Mother–infant interaction and maternal postnatal psychological distress are associated with negative emotional reactivity among infants and toddlers— A FinnBrain Birth Cohort study

Studies have reported mixed findings regarding the effects of mother-infant interaction and maternal distress on children’s negative emotional reactivity. In the current study (N = 134 and 107), we examined the effects of maternal Emotional Availability (sensitivity, structuring, non-intrusiveness and non-hostility) and maternal psychological distress on negative reactivity among children in the FinnBrain birth cohort study. In addition, the possible moderating effect of mother-infant interaction on the associations between maternal psychological distress and children's negative reactivity was examined. We used questionnaires to asses maternal psychological distress, observations of mother-infant interaction and observations as well maternal reports of child temperament to overcome the key limitations of many studies relying on single-method assessments. Our results showed that higher maternal sensitivity and structuring at 8 months of child’s age were associated with lower mother-reported negative reactivity among children at 24 months. Higher maternal postnatal distress associated with higher parent-reported negative reactivity in children at 12 and 24 months of age when the effects of prenatal distress and the quality of mother-infant interaction were controlled for. Mother-infant interaction and maternal psychological distress did not associate with observations of child negative reactivity. We found no moderation effects of mother-infant interaction regarding the associations between maternal distress and children’s negative emotional reactivity. Our findings reflect the importance of developing interventions to reduce the maternal distress symptoms while enhancing maternal sensitivity and structuring to prevent the possible harmful effects of these on child negative reactivity.     

Inconsistent Discipline as a Mediator Between Maternal Distress and Aggression in Boys

The current study examines inconsistent discipline as a mediator in the association between maternal distress and child aggression and attention problems. Participants were 215 boys, ranging in age from 9 to 12 years, and their mothers. Mothers provided self-report data on socioeconomic status (SES), parenting stress, maternal distress (depression and anxiety/somatization), and use of parenting practices. They also rated their sons' levels of aggression and attention problems. Of five parenting practices measured, inconsistent discipline was most clearly related to the maternal and child variables of interest. Regression analyses indicated that inconsistent discipline partially mediated the relation between maternal distress and child aggression, when controlling for SES and stress, whereas the mediating role of inconsistent discipline in the association between maternal distress and attention problems was not supported. The different pattern for attention problems, which also includes nondisruptive behaviors, suggests that this mediation may be specific to certain types of child behavior. Given that aggressive behaviors in childhood often lead to more serious delinquency in adolescence, these findings are important for informing prevention and intervention efforts. The need for future research to examine other mediators also is discussed.     

Relevance of physical environment influences for toddler temperament

The present study investigated the relation of the physical environment to toddler and parent temperament. Measurement of the physical environment offers a unique way of disentangling environmental influences on temperament from child influences on the environment. Subjects were 82 12-month-old toddlers. The physical environment was assessed during six separate home observations, using codes from the Purdue Home Stimulation Inventory. Toddler temperament was measured by the Toddler Temperament Scale, and maternal temperament was assessed with the revised Dimensions of Temperament Scale. Results indicated that measures of crowding and availability of objects and visual stimuli were most consistently related to specific dimensions of toddler temperament. Relations between physical environment and maternal temperament were inconsistent. Partialling out maternal temperament did not substantially change observed relations between the physical environment and toddler temperament. Implications of these findings for our understanding of environmental contributions to the expression of temperament are discussed.     

