The Effect of Maternal Depressed Mood on Infant Emotional Reaction in a Surprise‐Eliciting Situation

The purpose of this study is to examine the claim that an infant's ability to respond appropriately to an emotional situation varies according to the emotional state of the mother. Surprise expressions in mother and child were examined both in terms of paralinguistic aspects of surprise vocalizations as well as facial expressions. Seventy‐two infants and their mothers (mean age=8 months, range=5–11 months) were video‐ and audiotaped in their homes. Half of the infants, matched for age and gender, had mothers who reported depressed mood. Infants of mothers with depressed mood showed significantly fewer components of facial expressions of surprise compared with infants of nondepressed mothers. Mothers with depressed mood exclaimed surprise with a significantly lower pitch (mean F₀=386.13 Hz ) compared to nondepressed mothers (mean F₀=438.10 Hz ). Furthermore, mothers with depressed mood showed fewer associations between elements of emotional expression than the nondepressed group. Infants' expressions of surprise are influenced by maternal mood, resulting in reduced expression of the emotion in infants of mothers with depressed mood. These results are discussed in terms of coordination of vocal parameters in mother–infant dyadic interaction.     

Newborns of depressed mothers

Eighty-three newborns (M GA = 37 weeks) were assigned to depressed (N = 47) and nondepressed mother (N = 36) groups based on Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scores. The Brazelton Neonatal Assessment Scale was administered to the infants within 24 hours after birth. Infants of depressed mothers demonstrated poorer performance on the orientation cluster. Further analysis of the orientation cluster items revealed inferior orientation to the inanimate stimuli. Infants of depressed mothers also showed less motor tone and activity and more irritability and less robustness and endurance (unavailability, lethargy, and stress behaviors) during the examination.     

Interactive coordination of currently depressed inpatient mothers and their infants during the postpartum period

In healthy mother–infant dyads, interactions are characterized by a pattern of matching and mismatching interactive states with quick reparation of mismatches into matches. In contrast, dyads in which mothers have postpartum depression show impaired mother–infant interaction patterns over the first few months of the infant's life. The majority of studies that have examined such interaction patterns have drawn on community samples rather than on depressed inpatient samples of mothers who were in a state of current depression at the time of assessment. To date, no study has investigated specific microanalytic patterns of interactive coordination between depressed German mothers and their infants using the Face‐to‐Face Still‐Face paradigm (FFSF). The primary goal of this study was to evaluate specific patterns of dyadic coordination and the capacity for repairing states of miscoordination in an inpatient sample of postpartum currently depressed mothers and their infants as compared with a healthy control group. A sample of 28 depressed inpatient German mothers and their infants (age range = 1–8 months, M age = 4.06 months) and 34 healthy dyads (range = 1–8 months, M age = 3.89 months) were videotaped while engaging in the FFSF. A focus was placed on the play and reunion episodes. Compared with healthy dyads, dyads with depressed mothers showed less coordination of positive matched states and longer latencies when repairing interactive mismatching states into positive matched states. Clinical implications are discussed.     

Differential sucking by neonates of depressed versus non-depressed mothers

Forty-two neonates (M = 39-h old) of depressed and non-depressed mothers sucked on cold (50 °F) and warm (78 °F) nipples on alternating trials. Half the infants received the cold nipple on the first of the eight trials (20 s each) and the other half received the warm nipple first. Neonates of depressed mothers sucked twice as much as neonates of non-depressed mothers, suggesting arousal dysregulation, overactivity or greater hedonic behavior in the newborns of depressed mothers. Although the newborns did not show a preference for cold or warm nipples, a temperature order effect revealed that neonates who received the cold nipple on the first trial sucked significantly more on trials 2–8 than those who received the warm nipple on the first trial, suggesting that an initially cold nipple might elicit greater sucking. More research is needed on maternal mood effects and temperature of objects to determine how these factors affect neonatal sucking behaviors.     

Preschoolers' response to maternal sadness: Relationships with maternal depression and emotional availability

Previous research has documented that children of depressed mothers are at risk for a variety of emotional/behavioral problems and impairments in mother-child interaction. Depressed mothers have been characterized as withdrawn and unavailable. The present study examined behavior of preschool children of depressed and nondepressed mothers in response to their mothers' feigned sadness. The study assessed maternal depression and maternal emotional availability to determine how these related to preschoolers' expression of empathy. Sixty-two mothers and their 3 1/2-year-olds participated in the study. Mother-child interaction was coded from four tasks: free play, eating a snack, problem solving, and sadness simulation. Children of depressed mothers were not less empathic than children of nondepressed mothers. However, the mother's mood on day of testing related to child response. Maternal emotional availability interacted with the credibility/intensity of her simulation of sadness to predict child empathy.     

