Spontaneously occurring mother-infant swapping and the relationships of infants with their biological and foster mothers in a captive group of lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla)

The present study describes spontaneously occurring infant-mother swapping and the relationships of infants with their biological and foster mothers after swapping in a captive social group of lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla). After infant-swapping took place between a primiparous mother with a neonate and a multiparous mother with a 10-month-old infant, the mothers provided appropriate maternal care, including nursing, to their adopted infants, but the older infant still sought refuge with its biological mother more frequently than with its foster mother. Almost 2 years later, the younger infant who was weaned by its foster mother began nursing from its biological mother; the latter subsequently weaned her adopted infant. Thereafter, the older infant who was weaned exhibited an abnormal hair-plucking behavior. These results indicate that it was psychologically stressful for the gorilla infant to quickly transfer its attachment figure from the mother to another adult female when the mother continued to remain in the group.     

Associations between mother-infant bed-sharing practices and infant affect and behavior during the still-face paradigm

Parents in the United States increasingly report bed-sharing with their infants (i.e., sleeping on a shared sleep surface), but the relationship between bed-sharing and child socioemotional outcomes are not well understood. The current study examines the links between mother-infant bed-sharing at 3 months and infant affect and behavior during a dyadic challenge task at 6 months. Further, we examine nighttime mother-infant contact at 3 months as a possible mechanism that may mediate linkages between bed-sharing and infant outcomes. Using observational data from a sample of 63 mother-infant dyads, we found that infants who bed-shared for any proportion of the observation period at 3 months displayed significantly more self-regulatory behaviors during the still-face episode of the Still-Face Paradigm (SFP) at 6 months, compared to non-bed-sharing infants. Also, infants of mothers who bed-shared for the entire observation period displayed significantly less negativity during the reunion episode than non-bed-sharing infants. There was no evidence that the relations between mother-infant bed-sharing practices and infant affect and behavior during the SFP were mediated through nighttime mother-infant contact. Results suggest that infant regulation at 6 months postpartum may vary based on early nighttime experiences, with bed-sharing potentially promoting more positive and well-regulated behavior during dyadic interaction.     

Chronic stress in the mother-infant dyad: Maternal hair cortisol,infant salivary cortisol and interactional synchrony

Stress physiology is shaped by early experience, with enduring effects on health. The relation of chronic maternal physiological stress, as indexed by hair cortisol, to infants’ stress systems and to mother-infant interaction quality has not been established. We examined maternal hair and salivary cortisol, six-month-old infants’ salivary cortisol, and mother-infant interaction in 121 mother-infant dyads. High maternal hair cortisol was related to higher infant average salivary cortisol concentration. Maternal hair cortisol and bedtime salivary cortisol were both uniquely related to infant bedtime salivary cortisol. Mothers with higher hair cortisol were more intrusive and had lower positive engagement synchrony with their infants. Maternal intrusiveness moderated the association of maternal hair cortisol and infant salivary cortisol, such that maternal hair and infant average salivary cortisol were related only when mothers were more intrusive. Maternal chronic physiological stress may upregulate infants’ developing stress systems, particularly in the context of lower mother-infant interaction quality.     

Mothers’ feelings about infants’ negative emotions and mother-infant interactions among the Gamo of Southern Ethiopia

Parents’ exposure to stressful ecosocial situations, like inadequate resources, is linked to parents’ perceptions of infants’ fussing and crying and less sensitive caregiving. However, studies supporting these findings predominantly come from Western contexts of parenting and infant care. Ecosocial situations may have different effects on parenting and infants in distinct cultural contexts. In this study, the link between Gamo mothers’ expressions of stress about their infants’ negative emotional displays (N = 29 mothers and infants) and mother-infant interactions was investigated. Mothers who expressed stress in response to their infants’ negative emotions demonstrated fewer interactions overall with their infants compared to mothers who did not express stress. Regression analyses showed that mothers who did not express stress had infants that fussed and cried more in their presence than infants of mothers who did not express stress, albeit insignificant. These results are discussed in the context of Gamo infancy in Southern Ethiopia.     

Marital aggression predicts infant orienting toward mother at six months

Links between marital aggression and infant orienting toward mother in fearful and frustrating contexts were examined in 92 mother-infant dyads when infants were six months. Results demonstrated that marital aggression was linked with less orienting toward mothers in frustrating situations, in fearful situations marital aggression was linked with less orienting among infants who were high on fear reactivity only.     