All by Myself? Independence and Coordination During Distress Episodes from 14 to 24 Months Among Latino Children

Growing research suggests that socialization toward independence with a focus on ‘separate individuality’ may be a culture specific rather than universal socialization goal. Among Latino families, children of mothers high in formal schooling have shown more independent and less coordinated patterns of interaction than children of mothers low in formal schooling. This longitudinal research explored the balance between independence and coordination during mother–child interaction around distress by examining age‐related changes and within‐group variation among Latino children. Fifty Latino dyads were videotaped during unstructured interactions in their homes at 14 and 24 months of age. Episodes of distress were identified and then classified according to individual contributions and coordination (e.g. [child] independent, mother‐led, coordinated). Coordinated and independent resolutions were the most frequent type at both ages. To examine the balance between these for each child, a proportion of episodes resolved in each type was calculated. Children in both groups (high maternal schooling, low maternal schooling) increased in coordination, but only children with higher maternal schooling also increased in independent resolutions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

母亲消极情绪表露与儿童焦虑的关系：有调节的中介模型

本研究以临沂市3所小学1173名一至六年级的学生及其母亲为被试,探讨了母亲消极情绪表露与儿童焦虑的关系,以及母子冲突和母子亲密在这一关系中的作用。采用家庭情绪表露问卷、亲子关系问卷、儿童焦虑性情绪障碍筛查表进行研究。结果表明：(1)母亲消极情绪表露与母子冲突、儿童焦虑两两显著正相关,母子亲密与母亲消极情绪表露、母子冲突、儿童焦虑的相关不显著;(2)母亲消极情绪表露显著正向预测儿童焦虑;(3)母子冲突在母亲消极情绪表露与儿童焦虑间起中介作用,且上述中介效应的后半段路径受到母子亲密的调节。     

Low Maternal Warmth Mediates the Relationship Between Emotional Neglect and Callous-Unemotional Traits Among Male Juvenile Offenders

Callous-unemotional traits (CU) are thought to be the developmental precursor to adult psychopathy, and identify antisocial youth at risk for persistent, aggressive conduct problems. Accumulating research supports the importance of parenting factors in the development of CU traits. The overlapping but distinct constructs, parental neglect and low warmth, are both associated with CU/psychopathic traits; however, research is yet to examine the relative contribution of these constructs. The purpose of the present study was to examine the unique contributions of parental neglect and low warmth to CU traits among 227 incarcerated male juvenile offenders (M?=?15.73, SD?=?1.27 years). Results indicated that low levels of maternal warmth were more strongly associated with CU traits than emotional and physical neglect. Maternal warmth also significantly mediated the association between emotional neglect and CU traits. Findings from this cross-sectional study suggest that parental neglect influences CU traits at least partly through experiences with unresponsive and emotionally “cold” parenting. The findings also support a movement within the field towards addressing parental warmth as a treatment target for antisocial youth with CU traits.     

Emotional Abuse in Childhood and Attachment Anxiety in Adult Romantic Relationships as Predictors of Personality Disorders

Personality disorders are characterized by interpersonal problems. These problems might arise not only in current, but also in past relationships. To test this hypothesis, recollections of abuse and neglect in childhood and representations of adult attachment to the romantic partner were related to dimensional ratings of the 10 DSM-5 personality disorders. Ultimately, 110 patients of a psychosomatic clinic took part in the study. All data were collected with self-report measures. Among the different types of child abuse and neglect, emotional abuse was shown to be most frequently correlated with personality disorders. Attachment dimensions avoidance and anxiety were both associated with personality disorders; anxiety, however, showed stronger correlations. The results reveal that personality disorders come along with enduring adversities in close relationships, mainly experiences of emotional abuse and attachment anxiety, starting in the family of origin and continuing in adult attachment bonds.     

The Moderation Role of Self‐perceived Maternal Empathy in Observed Mother–Child Collaborative Problem Solving

Based on L. S. Vygotsky's sociocultural theory, previous scaffolding studies have examined some factors associated with adjustment of parental support during collaborative problem solving. However, a factor that remains unexplored in the literature is the potential relationship between parental empathy and parental support in collaborative problem solving. The present study addresses this question through the observation of 45 preschool children and their mothers cooperating in a problem‐solving task with two levels of difficulty. Teachers rated the children's fine motor skills, and sampled mothers reported their empathy levels towards their children. Consistent with the notion of scaffolding, negative correlations were found between observed maternal verbal support (cognitive, autonomy, and emotional) and child age, and between observed maternal cognitive support and teacher reports of child motor skills. An analysis of covariance revealed significant empathy‐by‐difficulty interactions for physical and cognitive support after controlling for the effect of child motor skills. Implications of these findings are discussed in terms of the role of child motor skills and the importance of parental empathy in collaborative problem solving. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Maternal Emotion Socialization,Depressive Symptoms and Child Emotion Regulation: Child Emotionality as a Moderator

