Maternal substance use and mother–infant feeding interactions

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of maternal polydrug cocaine use during pregnancy and associated risk factors such as maternal psychopathology and negative infant temperament on the quality of mother–infant feeding interactions at 2 months of infant age. Participants were 45 mother–infant dyads (19 cocaine‐exposed and 26 nonexposed) who were recruited at birth and assessed again 2 months of infant age. Mother–infant interactions during feeding were videotaped and coded with regard to dyadic reciprocity, maternal noncontingency, and dyadic conflict. Results indicated that maternal cocaine use was associated with higher dyadic conflict. Moreover, cocaine‐using mothers were also more likely to use marijuana and alcohol, and use of such substances was associated with lower dyadic reciprocity and higher maternal noncontingency during interactions. Results also suggested that one pathway to higher dyadic conflict during interactions among cocaine‐using mothers was through the impact of cocaine on infant risk conditions like lower gestational age and negative temperament (e.g., higher distress to novelty). Interventions focusing on promoting the quality of mother–infant interactions in combination with substance abuse treatment may be especially promising for this population. ©2001 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

From negative reactivity to empathic responding: Infants high in negative reactivity express more empathy later in development,with the help of regulation

Empathy has great effect on human well‐being, promoting healthy relationships and social competence. Although it is increasingly acknowledged that infants show empathy toward others, individual differences in infants’ empathy from the first year of life have rarely been investigated longitudinally. Here we examined how negative reactivity and regulation, two temperament traits that predict empathic responses in older children and adults, relate to infants’ empathy. Infants were studied at the ages of nine (N = 275) and 18 (N = 301) months (194 infants were studied at both ages). Empathic responses were assessed by infants’ observed reactions to an experimenter's simulated distress. Negative reactivity (fear, sadness, and distress to limitations) and regulation (soothability and effortful control) were assessed by parental reports. Negative reactivity was also examined by infants’ observed reactions to an adult stranger (fear) and during interaction with their mothers (displays of sadness/distress). When examined cross‐sectionally, infants’ fear and distress to limitations associated with self‐distress in response to others’ distress. In contrast, when examined longitudinally, early sadness and distress to limitations, but not fear, associated with later empathic concern and inquisitiveness. Moreover, this longitudinal relation was moderated by infants’ soothability and was evident only for children that had high soothability by the later time‐point. Our findings suggest that infants who at an earlier age show negative reactivity, react later in development with more empathy if they achieve sufficient regulation abilities. By that, the findings stress the developmental nature of temperament–empathy relations during infancy.     

Pathways from marital aggression to infant emotion regulation: the development of withdrawal in infancy

Associations between marital conflict and infant emotion regulation exist, but explanatory pathways have not been explored. For older children, parental behavior partially mediates this association through a "spillover" process. We test: associations between mothers' and fathers' verbally aggressive marital conflict, infant temperament, and infant withdrawal; mediating effects of negative maternal behavior, and moderating effects of infant temperament, exposure to marital arguments, and contact with father. Eighty mothers, 73 fathers, and their 6-month-old infants participated; parents reported marital aggression prenatally, mothers reported infant exposure to arguments, direct caregiving by father, and infant temperament at 5 months. Negative maternal behavior, infant withdrawal, distress to novelty, activity, and look away were observed at 6 months. Mothers' and fathers' aggressive marital conflict predicted infant withdrawal, interactively with exposure to marital arguments and extent of father caregiving, as did infant temperament and negative maternal behavior. Maternal behavior did not mediate between marital conflict and withdrawal.     