Experimental manipulation of maternal proximity during short sequences of sleep and infant calming response

This study aimed to understand how different mother-infant sleeping arrangements impact infants’ self-regulation, particularly their calming response. Thus this study investigated the effect of three prevalent mother-infant sleeping arrangements, co-sleeping (CS), sleeping beyond arm’s length from their mother (BAL), and solitary sleeping (SS), on infants’ physiological calming through self-regulation during a nap session in 24 infants (50% female, M = 1.85 months SD = 0.93 months), who were identified as either regular co-sleepers with their mothers, infants who slept in the BAL sleeping arrangement from their mother, and infants who are solitary sleepers (SS). The effect of all three sleeping conditions amongst all the three types of infants with different habitual sleeping arrangements was assessed. All infants spent 10 min (2 × 5 min sessions) in each sleeping condition (CS, BAL, SS) during which electrocardiographic recordings were collected to obtain interbeat intervals (IBI) and rMSSD, a measure of heart rate variability (HRV) an index of physiological calming, maintained by the parasympathetic pathway involved in self-regulation. Infants who regularly co-slept with their mothers had the highest IBI, indicating greater physiological calming and self-regulation across all sleeping arrangement conditions (CS, BAL, SS), followed by infants who regularly slept in the BAL sleeping arrangement from their mothers. IBI was lowest amongst regular solitary sleepers, potentially indicating physiological stress due to mother-infant separation. However, HRV indices during the sleeping arrangements (especially across regular solitary sleepers) were inconclusive as to whether the lack of change in HRV across all sleeping conditions was due to physiological stress responses or greater physiological regulation. This study is the first to investigate the effect of manipulated and habitual mother-infant sleeping arrangements on infant physiological calming.     

Emotional Relationships in Mothers and Infants: Culture-Common and Community-Specific Characteristics of Dyads from Rural and Metropolitan Settings in Argentina, Italy, and the United States

This study uses country and regional contrasts to examine culture-common and community-specific variation in mother-infant emotional relationships. Altogether, 220 Argentine, Italian, and U.S. American mothers and their daughters and sons, living in rural and metropolitan settings, were observed at home at infant age 5 months. Both variable- and person-centered perspectives of dyadic emotional relationships were analyzed. Supporting the notion that adequate emotional relationships are a critical and culture-common characteristic of human infant development, across all samples most dyads scored in the adaptive range in terms of emotional relationships. Giving evidence of community-specific characteristics, Italian mothers were more sensitive, and Italian infants more responsive, than Argentine and U.S. mothers and infants; in addition, rural mothers were more intrusive than metropolitan mothers, and rural dyads more likely than expected to be classified as mid-range in emotional relationships and less likely to be classified as high in emotional relationships. Adaptive emotional relationships appear to be a culture-common characteristic of mother-infant dyads near the beginning of life, but this relational construct is moderated by community-specific (country and regional) context.     

The role of oxytocin in early mother-infant interactions: Variations in maternal affect attunement

The aim of the present research was to investigate the relationship between oxytocin and maternal affect attunement, as well as the role of affect attunement in the relationship between oxytocin and infant social engagement during early mother-infant interactions. Forty-three mother-infant dyads participated in the present study when infants were 4 months. They were observed during (1) a situation where no communication took place and (2) a natural interaction between mother and infant. During this procedure, three saliva samples from mothers and their infants were collected to determine their levels of oxytocin at different time points. Maternal affect attunement (maintaining attention, warm sensitivity) and infant interactive behaviors (gaze, positive, and negative affect) were coded during the natural interaction. Results indicated that overall maternal oxytocin functioning was negatively related to her warm sensitivity, while infant oxytocin reactivity together with maternal affect attunement were associated with infant positive social engagement with their mothers. Specifically, infant oxytocin reactivity was significantly related to their gazes at mother, but only for infants of highly attuned mothers. These results point to the complex role oxytocin plays in parent-infant interactions while emphasizing the need to analyze both overall oxytocin functioning as well as reactivity as different indices of human affiliative behavior.     