Patterns of emotional availability between mothers and young children: Associations with risk factors for borderline personality disorder

Emotional availability (EA) characterizes a warm, close relationship between caregiver and child. We compared patterns (clusters) of EA on risk factors, including those for borderline personality disorder (BPD). We sampled 70 children aged 4 to 7 years from low socio‐economic backgrounds: 51% of whose mothers had BPD. We coded filmed interactions for EA: mothers' sensitivity, structuring, non‐intrusiveness, non‐hostility, and children's responsiveness to, and involvement of, mothers. We additionally coded children's over‐responsiveness and over‐involvement. Using person‐centred analyses, we identified four clusters: high functioning, low functioning, asynchronous (mothers above average on two of four dimensions and children below), and below average. Mothers in the low‐functioning cluster had lower income, less social support, more of the borderline feature of negative relationships, and more depression than did mothers in the high‐functioning cluster. The children in the low‐functioning group had more risk factors for BPD (physical abuse, neglect, and separation from, or loss of caregivers, and negative narrative representations of the mother–child relationship in their stories) than did children in the high‐functioning group. The asynchronous group included older girls who were over‐responsive and over‐involving with their mothers in an apparent role reversal. Interventions targeting emotional availability may provide a buffer for children facing cumulative risks and help prevent psychopathology.

Highlights

• This paper investigated how mother‐child emotional availability (warmth and closeness) relates to risk factors for borderline personality disorder, including mother‐child role reversal.
• In filmed mother‐child interactions, low emotional availability was associated with risk for borderline personality disorder and role reversal was more likely for older girls.
• Findings support the cumulative risk hypothesis and may inform interventions to improve mother‐child emotional availability to prevent the development of psychopathology.

     

Effects of maternal postpartum depression in a well‐resourced sample: Early concurrent and long‐term effects on infant cognitive,language, and motor development

This study examined early and long‐term effects of maternal postpartum depression on cognitive, language, and motor development in infants of clinically depressed mothers. Participants were 83 mothers and their full‐term born children from the urban region of Copenhagen, Denmark. Of this group, 28 mothers were diagnosed with postnatal depression three to four months postpartum in a diagnostic interview. Cognitive, language, and motor development was assessed with the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development third edition, when the infants were 4 and 13 months of age. We found that maternal postpartum depression was associated with poorer cognitive development at infant age four months, the effect size being large (Cohen's d = 0.8) and with similar effects for boys and girls. At 13 months of age infants of clinical mothers did not differ from infants of non‐clinical mothers. At this time most (79%) of the clinical mothers were no longer, or not again, depressed. These results may indicate that maternal depression can have an acute, concurrent effect on infant cognitive development as early as at four months postpartum. At the same time, in the absence of other risk factors, this effect may not be enduring. The main weaknesses of the study include the relatively small sample size and that depression scores were only available for 35 of the non‐clinical mothers at 13 months.     

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.     

Here's looking at you,kid: attention to infant emotional faces in mothers and non‐mothers

Infant facial cues play a critical role in eliciting care and nurturance from an adult caregiver. Using an attentional capture paradigm we investigated attentional processing of adult and infant emotional facial expressions in a sample of mothers (n = 29) and non‐mothers (n = 37) to determine whether infant faces were associated with greater task interference. Responses to infant target stimuli were slower than adult target stimuli in both groups. This effect was modulated by parental status, such that mothers compared to non‐mothers showed longer response times to infant compared to adult faces. Both groups also responded more slowly to emotional faces, an effect that was more marked for infant emotional faces. Finally, it was found that greater levels of mothers' self‐reported parental distress was associated with less task interference when processing infant faces. These findings indicate that for adult women, infant faces in general and emotional infant faces in particular, preferentially engage attention compared to adult faces. However, for mothers, infant faces appear to be more salient in general. Therefore, infant faces may constitute a special class of social stimuli. We suggest that alterations in attentional processing in motherhood may constitute an adaptive behavioural change associated with becoming a parent.     

Sensitivity in detecting facial displays of emotion: Impact of maternal depression and oxytocin receptor genotype

The current study examined sensitivity in detecting emotional faces among children of depressed and non-depressed mothers. A second goal was to examine the potential moderating role of the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR rs53576), which has been linked to emotion recognition in the past. Participants included 247 children (ages 8–14). Children completed a forced choice emotion identification task. Maternal history of major depressive disorder during children's lives was associated with children's sensitivity in detecting emotional faces among children homozygous for the OXTR rs53576 G allele, but not among carriers of the A allele. Among G homozygotes, children of depressed mothers exhibited increased sensitivity in detecting sad faces, and reduced sensitivity in detecting happiness, compared to children of non-depressed mothers.     