Caregiving behavior and interactions of prenatally depressed mothers (antidepressant‐treated and non‐antidepressant‐treated) during newborn acute pain

This exploratory study aimed to examine time‐based measures of the behaviors and interactions of prenatally depressed serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRI)‐medicated mothers to their infant's pain (n = 10) by comparing them with similar measures obtained from prenatally depressed nonmedicated mothers and their infants (n = 10), and nondepressed mothers and their infants (n = 10). During the second trimester of their pregnancy, the 30 study mothers were assessed for depression and anxiety, with no further measures of maternal mood taken. Maternal and infant interactions were continuously videorecorded while the infant underwent a scheduled heel lance for routine blood screening that occurred when study infants were between the ages of 24 and 60 hr. Maternal behavior and infant cry, for all 30 cases, were coded second‐by‐second for the full duration of each infant's heel lance using a reliable coding system and analyzed using odds ratio and regression analyses. Infants exposed to prenatal SRIs and depressed maternal mood were more likely to have lower Apgar scores and to exhibit weak and absent cry. Even when duration of the heel lance was controlled for, women with depression during the second trimester were more likely to exhibit depressed behavior at 2 days' postpartum despite sustained SRI antidepressant treatment. Both groups of prenatally depressed mothers were more likely to exhibit diminished response to their infants' pain cue although nonmedicated mothers' expressions of depressed behavior were more similar to healthy controls. Comprehensive understanding is essential to optimize the clinical care of mothers and their infants in this complex setting. This study contributes preliminary new findings that warrant prospective and longitudinal studies to clarify further the impacts of prenatal SRI and maternal mental mood (e.g., chronic depression and anxiety) effects on the mother–infant interaction and infant pain and stress reactivity.     

The role of maternal responsiveness in predicting infant affect during the still face paradigm with infants born very low birth weight

There is limited empirical literature addressing infants' response to a standardized stressor with infants born very low birth weight (VLBW). The purpose of this study was to assess the relative strength of maternal responsiveness in predicting infant affect in response to the Still Face (SF) paradigm in a cross‐sectional cohort of ethnically diverse infants born VLBW and their mothers (N = 50; infants 6–8 months old). Infant affect and maternal responsiveness were coded in 1‐s intervals while dyads participated in the SF. In addition, perinatal medical status, developmental status, and infant temperament were assessed. Findings revealed that positive infant affect during and after the SF stressor were strongly associated with baseline infant positive affect and maternal responsiveness at the reunion episode, respectively. In contrast, when predicting negative infant affect during and after the SF stressor, prior infant negative affect was strongly and uniquely significant. Infant positive affect, negative affect, and maternal responsiveness were not significantly associated with gender, infant perinatal medical history, developmental status, or temperament. Future research is warranted to determine how these findings relate to infants' stress reactions in naturalistic settings and if relationship‐focused interventions may reverse infant negative emotionality, enhance positive emotionality, and thereby improve self‐regulation and longer term social and cognitive developmental outcomes in medically at‐risk infants.     

Maternal postnatal psychiatric symptoms and infant temperament affect early mother-infant bonding

Postnatal mother-infant bonding refers to the early emotional bond between mothers and infants. Although some factors, such as maternal mental health, especially postnatal depression, have been considered in relation to mother-infant bonding, few studies have investigated the role of infant temperament traits in early bonding. In this study, the effects of maternal postnatal depressive and anxiety symptoms and infant temperament traits on mother-infant bonding were examined using both mother and father reports of infant temperament. Data for this study came from the first phase of the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study (n = 102, father reports n = 62). After controlling for maternal symptoms of depression and anxiety, mother-reported infant positive emotionality, measured by infant smiling was related to better mother-infant bonding. In contrast, infant negative emotionality, measured by infant distress to limitations was related to lower quality of bonding. In regards to father-report infant temperament, only infant distress to limitations (i.e., frustration/anger) was associated with lower quality of mother-infant bonding. These findings underline the importance of infant temperament as one factor contributing to early parent-infant relationships, and counseling parents in understanding and caring for infants with different temperament traits.     