Synchrony in mother-infant vocal interactions revealed through timed event sequences

This report extends a previous cross-cultural study of synchrony in mother-infant vocal interactions (Bornstein et al., 2015) to immigrant samples. Immigrant dyads from three cultures of origin (Japan, South Korea, South America) living in the same culture of destination (the United States) were compared to nonmigrant dyads in those same cultures of origin and to nonmigrant European American dyads living in the same culture of destination (the United States). This article highlights an underutilized analysis to assess synchrony in mother-infant interaction and extends cross-cultural research on mother-infant vocal interaction. Timing of onsets and offsets of maternal speech to infants and infant nondistress vocalizations were coded separately from 50-min recorded naturalistic observations of mothers and infants. Odds ratios were computed to analyze synchrony in mother-infant vocal interactions. Synchrony was analyzed in three ways -- contingency of timed event sequences, mean differences in contingency by acculturation level and within dyads, and coordination of responsiveness within dyads. Immigrant mothers were contingently responsive to their infants’ vocalizations, but only Korean immigrant infants were contingently responsive to their mothers’ vocalizations. For the Japanese and South American comparisons, immigrant mothers were more contingently responsive than their infants (but not robustly so for South American immigrants). For the Korean comparison, mean differences in contingent responsiveness were found among acculturation groups (culture of origin, immigrant, culture of destination), but not between mothers and infants. Immigrant dyads’ mean levels of responsiveness did not differ. Immigrant mothers’ and infants’ levels of responsiveness were coordinated. Strengths and flexibility of the timed event sequential analytic approach to assessing synchrony in mother-infant interactions are discussed, particularly for culturally diverse samples.     

Intersubjectivity,object relations theory,and empirical evidence from mother-infant interactions

The work of John Bowlby and his associates on the development of the infant's attachment to his or her parents in the second half of the first year reflects the fruitfulness of an integration of psychoanalytic insights and empirical research. In line with this approach, this paper considers the mother-infant relationship in the first few months from two perspectives: that of the British School of Object Relations and that of the theory of Intersubjectivity, set out initially within developmental psychology and, more recently, developed within systems theory. These views are considered in the light of evidence from two sources. First, a series of experimental studies is described employing disruptions to both the form and the timing of communication between 6- to 12-week-old infants and their mothers. This work illustrates the sensitivity of young infants to the quality of their interpersonal engagements and, also, the contribution of the infant to the regulation of interactions with others. Second, evidence is presented from a prospective study of the effects of maternal depression in the postnatal period on infant development. This work shows the possible longer term consequences for the infant of early disturbances in the mother-infant relationship. Infants of postnatally depressed women were found to be more insecurely attached to their mothers, were more likely to have mild behavioral problems (especially sleep disturbance), and showed poorer outcome on Object Concept tasks at 18 months. These effects occurred despite the fact that the mother had recovered from depression by 3 months postpartum.     

Responsiveness in mother-infant social interactions among immigrant and nonmigrant families: Japanese,South Korean,South American,and European American

A culture learning perspective motivated the present study of the acculturation of responsiveness in mother-infant interactions. Several conceptual and analytic features of responsiveness in mother-infant social interactions were examined: Temporal contingency, mean differences in responsiveness among and within dyads, attunement of mother and infant responsiveness withing dyads, and the influence of acculturation on individual responsiveness. Methodologically, acculturation was assessed at group and individual levels in immigrant Japanese, South Korean, and South American dyads in comparison with nonmigrant dyads in their respective cultures of origin (Japan, South Korea, and South America) and their single common culture of destination (United States). In total, 408 mothers and their 5½-month-old infants were observed in the naturalistic setting of the home, and observations were coded for mothers’ speech to infant, social play, and encouraging her infant to look at her, and infants’ looking at mother and nondistress vocalizations. Odds ratios were then generated for mother and infant responsiveness in four types of social interactions: Mother speaks to infant and infant looks at mother (Mother Speak/Infant Attend), mother plays with infant and infant looks at mother (Mother Play/Infant Attend), mother plays with infant and infant vocalizes (Mother Play/Infant Vocalize), and mother encourages infant to look at her and infant vocalizes (Mother Encourage/Infant Vocalize). Five key findings emerged. Specifically, mother and infant responsiveness in Mother Speak/Infant Attend interactions were temporally contingent in all cultures. Mean differences in responsiveness among cultures emerged, and within dyads infants were more responsive than their mothers in Mother Speak/Infant Attend interactions. Mother and infant responsiveness in Mother Speak/Infant Attend interactions were attuned in all cultures. Responsiveness in Mother Play/Infant Vocalize interactions showed acculturation effects at the individual level. Implications of these findings for understanding the development of responsiveness in social interactions and acculturation in immigrant families are discussed.     

