressed in the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project (N = 1273). Assessments occurred when children were 1, 2, 3, and 5 years old. Parent supportiveness (videotaped play interactions), home learning environment (observed), and depressive symptoms and parenting stress (self-report) were assessed. Children's school readiness at age 5 was assessed via receptive vocabulary, letter–word knowledge, observed emotion regulation, approaches toward learning, and behavior problems. In this low-income sample, early parenting as well as change over time predicted school readiness. Associations mostly followed predictions from the family stress model and cognitive stimulation models; learning environment and maternal supportiveness were most strongly associated with child vocabulary and letter–word knowledge, although supportiveness was also linked with observed emotion regulation, and learning environment early on was also linked with emotion regulation, and early learning environment was also linked with emotion regulation, and early learning environment was also linked with behavior problems and approaches toward learning. Depressive symptoms and parenting stress were more strongly associated with behavior problems, although early parenting stress was also associated with approaches toward learning and emotion regulation.

Maternal Depressive Symptoms in Relation to Dimensions of Parenting in Low-Income Mothers

Article

Jan 2002

Relations between maternal depressive symptoms and parenting were examined in low-income, inner-city mothers and their 18- to 24-month-old toddlers. Maternal depressive symptoms were measured using the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) depression inventory, and 3 dimensions of parenting were assessed from maternal interviews and home visits: (a) provision of age-appropriate play materials, (b) organization of the home environment, and (c) quality of mother-child interactions. Maternal depressive symptoms related inversely to the quality of mother-child interactions, but did not relate to the provision of play materials and organization of the home environment. High scores on the CES-D were associated with less sensitivity, engagement, affection, and more rigidity in mothers; with less compliance, affection, engagement, and gentleness in children. In addition, higher CES-D scores were associated with less mutual communication, reciprocity, and enjoyment in the dyad. Neither socioeconomic status, maternal IQ, nor absence-presence of a partner related directly to parenting. These findings suggest that maternal depressive symptoms play a key role in the quality of mother-child interactions.

Maternal Teaching Strategies in Chicano and Anglo-American Families: The Influence of Culture and Education on Maternal Behavior

Article

Jun 1980

Luis M. Laosa

The study examined (a) whether differences exist between Chicano and Anglo-American families in the strategies that mothers use to teach their own children, and (b) whether such differences, if they exist, are likely to persist or disappear as a result of effective social change toward increased educational and occupational equality in the society where the 2 groups coexist. 83 Chicano and Anglo-American mothers were observed in their homes teaching cognitive-perceptual tasks to their own 5-year-old children. Significant differences in maternal teaching strategies were found between the 2 cultural groups. Results also showed that these differences appear to be the result of differences in the average level of formal education attained by the mothers in the 2 cultural populations. These results suggest that the observed differences in maternal teaching strategies may disappear as women in the 2 cultural groups attain similar levels of formal education.

Analysis and Replication of Mother-Child Relations at Two Years of Age

Article

Sep 1979

This study adopted the same cross-dimensional approach to the study of mother-child interaction that was used by Clarke-Stewart in 1973. Its major purpose was replication: replication of the 1973 study with different children at a different age (2-2½ years) and replication in a series of four different samples (N's = 14, 30, 31, and 35). Variables included measures of children's cognitive, language, and social development and mothers' attitudes, ability, and behavior, assessed in standardized tests, semistructured situations, and natural observations. Like the 1973 study, this study revealed a general competence cluster for children comprising IQ, language level, and interaction with mother. It was most closely correlated with the mother's positive and responsive interaction and language to the child. The child's sociability to adult strangers was related to mother-child interaction and the mother's attitude and activities, but sociability to another child was not correlated with maternal variables. Replicability in the four samples was examined in terms of methodological independence of variables, comparability of measures, p levels for correlation coefficients, differences in sample sizes and means, and predictability of relations from prior research and theory.

Externalizing Behavior Problems and Discipline Revisited: Nonlinear Effects and Variation by Culture, Context, and Gender

Article

Jul 1997

Debate continues regarding the magnitude and importance of parenting effects on the development of children's externalizing behavior problems, in, spite of the evidence that environments (as well as genes) contribute to individual differences in these behaviors. Research has demonstrated an association between harsh physical discipline and child aggression and conduct problems, a likely causal mechanism that probably operates as a shared environmental factor. We offer four hypotheses about the relation between discipline practices and child externalizing problems that may resolve same debate and help lead toward a more comprehensive understanding of how and when discipline practices will make a substantial difference: 1. The association between discipline and child aggression includes a nonlinear component. 2. The parent behavior-child behavior link varies across cultural groups. 3. Parental discipline effects on children vary according to the context of the broader parent-child relationship. 4. The discipline effect is maximized in same-gender parent-child dyads. Discussion focuses on the role of children's mental representations of discipline experiences as a mediator of discipline effects, and research implications with respect to sampling, measurement, and analytic strategies are noted.