The influence of maternal optimality and infant temperament on parenting stress at 12 months among mothers with substance abuse and psychiatric problems

The present prospective longitudinal study aimed to investigate the long‐term impact of maternal optimality assessed during pregnancy on parenting stress at infant age 12 months. In this study the concept of optimality was utilized to investigate maternal variations regarding resources during pregnancy in relation to later parenting stress, among three different groups of mothers that were recruited from substance abuse treatment, psychiatric outpatient treatment and well‐baby clinics respectively. The influence of infant temperament on parenting stress was also examined. All mothers were interviewed during pregnancy. At 12 months, infant temperament (Colorado Childhood Temperament Inventory; Rowe & Plomin, 1977) and stress in the parent and child domain (Parenting Stress Index; Abidin, 1955) were assessed. Results demonstrated higher levels of parenting stress among mothers in the clinical groups, compared to the non‐clinical group. Furthermore, it was the maternal psychiatric optimality index in combination with child temperament characteristics (child emotionality) that contributed uniquely to stress in the parent domain, while stress in the child domain was significantly associated only with child temperament characteristics (both child emotionality and soothability). The association between maternal psychiatric optimality assessed in pregnancy, infant temperament and parenting stress when the infants were 12 months old, points to the importance of simultaneously addressing the mothers' own psychological distress, and to support positive mother–infant interactions. Each woman's individual optimality profile may be used to display needs of follow‐up in order to prevent enduring effects of non‐optimality on parenting stress.     

Maternal and Infant Temperament Characteristics as Contributors to Parenting Stress in the First Year Postpartum

Although prominent models emphasize that maternal, child, and situational variables are associated with parenting stress, previous research has often neglected to examine associations between maternal and infant temperament characteristics and stress experienced in the parenting role. Additionally, while predictors of global parenting stress have been examined, predictors of stress related to specific aspects of the parenting role have been largely unexplored. The present study examined maternal and infant temperament characteristics as predictors of parenting stress, both globally and specifically. Mothers (n = 159) completed measures of depressive and anxiety symptoms and a measure of adult temperament when their infants were 4 months old. At 6 months postpartum, caregivers completed a measure of infant temperament, and at 8 months postpartum, a measure of parenting stress. Results indicated that maternal effortful control and infant negative emotionality predicted global maternal parenting stress. Additionally, all maternal and infant temperament variables, with the exception of maternal negative affectivity and infant surgency/extraversion, were uniquely predictive of at least one specific aspect of parenting‐related stress. Findings emphasize the importance of considering maternal and infant temperament characteristics as contributors to parenting stress in the first year postpartum. Implications of these findings for future research and intervention are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The impact of domestic violence on mothers' prenatal representations of their infants

This study examined the relationship between domestic violence during pregnancy and mothers' prenatal representations of their infants and themselves as mothers. Two hundred and six women were recruited from the community and interviewed during their last trimester of pregnancy. Forty‐four percent of women reported experiencing domestic violence during the current pregnancy, while 56% reported no domestic violence during the pregnancy. Maternal representations were assessed using the Working Model of the Child Interview (WMCI; Zeanah, Benoit, Hirshberg, Barton, & Regan, 1994). Multiple analysis of variance (MANCOVA) and χ² analyses revealed that women who experienced domestic violence had significantly more negative representations of their infants and themselves as mothers and were significantly more likely to be classified as insecurely attached (either Disengaged or Distorted) than women who had not experienced domestic violence. These results, along with several excerpts from battered women's interviews, highlight the importance of domestic violence as a risk factor for maternal and infant well being. These findings and their clinical implications are discussed in light of attachment theory. ©2004 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

Maternal prenatal psychological distress and temperament in 1–4 month old infants – A study in a non-western population

In this longitudinal study, conducted in women attending antenatal visits at the obstetrics and gynecology clinic of a general hospital in Bangalore, India, we aimed to assess the relationship between prenatal distress in mothers, and maternal report of infant temperament at four months. 100 mothers with normal full term deliveries completed the General Health Questionnaire-28 item version (GHQ) in the third trimester and postnatally. Salivary cortisol and temperament (using the Early Infancy Temperament Questionnaire – EITQ) were assessed in their infants aged 1–4 months. In this study, maternal prenatal psychological distress was not significantly associated with maternal report of difficult temperament in infants. Infants of mothers who were a negative screen for psychological distress (GHQ < 7), n = 85 had higher scores on the adaptability and approach dimensions of temperament. Infant salivary cortisol was significantly higher in infants with higher intensity scores. These results introduce the possibility of cultural differences in the relationship between prenatal distress in the mother and infant temperament. These could be factors linked to child rearing practices or to the measures employed to study infant temperament. These findings derive from a small sample with few mothers with psychological distress, and need replication in a larger sample.     