The effects of polydrug use with and without cocaine on mother-infant interaction at 3 and 6 months

The face-to-face interactions of 43 polydrug-with-cocaine-using mothers and their infants at 3 and 6 months were compared to 17 non-cocaine-but other-drug-using mothers and 21 mothers who used no drugs during their pregnancy. Coders blind to mothers' drug use status scored 3 min of face-to-face interactions for 16 measures of maternal and infant interactive behaviors. A principal component of 7 behaviors formed a measure of maternal attentiveness; a principal component of 5 behaviors formed a measure of mother-infant dyadic organization; and a principal component of 4 behaviors formed a measure of infant readiness to interact. A measure of maternal interruption was computed as the mean standard score of 3 additional interruptive behaviors. At 3 and 6 months, polydrug-with-cocaine-using mothers were less attentive to interactions, and polydrug-with-cocaine-using mothers and their infants engaged in fewer dyadic interactions than either non-cocaine or non-drug-using mothers. Compared to 3 months, polydrug-with-cocaine-using mothers at 6 months were less attentive to interactions and more frequently interrupted interactions by looking away, redirecting the infant, or withdrawing, whereas non-cocaine-using and non-drug- using mothers showed no change or an improvement in attentiveness to interactions and a decrease in interruptions. No differences emerged in the interactive behaviors of the infants of polydrug- with-cocaine-using, non-cocaine-using, or non-drug-using mothers. Cocaine use represents a significant risk for diminished parental attentiveness and responsiveness to infants and for diminished interactiveness in infants.     

Music therapy enhances preterm infant’s signs of engagement and sustains maternal singing in the NICU

Hospitalized preterm infants are exposed to stressful stimuli and early parental separation, which can undermine their long-term development and mother-infant bonding. Family-centered music therapy can enable positive mother-infant interactions, mediated by maternal infant-directed singing. This study aimed to investigate the effects of music therapy on preterm infant’s signs of engagement, namely Eye Opening (EO) and Smiling (SM), and maternal vocalizations. Participants were 30 mother-preterm infant dyads in a Brazilian Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), divided into a Music Therapy Group (MTG) and a Comparison Group (CG). The MTG participated in 6 sessions of the Music Therapy Intervention for the Mother-Preterm Infant Dyad (MUSIP), with the aim of supporting maternal singing with the infant. Prior to discharge, all mothers were filmed during a Non-singing (NS) and Singing (S) interactional condition; in the S condition, mothers were explicitly asked to address their infants by singing. Results of video and audio analysis showed that infants in the MTG displayed greater Eye Opening (EO) frequency compared to CG, but only when they were in an initial awake state at test, suggesting that music therapy can potentialize infants’ alertness, by increasing their disposition and chances of being engaged in the interaction with the mother. Non-religious mothers appeared to sing significantly more in the MTG than in the CG. These preliminary findings indicate that music therapy in the NICU could promote infant’s signs of engagement during interactions and can sustain maternal singing, especially with non-religious mothers in Brazil.     

婴儿气质及母亲的养育态度与亲子日常活动的关系

本研究以430名母亲及其婴儿作为研究对象,应用婴儿气质行为评定量表(Infant Behavior Questionnaires,IBQ)、养育压力量表(ParentingStress Index,PSI)及母亲与婴儿的日常活动问卷对6个月婴儿气质、母亲的养育态度及母亲与婴儿的日常活动进行调查。结果表明婴儿气质中的积极情绪与母亲-婴儿日常活动有显著的正相关关系;母亲的养育态度,主要是母亲对养育困扰的评价,与亲子日常活动中的认知刺激活动呈显著的负相关性;多元回归分析表明母亲的受教育水平在婴儿气质、母亲的养育态度与亲子日常认知刺激活动之间的关系中具有调节作用。     

Six-week postpartum maternal self-criticism and dependency and 4-month mother-infant self- and interactive contingencies

Associations of 6-week postpartum maternal self-criticism and dependency with 4-month mother-infant self- and interactive contingencies during face-to-face play were investigated in 126 dyads. Infant and mother face, gaze, touch, and vocal quality were coded second by second from split-screen videotape. Self- and interactive contingencies were defined as auto- and lagged cross-correlation, respectively, using multilevel time-series models. Statistical significance was defined as p<.05. Regarding self-contingency, (a) more self-critical mothers showed primarily lowered self-contingency, whereas their infants showed both lowered and heightened, and (b) infants of more dependent mothers showed primarily lowered self-contingency, whereas findings were absent in mothers. Regarding interactive contingency, (a) more self-critical mothers showed lowered attention and emotion contingencies but heightened contingent touch coordination with infant touch, and (b) more dependent mothers and their infants showed heightened facial/vocal interactive contingencies. Thus, maternal self-criticism and dependency have different effects on mother-infant communication.     