This study tested a model of children's emotionality as a moderator of the links between maternal emotion socialization and depressive symptoms and child emotion regulation. Participants were 128 mother–preschooler dyads. Child emotion expression and emotion regulation strategies were assessed observationally during a disappointment task, and a principal component analysis revealed three factors: passive soothing (including sadness and comfort seeking), negative focus on distress (including anger, focus on distress and low active distraction) and positive engagement (including positive emotion, active play and passive waiting, which was loaded negatively). Hierarchical linear regression models revealed that child positive emotionality (PE) and negative emotionality (NE) moderated the links between maternal support/positive emotion expression and child emotion regulation strategies. In particular, children's low PE exacerbated the association between lack of maternal support and child passive soothing, whereas high PE enhanced the association between maternal positive expression and reduced negative focus on distress. Furthermore, the associations of mothers' support and reduced passive soothing and negative focus on distress, as well as the association between mothers' positive expression and child positive engagement, were stronger for children with low levels of NE, compared with those with average and high levels of NE. Findings partially support a diathesis–stress model in understanding the effects of both child characteristics and the familial influence on child emotion regulation. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modeling Family Dynamics in Children with Fragile X Syndrome

Few studies have examined the impact of children with genetic disorders and their unaffected siblings on family functioning. In this study, the reciprocal causal links between problem behaviors and maternal distress were investigated in 150 families containing a child with fragile X syndrome (FXS) and an unaffected sibling. Both children's behavior problems appeared to have strong, direct effects on maternal distress, but maternal distress did not appear to have any reciprocal causal effects on either child's behavior problems. Surprisingly, there were no significant differences in the effects of the two children's behavior problems on maternal distress. These data suggest that the problem behaviors of children with FXS, as well as their unaffected siblings, can have a substantial and additive impact on maternal depression and anxiety. Future research efforts should employ longitudinal research designs to confirm these findings.     

Specificity of parental bonding and rumination in depressive and anxious emotional distress

We examined how different dimensions of rumination may mediate the impact of parental bonding (lack of care and overprotectiveness) on negative emotional symptomatology (anxiety and depression). Survey data from participants were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results indicated that brooding rumination fully mediated the relationship between maternal care and depressive and anxious symptomatology. These findings suggest that to the extent that maternal caregivers are low in warmth and support, offspring are more likely to develop a brooding style of ruminative thinking associated with heightened emotional distress. This research supports the growing body of evidence suggesting that cognitive variables form a pathway between troublesome parent/child interactions and psychopathology.     

Maternal coping strategies and emotional distress: results of an early intervention program for low birth weight young children

Several questions were examined with Infant Health and Development Program (IHDP) data (N = 843). Are effects of intervention services found for maternal emotional distress and coping strategies, and are these effects different for different groups of mothers? Do maternal distress, coping, and life events moderate (or mediate) the intervention effects reported earlier for children's test scores and behavior problems (IHDP, 1990)? The intervention reduced maternal distress, especially for women with less than a high school education. Maternal distress did not moderate or mediate the influence of the intervention on child outcomes. Maternal coping was not influenced by the intervention and did not moderate the influence of the intervention on child outcomes. Life events moderated the influence of the intervention on children's test scores; the intervention was more effective for children whose mothers had fewer life events.     