Are babies sensitive to the context of acute pain episodes? Infant distress and maternal soothing during immunization routines at 3 and 5 months of age

Ninety‐three healthy full‐term Italian infants were observed longitudinally at 3 and 5 months during routine vaccinations. Mothers' behaviour was also observed. Participants were divided into two cohorts depending on procedure of inoculation (the first cohort, n=44, showed more distress; the second cohort, n=49, showed less distress). Results indicate that babies' different levels of behavioural distress correspond to mothers' different soothing strategies. Maternal proximal soothing at 3 months predicts faster infant quieting at 5 months, but concurrent and predictive effects of maternal proximity are apparent only when level of baby distress is not too high. The study confirms the view that young babies are sensitive to the overall context of acute pain episodes, including medical procedure and maternal soothing. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Digital disruption? Maternal mobile device use is related to infant social‐emotional functioning

Mobile device use has become increasingly prevalent, yet its impact on infant development remains largely unknown. When parents use mobile devices in front of infants, the parent is physically present but most likely distracted and unresponsive. Research using the classic Still Face Paradigm (SFP) suggests that parental withdrawal and unresponsiveness may have negative consequences for children's social‐emotional development. In the present study, 50 infants aged 7.20 to 23.60 months (M = 15.40, SD = 4.74) and their mothers completed a modified SFP. The SFP consisted of three phases: free play (FP; parent and infant play and interact), still face (SF; parent withdraws attention and becomes unresponsive), and reunion (RU; parent resumes normal interaction). The modified SFP incorporated mobile device use in the SF phase. Parents reported on their typical mobile device use and infant temperament. Consistent with the standard SFP, infants showed more negative affect and less positive affect during SF versus FP. Infants also showed more toy engagement and more engagement with mother during FP versus SF and RU. Infants showed the most social bids during SF and more room exploration in SF than RU. More frequent reported mobile device use was associated with less room exploration and positive affect during SF, and less recovery (i.e., engagement with mother, room exploration positive affect) during RU, even when controlling for individual differences in temperament. Findings suggest that the SFP represents a promising theoretical framework for understanding the impact of parent's mobile device use on infant social‐emotional functioning and parent–infant interactions.     

Cross-cultural differences in temperament: Comparing paternal ratings of US and Dutch infants

This study conducted longitudinal comparisons of US and Dutch paternal ratings of temperament, measured via the Infant Behaviour Questionnaire-Revised, at 4 months (US n = 99; Dutch n = 127) and 12 months (US n = 66; Dutch n = 112) of age. US fathers rated their infant higher in the broad temperament trait Surgency, and its subscales vocal reactivity, high-intensity pleasure, and activity level. US fathers also rated their infants higher in negative emotionality, and its subscales of sadness, distress to limitations, and fear. Dutch infants received higher ratings in falling reactivity. Though the cultures did not differ in ratings of Orienting/regulatory capacity, US infants were higher on the subscale duration of orienting, and lower in soothability. Significant culture-by-age and culture-by-gender interactions were also noted. Overall, results are largely consistent with those reported for Dutch mothers and speak to considerable differences in early temperament development between cultures viewed as largely similar because of their Western/individualistic orientations.     