Patterns of attachment: A Psychological Study Of The Strange Situation

Article

Jan 1979

Ethological attachment theory is a landmark of 20th century social and behavioral sciences theory and research. This new paradigm for understanding primary relationships across the lifespan evolved from John Bowlby's critique of psychoanalytic drive theory and his own clinical observations, supplemented by his knowledge of fields as diverse as primate ethology, control systems theory, and cognitive psychology. By the time he had written the first volume of his classic Attachment and Loss trilogy, Mary D. Salter Ainsworth's naturalistic observations in Uganda and Baltimore, and her theoretical and descriptive insights about maternal care and the secure base phenomenon had become integral to attachment theory. Patterns of Attachment reports the methods and key results of Ainsworth's landmark Baltimore Longitudinal Study. Following upon her naturalistic home observations in Uganda, the Baltimore project yielded a wealth of enduring, benchmark results on the nature of the child's tie to its primary caregiver and the importance of early experience. It also addressed a wide range of conceptual and methodological issues common to many developmental and longitudinal projects, especially issues of age appropriate assessment, quantifying behavior, and comprehending individual differences. In addition, Ainsworth and her students broke new ground, clarifying and defining new concepts, demonstrating the value of the ethological methods and insights about behavior. Today, as we enter the fourth generation of attachment study, we have a rich and growing catalogue of behavioral and narrative approaches to measuring attachment from infancy to adulthood. Each of them has roots in the Strange Situation and the secure base concept presented in Patterns of Attachment. It inclusion in the Psychology Press Classic Editions series reflects Patterns of Attachment's continuing significance and insures its availability to new generations of students, researchers, and clinicians.

The CES-D Scale: A Self-Report Depression Scale for Research in the General Population

Article

Jun 1977
APPL PSYCH MEAS

Lenore Sawyer Radloff

The CES-D scale is a short self-report scale designed to measure depressive symptomatology in the general population. The items of the scale are symptoms associated with depression which have been used in previously validated longer scales. The new scale was tested in household interview surveys and in psychiatric settings. It was found to have very high internal consistency and adequate test- retest repeatability. Validity was established by pat terns of correlations with other self-report measures, by correlations with clinical ratings of depression, and by relationships with other variables which support its construct validity. Reliability, validity, and factor structure were similar across a wide variety of demographic characteristics in the general population samples tested. The scale should be a useful tool for epidemiologic studies of de pression.

Mother and Caregiver Sensitivity Over Time: Predicting Language and Academic Outcomes With Variable- and Person-Centered Approaches

Article

Jul 2006
MERRILL PALMER QUART

Sensitive and responsive caregiving is associated with better cognitive and language outcomes. Using the longitudinal data set from the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, this study asks how changes in the sensitivity of both mothers and caregivers from 6 months to 6 years relates to language and academic outcomes at the start of formal schooling. Three questions are posed: (1) How variable is the quality of caregiving that children experience from mothers and child care providers during early childhood? (2) Do children benefit from both sensitive parents and sensitive caregivers? (3) Are changes in sensitivity over time related to cognitive and language outcomes at the end of preschool and the beginning of formal education? Person-centered and variable-centered analyses revealed that children experience changing patterns of sensitivity across time, that children benefit from sensitive interactions with all adults, and that changes in the sensitivity children experience across time are associated with both language and cognitive outcomes.

Applied Multiple Regression/Correlation Analysis For The Behavioral Sciences

Book

Jan 2003

Depression in First-Time Mothers: Mother-Infant Interaction and Depression Chronicity

Article

May 1995

Married, middle-class women who met diagnostic criteria for depression and a comparable group of nondepressed women were videotaped interacting with their infants at home at 2, 4, and 6 months. When depression was defined in terms of 2-month diagnosis, there were no differences between depressed and comparison mothers or babies in either positive or negative interaction during feeding, face-to-face interaction, or toy play. However, women whose depressions lasted through 6 months were less positive with their infants across these 3 contexts than women whose depressions were more short-lived, and their babies were less positive during face-to-face interaction. These data highlight the need to distinguish between transient and protracted depression in evaluating depression effects on the mother–infant relationship and infant outcome. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Mother–infant interaction and development of individual differences in children's cognitive competence

Article

Jan 1984

Assessed the antecedents of individual differences in children's cognitive/language competence at age 24 mo using multivariate methods at ages 6, 13, and 24 mo in 121 Ss. Assessments included detailed observations of mother–children interaction, standardized tests of child cognitive development (including the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment and the Bayley Mental Scale of Infant Development), and examiner and maternal ratings of child sociability. There were meaningful patterns of continuity in the child and especially mother behavior factors across ages, and mother–child warm, verbal interactions at each age were associated with a composite index of child competence at 24 mo. A path analysis showed that altogether, 40% of the variance in competence outcome was explained by the 4 variables in the model (interaction at 3 ages and SES). The analysis also showed that the original bivariate correlation between interaction at 6 mo and later competence could be explained by continuity in interaction qualities at 6 and 24 mo rather than as a direct effect. However, the 13-mo interaction showed both a direct path to competence and an indirect one via age 24-mo interaction. SES had a modest significant correlation with competence, but in the path analysis this was dissipated in nonsignificant paths to the interaction variables. Partial correlations suggested that child developmental competence and sociability at earlier ages did not mediate the relationships between mother–infant interaction and later child competence. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Specificity in Mother-Toddler Language-Play Relations Across the Second Year

Article

Mar 1994

Relations among specific aspects of language (comprehension and production, semantics, and utterance length) and relations between language and symbolic play were evaluated when children were 13 and 20 mo of age. The contributions of maternal stimulation to toddler performance and whether associations among toddler abilities might be explained by maternal behaviors were also examined. Although measures of toddler language covaried, language–play associations in toddlers were specific to semantic aspects of language. Associations between mother and toddler behaviors emerged and tended to be specific: Maternal language related to toddler language, and maternal play related to toddler play. Moreover, relations among toddler abilities maintained after maternal influences were partialed. The multidimensional structure of language and specificities in language–play associations are discussed with reference to models of early representational development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Maternal Responsiveness, Intrusiveness, and Negativity During Play with Infants: Contextual Associations and Infant Cognitive Status in A Low‐Income Sample

Abstract

No full-text available