What's mom got to do with it? Contributions of maternal executive function and caregiving to the development of executive function across early childhood

Executive functions (EFs; e.g. working memory, inhibitory control) are mediated by the prefrontal cortex and associated with optimal cognitive and socio‐emotional development. This study provides the first concurrent analysis of the relative contributions of maternal EF and caregiving to child EF. A group of children and their mothers (n = 62) completed age‐appropriate interaction (10, 24, 36 months) and EF tasks (child: 24, 36, and 48 months). Regression analyses revealed that by 36 months of age, maternal EF and negative caregiving behaviors accounted for unique variance in child EF, above and beyond maternal education and child verbal ability. These findings were confirmed when using an early child EF composite‐our most reliable measure of EF – and a similar pattern was found when controlling for stability in child EF. Furthermore, there was evidence that maternal EF had significant indirect effects on changes in child EF through maternal caregiving. At 24 months, EF was associated with maternal EF, but not negative caregiving behaviors. Taken together, these findings suggest that links between negative caregiving and child EF are increasingly manifested during early childhood. Although maternal EF and negative caregiving are related, they provide unique information about the development of child EF. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPKXFbbrkps     

Non-verbal and verbal parental mentalization as predictors of infant attachment security: Contributions of parental embodied mentalizing and mind-mindedness and the mediating role of maternal sensitivity

Interest in studying the relative contributions of verbal (e.g., maternal mind-mindedness [MM]) and non-verbal dimensions (i.e., parental embodied mentalizing [PEM]) of parental mentalization to child socio-emotional development is relatively recent. To date, only one study has addressed this issue in relation to child attachment security, suggesting a complementary and unique contribution of each one. The purpose of the present study was to further examine the specific contribution of PEM to infant attachment security by considering MM. In addition, this study aimed to explore the mediating role of maternal sensitivity linking PEM, MM to infant attachment security within 110 mother-infant dyads at moderate psychosocial risk. The two dimensions of parental mentalization (PEM and MM) were assessed on the basis of observations made during a videorecorded sequence of mother-child interactions in a context of free play with and without toys when the infants were 8 months old. The Maternal Behavior Q-Sort was used to measure the mothers’ sensitivity in a natural setting based on observations of daily mother-child interactions, also when the infants were about 8 months old. Attachment security was measured using The Strange Situation Procedure at infant age 16 months. The results showed positive correlations between maternal sensitivity and both verbal and non-verbal measures of parental mentalization. The mediation analyses first revealed that PEM had a significant indirect effect on attachment security, with sensitivity being identified as a mediator in this association. No indirect effect linking MM and attachment security via sensitivity was observed. These results highlight the contribution of PEM to maternal sensitivity and show maternal sensitivity to be a factor that partly explains the influence of PEM on attachment security in children.     

Early manifestations of personality and adult emotional functioning

Developmental antecedents to adult emotional functioning were investigated in an epidemiologic study using theories of personality and emotion. The authors tested whether different types of adult emotional distress can be linked to childhood personality attributes. Using data from 3,138 children at age 7, measures of 4 childhood personality attributes were developed and validated: Behavioral Inhibition, Distress Proneness, Attention, and Inappropriate Interpersonal Self-Regulation. Sound psychometric properties of these scales are demonstrated by considering the measures across multiple samples and in comparison with established child behavior measures. Emotional distress measures were obtained for 694 of these individuals at age 35. Of the personality attributes, 3 of 4 (except behavioral inhibition) predicted general levels of distress as well as specific aspects of adult emotional functioning.     

Emotionally disturbed, adopted adolescents: early patterns of family adaptation

This article focuses on the development of compatibility or goodness-of-fit within adoptive families and on the possible contribution of such problems to emotional disturbance of adolescents. Subjects included 50 adopted adolescents in residential treatment (mean age = 14.96) and their families, and 50 nonadopted adolescents in treatment (mean age = 14.90) and their families. The child, both parents, and the child's caseworker were interviewed. Three distinctive interactional patterns presenting adaptational challenges are discussed: the family's adaptation to the child's hyperactivity, the family's adaptation to the child's avoidance of contact and cuddling from early infancy, and perceived incompatibility between the child's personality and the parents' style. Results are discussed in terms of behavioral and attributional contributions of both the child and parents to the development of compatibility. Implications for clinicians are discussed.     