Infants’ intentionally communicative vocalizations elicit responses from caregivers and are the best predictors of the transition to language: A longitudinal investigation of infants’ vocalizations,gestures and word production

What aspects of infants’ prelinguistic communication are most valuable for learning to speak, and why? We test whether early vocalizations and gestures drive the transition to word use because, in addition to indicating motoric readiness, they (a) are early instances of intentional communication and (b) elicit verbal responses from caregivers. In study 1, 11 month olds (N = 134) were observed to coordinate vocalizations and gestures with gaze to their caregiver's face at above chance rates, indicating that they are plausibly intentionally communicative. Study 2 tested whether those infant communicative acts that were gaze‐coordinated best predicted later expressive vocabulary. We report a novel procedure for predicting vocabulary via multi‐model inference over a comprehensive set of infant behaviours produced at 11 and 12 months (n = 58). This makes it possible to establish the relative predictive value of different behaviours that are hierarchically organized by level of granularity. Gaze‐coordinated vocalizations were the most valuable predictors of expressive vocabulary size up to 24 months. Study 3 established that caregivers were more likely to respond to gaze‐coordinated behaviours. Moreover, the dyadic combination of infant gaze‐coordinated vocalization and caregiver response was by far the best predictor of later vocabulary size. We conclude that practice with prelinguistic intentional communication facilitates the leap to symbol use. Learning is optimized when caregivers respond to intentional vocalizations with appropriate language.     

Infant temperament and information processing in a visual categorization task

This study investigates the relation between temperament and information processing in 7-month-old infants. Infant temperament was assessed on multiple dimensions, using mothers' ratings on the Infant Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ). Information processing was measured during a paired-comparison visual categorization task. Infants (N=50) were familiarized with five different pairs of visual stimuli from one category, followed by two test trials, each contrasting a novel familiar-category item with a novel out-of-category item (animals vs. vehicles). Drop-out rate in this task was within a normal range (21%). No differences in temperament were found between completers and non-completers, but high reactivity to novelty and low motor activity were positively correlated with the strength of infants' familiarization response. Group comparisons between infants scoring high and low on these two dimensions of temperament confirmed this general finding: infants high on distress to novelty and low on motor activity showed stronger familiarization responses. Furthermore, infants scoring low on motor activity showed a stronger categorization response than highly active infants. This study provides evidence that performance in a cognitive categorization task and dimensions of infant temperament are systematically related during the second half of the first year of life. Implications for cognitive research with infants of this age-range will be discussed.     

Fathers' versus mothers' social referencing signals in relation to infant anxiety and avoidance: a visual cliff experiment

Infants use signals from others to guide their behavior when confronted with novel situations, a process called ‘social referencing’ (SR). Via SR, signs of parental anxiety can lead to infant anxiety. Little is known about differences in the effect of paternal and maternal SR signals on child anxiety. Using a visual cliff paradigm, we studied whether SR processes between fathers and their infants differed from mothers and their infants. Eighty‐one infants aged 10–15 months were randomly assigned to conduct the visual cliff task with their father (n = 41) or mother (n = 40). The infant was placed on the shallow side of the cliff and the parent, standing at the deep side, was instructed to encourage the infant to cross. Results showed that although mothers showed more intense facial expressions of encouragement than fathers, no differences occurred in how fast, and with how much anxiety, infants crossed the cliff with fathers and mothers. However, path analyses showed that paternal, but not maternal, expressed anxiety was positively associated with infant expressed anxiety and avoidance. For infants who participated with their mother, infants' anxious temperament was negatively associated with infant avoidance of the cliff. Infant anxious temperament moderated the link between paternal expressed anxiety and infant avoidance: the higher the level of infant anxious temperament the stronger the positive association between paternal expressed anxiety and infant's avoidance of the cliff. Lastly, parental encouragement was unrelated to infant expressed anxiety and avoidance. Our results suggest that SR processes between fathers and their infants differ from those between mothers and their infants.     