Sleep disturbances in depressed pregnant women and their newborns

Pregnant women (N=253) were recruited during their second trimester of pregnancy (M=22.3 weeks gestation) and assigned to depressed (N=83) and non-depressed groups based on a SCID diagnosis of depression. They were then given self-report measures on sleep disturbance, depression, anxiety and anger, and their urine was assayed for norepinephrine and cortisol. These measures were repeated during their third trimester (M=32.4 weeks). Their newborns were then observed during sleep. During both the second and third trimesters, the depressed women had more sleep disturbances and higher depression, anxiety and anger scores. They also had higher norepinephrine and cortisol levels. The newborns of the depressed mothers also had more sleep disturbances including less time in deep sleep and more time in indeterminate (disorganized) sleep, and they were more active and cried/fussed more.     

Maternal depression: A review of relevant treatment approaches for mothers and infants

The negative impact of postpartum depression on the mother‐infant relationship and infant development more generally has been well documented. Compared to infants of nondepressed mothers, infants of depressed mothers have been shown to be less securely attached to their caregivers and often have cognitive, emotional, and behavioral deficits that persist well into childhood. Recent evidence has suggested that reduction of maternal depressive symptoms may itself not be sufficient to prevent negative effects on children. Rather, treatments that target the mother‐infant relationship may have great potential in providing a buffer against the potentially damaging effects of postpartum depression. Based on our review of several treatment‐outcome studies, we conclude that mother‐infant psychotherapies and home‐based interventions are generally efficacious in their goal of ameliorating detrimental consequences for children of depressed mothers. Nonetheless, the field must continue to investigate the extent to which treatment gains are maintained over time and the mechanisms by which protective effects occur. It is likely that the most efficacious treatment approaches will be those that address the needs of the mother, the infant, and their relationship.     

The Development of Invariant Object Recognition Requires Visual Experience With Temporally Smooth Objects

How do newborns learn to recognize objects? According to temporal learning models in computational neuroscience, the brain constructs object representations by extracting smoothly changing features from the environment. To date, however, it is unknown whether newborns depend on smoothly changing features to build invariant object representations. Here, we used an automated controlled‐rearing method to examine whether visual experience with smoothly changing features facilitates the development of view‐invariant object recognition in a newborn animal model—the domestic chick (Gallus gallus). When newborn chicks were reared with a virtual object that moved smoothly over time, the chicks created view‐invariant representations that were selective for object identity and tolerant to viewpoint changes. Conversely, when newborn chicks were reared with a temporally non‐smooth object, the chicks developed less selectivity for identity features and less tolerance to viewpoint changes. These results provide evidence for a “smoothness constraint” on the development of invariant object recognition and indicate that newborns leverage the temporal smoothness of natural visual environments to build abstract mental models of objects.     

Mindful Parenting and Emotion Socialization Practices: Concurrent and Longitudinal Associations

Caregivers play a crucial role in the socialization of youth emotion understanding, competence, and regulation, which are implicated in youth social and emotional health; however, there is less understanding of parental psychosocial or cognitive factors, like mindful parenting, that may be associated with the use of particular emotion socialization (ES) strategies. This study tests a model of the cross‐sectional and short‐term longitudinal associations between mindful parenting and supportive and nonsupportive ES strategies in a community sample of parents (N = 246; 63.8% mothers) of youth ranging from ages 3–12. Caregivers reported on mindful parenting and ES strategies at two time points 4 months apart. The structural equation model indicated that higher levels of mindful parenting are positively related to supportive ES responses and negatively related to nonsupportive ES responses both concurrently and over time. The longitudinal association between mindful parenting and nonsupportive, but not supportive, ES was marginally larger for fathers as compared to mothers. Given the documented impact of ES strategies on youth emotional and behavioral outcomes and interventions emerging to educate parents about how to provide a healthy emotional atmosphere, incorporating a focus on mindful parenting strategies may provide one pathway to increase supportive responses and decrease nonsupportive ones.     

Infant sensitivity to negative maternal emotional shifts: Effects of infant sex,maternal postnatal depression,and interactive style

This study examined the effects of infant sex, maternal postnatal depression, and maternal interactive style on infant sensitivity to maternal negative emotional shifts. Face‐to‐face interactions of 68 mother–infant dyads were analyzed at 8 and 18 weeks. Twenty‐five (28%) mothers had postnatal depression. Interactions were analyzed in terms of overall maternal interactive style: “sensitive,” “anxious,” “intrusive,” and “sad.” Episodes of negative shifts in maternal emotional expression were recorded, along with expressions of infant sensitivity to these changes. Daughters of depressed mothers showed higher rates of sensitivity to maternal negative emotion whereas their sons showed lower rates, in comparison to both girl and boy infants of well mothers. While maternal interactive style had no effect on 8‐week infant sensitivity to maternal negative emotional shifts, high rates of 18‐week infant sensitivity were predicted by both an 8‐week and a concurrent, “sad” maternal interactive style. The findings are discussed in relation to theories of emotional and interpersonal development.     