Personality neglect. The unforeseen impact of personal dispositions on emotional life

The present research provides the first evidence that people neglect their own personalities when they envision their future emotional lives. In Study 1, students ignored the impact of their dispositional happiness in predicting how they would feel 2 weeks after receiving grades. Yet dispositional happiness played an important role in shaping actual emotional experiences. Similarly, exhibiting personality neglect, participants in Study 2 overlooked their trait levels of neuroticism and optimism when forecasting their reaction to Barack Obama's election, though these personality dimensions were related to their actual emotional reactions. Because they overlooked the influence of their own dispositions, individuals incorrectly predicted their future feelings. Ironically, as a result of this personality neglect, more optimistic individuals were less likely to see their emotional future in an overly rosy light, whereas more neurotic individuals were more likely to overestimate the pleasure that the future would bring.     

Perceived partner support in pregnancy predicts lower maternal and infant distress

Maternal postpartum emotional distress is quite common and can pose significant risk to mothers and infants. The current study investigated mothers' relationships with their partners during pregnancy and tested the hypotheses that perception of prenatal partner support is a significant predictor of changes in maternal emotional distress from midpregnancy to postpartum, and contributes to maternal ratings of infant distress to novelty. Using a prospective longitudinal design, 272 adult pregnant women were interviewed regarding their partner support, relationship satisfaction, and interpersonal security (attachment style and willingness to seek out support), and they completed standardized measures of prenatal symptoms of depression and anxiety (distress). At 6 to 8 weeks' postpartum, mothers reported these symptoms again and completed measures of their infants' temperament. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test direct and indirect contributions of partner support, relationship satisfaction, and interpersonal security to maternal and infant postpartum distress. Mothers who perceived stronger social support from their partners midpregnancy had lower emotional distress postpartum after controlling for their distress in early pregnancy, and their infants were reported to be less distressed in response to novelty. Partner support mediated the effects of mothers' interpersonal security and relationship satisfaction on maternal and infant outcomes. A high-quality, supportive partner relationship during pregnancy may contribute to improved maternal and infant well-being postpartum, indicating a potential role for partner relationships in mental health interventions, with possible benefits for infants as well.     

The association of neighborhood poverty with personality change in childhood

The child sample of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (n.d.) was analyzed to examine the relation of undesirable personality change in early childhood to neighborhood economic deprivation. Participants in the survey who had complete data at Time 1 (3-4 years of age) and Time 2 (5-6 years of age) and who remained in the same neighborhood during both time periods were included in the analyses. The results indicated that neighborhood economic disadvantage was associated with undesirable personality change even after controlling for family-level variables such as maternal education, family income, and cognitive and emotional support in the home environment for children. The association of personality change with neighborhood economic deprivation was not mediated by maternal depression, Head Start participation, cognitive and emotional support in the home, or maternal trust in the neighborhood. The authors discuss recommendations for future investigations.     

Parental personality,parenting and toddlers' externalising behaviours

This study examined the mediating role of parenting on the relation between parental personality and toddlers' externalising behaviours. Participants were 112 boys and their parents. The data were analysed using multilevel modelling and moderated mediation analyses. Several associations were found between parental personality and parenting dimensions. Additionally, several parenting dimensions were associated with children's externalising behaviours. Emotional stability was the only parental personality trait that was related to children's externalising behaviours. The effect of maternal emotional stability on children's aggressive behaviours appeared to be mediated by maternal support. For fathers, there appeared to be a direct effect of emotional stability on children's aggressive behaviours. In addition, for both mothers and fathers, emotional stability was directly related to children's attention problems. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.