Mothers speak differently to infants at‐risk for dyslexia

Dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental disorder manifested in deficits in reading and spelling skills that is consistently associated with difficulties in phonological processing. Dyslexia is genetically transmitted, but its manifestation in a particular individual is thought to depend on the interaction of epigenetic and environmental factors. We adopt a novel interactional perspective on early linguistic environment and dyslexia by simultaneously studying two pre‐existing factors, one maternal and one infant, that may contribute to these interactions; and two behaviours, one maternal and one infant, to index the effect of these factors. The maternal factor is whether mothers are themselves dyslexic or not (with/without dyslexia) and the infant factor is whether infants are at‐/not‐at family risk for dyslexia (due to their mother or father being dyslexic). The maternal behaviour is mothers’ infant‐directed speech (IDS), which typically involves vowel hyperarticulation, thought to benefit speech perception and language acquisition. The infant behaviour is auditory perception measured by infant sensitivity to amplitude envelope rise time, which has been found to be reduced in dyslexic children. Here, at‐risk infants showed significantly poorer acoustic sensitivity than not‐at‐risk infants and mothers only hyperarticulated vowels to infants who were not at‐risk for dyslexia. Mothers’ own dyslexia status had no effect on IDS quality. Parental speech input is thus affected by infant risk status, with likely consequences for later linguistic development.     

Conflict,fear and social identity in Nagaland

This survey study tested the effects of exposure to ethnopolitical conflict and violence and social group identification on psychosocial well‐being among a sample of Nagas (n = 280). Nagaland is located in Northeast India, and for decades has suffered from armed conflict and political instability. It was predicted that reported exposure to conflict would be positively associated with reported levels of fear, which in turn would decrease psychosocial well‐being (assessed with the indices life satisfaction, self‐esteem and general health). It was also expected that strongly identifying with being Naga would be positively related to perceived levels of social support, which in turn were predicted to be positively related to well‐being. Last but not least, it was hypothesized that conflict and fear would also directly and negatively impact on levels of identification with being Naga: increased conflict‐induced fear was expected to reduce the strength of the group identification. These predictions were confirmed by structural equation modelling.     

TEMPERAMENTAL ADAPTABILITY,PERSISTENCE, AND REGULARITY: PARENTAL RATINGS OF NORWEGIAN INFANTS AGED 6 TO 12 MONTHS,WITH SOME IMPLICATIONS FOR PREVENTIVE PRACTICE

There is a need for standardized measures of infant temperament to strengthen current practices in prevention and early intervention. The present study provides Norwegian data on the Cameron‐Rice Infant Temperament Questionnaire (CRITQ; J.R. Cameron & D.C. Rice, 1986a), which comprises 46 items and is used within a U.S. health maintenance organization. The CRITQ was filled out by mothers and fathers at 6 and again at 12 months as part of a longitudinal study of mental health during the first years of life (the “Little in Norway” study, N = 1,041 families enrolled; V. Moe & L. Smith, 2010). Results showed that internal consistencies were comparable with U.S. data. The temperament dimensions of persistence, adaptability, and regularity had acceptable or close‐to‐acceptable reliabilities in the U.S. study as well as in this study, and also were unifactorial in confirmatory factor analysis. These dimensions are the focus in this article. Findings concerning parents’ differential ratings of their infants on the three dimensions are reported, as is the stability of parents’ ratings of temperament from 6 to 12 months. In addition, results on the relation between temperament and parenting stress are presented. The study suggests that temperamental adaptability, persistence, and regularity may be relevant when assessing infant behavior, and may be applied in systematic prevention trials for families with infants. The inclusion of concepts related to individual differences in response tendencies and regulatory efforts may broaden the understanding of parent—infant transactions, and thus enrich prevention and sensitizing interventions with the aim of assisting infants’ development.     

Frontal brain asymmetry predicts infants' response to maternal separation

Examined whether certain features of infant temperament might be related to individual differences in the asymmetry of resting frontal activation. EEG was recorded from the left and right frontal and parietal scalp regions of 13 normal 10-month-old infants. Infant behavior was then observed during a brief period of maternal separation. Those infants who cried in response to maternal separation showed greater right frontal activation during the preceding baseline period compared with infants who did not cry. Frontal activation asymmetry may be a state-independent marker for individual differences in threshold of reactivity to stressful events and vulnerability to particular emotions.