Depressed mothers' newborns show less discrimination of other newborns' cry sounds

Newborns' crying in response to the cry of another newborn has been called an empathetic response. The purpose of this study was to determine whether newborns of depressed mothers showed the same response. Newborns of depressed and non-depressed mothers were presented with cry sounds of themselves or other infants, and their sucking and heart rate were recorded. The newborns of non-depressed mothers responded to the cry sounds of other infants with reduced sucking and decreased heart rate. In contrast, the newborns of depressed mothers did not show a change in their sucking or heart rate to the cry sounds of other infants. This lesser attentiveness/responsiveness to other infants' cry sounds may predict their later lack of empathy.     

Depressed mothers' newborns show longer habituation and fail to show face/voice preference

Twenty neonates of depressed and nondepressed mothers failed to show an initial visual preference for their mother's versus a female stranger's face/voice. Subsequently, infants were habituated to their mother's face and voice. Infants of depressed mothers required 1/3 more trials and almost twice as long to habituate. A posthabituation test with their mother and a different female stranger revealed a preference for the stranger's face for 9 out of the 10 newborns of the nondepressed mothers. Again, the infants of depressed mothers displayed no visual preference. These findings reveal differences in depressed mothers newborns' speed of habituation and face/voice preferences. ©2002 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

Maternal postpartum depression is a risk factor for infant emotional variability at 4 months

Maternal postpartum depression (PPD) is a risk for disruption of mother–infant interaction. Infants of depressed mothers have been found to display less positive, more negative, and neutral affect. Other studies have found that infants of mothers with PPD inhibit both positive and negative affect. In a sample of 28 infants of mothers with PPD and 52 infants of nonclinical mothers, we examined the role of PPD diagnosis and symptoms for infants’ emotional variability, measured as facial expressions, vocal protest, and gaze using microanalysis, during a mother–infant face-to-face interaction. PPD symptoms and diagnosis were associated with (a) infants displaying fewer high negative, but more neutral/interest facial affect events, and (b) fewer gaze off events.  PPD diagnosis, but not symptoms, was associated with less infant vocal protest. Total duration of seconds of infant facial affective displays and gaze off was not related to PPD diagnosis or symptoms, suggesting that when infants of depressed mothers display high negative facial affect or gaze off, these expressions are more sustained, indicating lower infant ability to calm down and re-engage, interpreted as a disturbance in self-regulation. The findings highlight the importance of not only examining durations, but also frequencies, as the latter may inform infant emotional variability.     

Depressed mothers’ infants show less negative affect during non-contingent interactions

Infants of depressed and non-depressed mothers were videotaped interacting with their mothers in the [Nadel, J., Carchon, I., Kervella, C., Marcelli, D., & Reserbat-Plantey, D. (1999). Report: Expectancies for social contingency in 2-month-olds. Developmental Science, 2, 164–173] paradigm which consists of three segments including: (1) a free play, contingent interaction, (2) a non-contingent replay of the mothers’ behavior that had been videotaped during the first segment, and (3) a return to a free play, contingent interaction. As compared to infants of non-depressed mothers, infants of depressed mothers showed less negative change (less increase in frowning) in their behavior during the non-contingent replay segment. This finding was interpreted as the infants of depressed mothers being more accustomed to non-contingent behavior in their mothers, thus experiencing less violation of expectancy in this situation.     

The limits of newborn's grasping to detect texture in a cross-modal transfer task

Three experiments were conducted to investigate human newborns’ ability to perceive texture property tactually, either in a cross-modal transfer task or in an intra-modal tactual discrimination task. In Experiment 1, newborns failed to tactually recognize the texture (smooth vs. granular) of flat objects that they had previously seen, when they held flat objects. This failure was mainly due to a lack of intra-modal tactual discrimination between the two objects (Experiment 2). In contrast, Experiment 3 showed that newborns were able to tactually recognize the texture of previously seen surfaces when they held volumetric objects. Taken together, the results suggest that cross-modal transfer of texture from vision to touch stem from a peripheral mechanism, not a central mechanism. Grasping only allows newborns to perceive the texture of volumetric but not flat objects. As a consequence, this study reveals the limits of newborns’ grasping to detect and process information about texture. The results also suggest that more mature exploratory procedures, such as the “lateral motion” procedure exhibited by adults [Lederman, S. J., & Klatzky, R. (1987). Hand movements: A window into haptic object recognition. Cognitive Psychology, 19, 342–368], might be necessary for detecting the texture of flat objects in newborn infants.