Effects of short-term interaction coaching with mothers of preterm infants

This study examined the effects of eight 40-minute interaction coaching sessions on the mother-infant interaction patterns of mother-preterm infant dyads. Thirty-five preterm infants and their mothers were matched for sex and then were assigned randomly to a treatment and a no-treatment control group. Behavior counts and ratings of maternal and infant interactive behavior (Interaction Rating Scale; Field, 1980) were obtained from naturalistic home observations, precoaching, postcoaching, and at a 2-month follow-up. It was hypothesized that coaching, which was intended to facilitate more sensitive responding by mothers, would positively influence mother-infant interaction and mothers' knowledge of infant development. The only marginally significant difference between the groups that emerged over time was in knowledge of infant development, in which the treatment group surpassed the control group.     

The effect of mother-infant skin-to-skin contact on Ghanaian infants’ response to the Still Face Task: Comparison between Ghanaian and Canadian mother-infant dyads

The effect of mother-infant skin-to-skin contact on Ghanaian infants’ developing social expectations for maternal behavior was investigated. Infants with high and low mother-infant skin-to-skin contact experience in the infants’ first month engaged with their mothers in a Still Face Task at 6 weeks of age. Infants with high skin-to-skin contact experience, but not those with low skin-to-skin contact experience, demonstrated the still face effect with their smiles. Infants with both high and low skin-to-skin contact experience demonstrated the still face effect with their visual attention. The behaviors of the Ghanaian infants and their mothers during the task were compared to archival evidence of Canadian mother-infant dyads’ behaviors in skin-to-skin and control groups who engaged in the Still Face Task at the infant ages of 1 and 2 months. Similarities and differences between the behaviors of the mother-infant dyads in the two cultures were assessed.     

Maternal mind-mindedness over infants’ first three months

Maternal mind-mindedness refers to mothers’ ability to reflect upon their infants’ mental states and respond appropriately. The present study assessed mind-mindedness longitudinally from the newborn period to the infant age of three months. The study is the first to assess maternal mind-mindedness in the infant’s early life prior to three months (one week, one month, two months, three months). To measure maternal mind-mindedness, mothers’ speech to their infants is coded for mental state comments about the infants’ thoughts, desires, and emotions. Appropriate mind-minded comments are judged to accurately reflect the infants’ mental states; non-attuned mind-minded comments are judged to misinterpret the infants’ mental states. Mothers’ individual stability (rank order stability) and group level continuity (mean level of stability across the infant ages) were assessed. Mothers showed modest temporal stability in both appropriate and non-attuned mind-mindedness over the infants’ first three months. The continuity of mind-mindedness showed that appropriate mind-mindedness increased over the infant ages, but non-attuned mind-mindedness showed no change. In infants’ early lives, mothers’ ability to accurately interpret their infants’ mental states is enhanced as the mother-infant relationship develops and infants become more communicative partners.     

Behavioral and environmental correlates of infant abuse in group- living pigtail macaques

The present study investigated the context of occurrence of infant abuse and the behavior of abusive mothers and their infants in pigtail macaques (Macaca nemestrina). Subjects were 8 abusive mothers with their infants and 8 control mother-infant pairs living in 3 captive social groups. The most common forms of abuse were infant crushing and dragging and the most common context of occurrence was social stress. Severe and mild abuse differed in the frequency but not in the type of abuse patterns. Abusive mothers had controlling parenting styles relative to nonabusive mothers, and abused infants played at a later age and less frequently than controls. This study replicates previous findings on the parenting styles of abusive macaque mothers and provides new evidence on the context of occurrence of abuse and its consequences for infant health and social development.     

Attention-getting vs. imitation effects on depressed mother-infant interactions

The effects of instructing mothers to “imitate” their infant versus “keep their infant's atten tion” were examined during mother-infant face-to-face interactions of 18 mothers reporting depressive symptoms as compared with 22 mothers who did not report such symptoms. Mothers were generally rated as showing more positive facial expressions and more game playing (particularly the depressed mothers) during the attention-getting versus the imitation sessions. The infants received more optimal physical ac tivity, and facial expression ratings during attention getting, and the infants of depressed mothers, in par ticular, showed more positive facial expressivity and more joy expressions. As might be expected for the imitation condition, mothers showed more imitative behavior, contingent responsivity, and silence during gaze aversion. Infants generally showed more disinterest and self-comfort behaviors, and the infants of depressed mothers, in particular, showed more anger expressions, fussiness, and squirming during the imitation condition. The data suggest that the attention-getting condition was the most effective “intervention” for eliciting positive behavior in the depressed mother-infant dyads.