Oxytocin links mothering received,mothering bestowed and adult stress responses

We review recent discoveries that implicate oxytocin in the intergenerational transmission of similar levels of maternal behavior and acute stress responses in female rats. First, ICV-infused oxytocin antagonist decreased the display by nursing dams of pup-licking (PL) and arched-back nursing (ABN), but not other components of maternal behavior, and increased maternal self-grooming suggesting that oxytocin may shift the balance of oral grooming by dams away from themselves and toward pups. Second, oxytocin receptor concentrations in areas of the adult brain where oxytocin stimulates maternal behavior or diminishes anxiety and adrenal axis responses to acute stress were positively related to PL-ABN received during infancy. Third, oxytocin and oxytocin antagonist treatments of pups on postnatal days 2-10, respectively increased and decreased PL by the treated rats when adult and themselves nursing dams. This indicates that oxytocin activity in female pups, which may be regulated by PL-ABN received from their mothers, influences their adult levels of PL. These three lines of evidence suggest that oxytocin selectively enhances PL-ABN by rat dams, which then increases oxytocin activity in female pups and, thereby, facilitates their expression of central oxytocin receptors (and perhaps other aspects of central oxytocin systems) and, consequently, their adult PL-ABN frequencies and acute stress responses.     

The dangers and deprivations of too-good mothering

The paper explores Winnicott's ideas on the detrimental effects of mothering which is too well adapted to infant needs. Winnicott claimed that such too-good mothering, when pursued beyond the baby's earliest months, led to two possible outcomes: the child would either reject the mother or would remain in a state of arrested development, merged with her. The paper follows the development of a baby girl, observed by the Bick method, and illustrates how her mother's devoted and sensitive care effectively deprived her of the development of some aspects of the sense of self and of possibilities for negotiation, concern and reparation. The baby developed a paranoid orientation and later rejected her mother after the birth of her sister. The paper also mentions the alternative outcome of a persisting state of passive merger with the mother and ends by hoping for further exploration of the means by which some sensitive, responsive parents may inadvertently ‘worse than castrate’ their children by depriving them of an autonomous sense of agency.     

On the vicissitudes of early primary surrogate mothering

I have noted estrangement from biological mothers and intolerance of intimate relationships in patients with an early history of primary surrogate mothering. This observation facilitated discovery of such early histories in 31 of 102 patients I examined during a five-year period. With a review of the literature, and clinical examples, I attempt to associate the estrangement and intolerance with the mother's exclusion resulting from her infant's close tie to a surrogate and the infant's inevitable traumatic loss of the latter. In the analyses of screen phenomena, mother and surrogate mother transferences, all peculiar to that caretaking, the surrogate is seen to emerge from obscurity. In the clinical examples (limited to losses of surrogates following the infant's eighteenth month) screen memories, dreams, and eclipse are found to possess a common feature: the image of the surrogate is screened by that of the mother. Biological mother and, in the countertransference, the analyst play a significant role in perpetuating the concealment of the surrogate.     

A life of ease and immorality: Health professionals' constructions of mothering on welfare

Mothering on welfare is often discussed as perpetuating disadvantage and discouraging individuals from meaningful social activity defined as paid employment. This is understood in the context of increasing commitment to a neo‐liberalist agenda, where people are viewed as autonomous individuals in a market economy, and unequal rewards within this economy are due to individual failings. The discourse analysis presented here examines how health professionals in New Zealand construct what it means to be a mother on welfare within the context of interviews on the health care needs of adolescent mothers. Mothering on welfare is predominantly described as transgressing social norms, where a life of ease is an indicator of immoral conduct and personal value is determined through education and employment. The welfare mother is also viewed as transgressing the norms of appropriate family structures and the sexual practices sanctioned within these structures. The legitimate work of mothering is absent in these accounts while the life of ease and plenty on welfare is made visible. These discourses draw attention to the ways in which welfare mothers are disqualified from neo‐liberal definitions of citizenship, and demonstrate how motherhood on welfare is regarded as undermining rather than contributing to society. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The future of mothering: reproductive technology and feminist theory

An exploration of (I) alternative perspectives toward recent innovations in reproductive technology: support for new techniques for the sake of the kind of feminist future they facilitate; unqualified opposition despite therapeutic benefit to individual women; or qualified opposition depending upon specific threats to women's interests and (II) relationships between these positions and values bound up with mothering practices.     

Exclusive early mothering and its alternatives The Outcome to Adolescence

Abstract.— This investigation focuses on the later development, up to mid-adolescence, of boys and girls (separately) who had had either exclusive care by their mothers up to age 5 or daily substitute care ("diffused mothering") for a substantial proportion of their earlier lives. Findings from a longitudinal study are first presented in the following order. The outcome of the contrasting regimes, exclusive vs. diffused mothering, is reported for each sex at various ages from 6 to 17, and the validity of these findings is critically examined. The mothers' personalities and attitudes are then investigated as a possible co-determinant of the observed outcome. Developmental patterns of behaviour tendencies, intelligence and attainment are next traced to discover when intergroup differences first appeared. Lastly, conditions of substitute care are examined, and evidence from subsamples cited on the apparent effects of unstable regimes, age of commencement, and group vs. individual care. The findings under each heading are subsequently compared with those of other investigators, a theoretical interpretation offered, future research needs outlined, and provisional conclusions formulated.     

A Social Relations Model of need supportiveness

Basic need fulfillment has important implications for optimal growth and development and may be derived through receiving need support from others. Thus far, research has primarily focused on single-person ratings of (perceptions of) need supportiveness. Thus, it is unclear whether perceptions of need supportiveness are dyadically specific and reciprocal and to what extent need supportiveness may be trait-based. In the current study, sorority and fraternity members (N = 117, ethnically diverse, 78% male) completed self-ratings and other-ratings of perceptions of need supportiveness using a round-robin design. Data was analyzed according to the Social Relations Model. We found that people tended to consistently see others as, and be seen by others as, need supportive (or not). These perceptions were related to self-reported need supportiveness, suggesting that people may have perceptual biases, and there was self-other agreement in terms of need supportiveness. These findings suggest that need supportiveness may represent an individual difference and not just a dyadic construct. Moreover, those that rated themselves as need supportive were also seen by others as need supportive, providing some support for the validity of self-report measures of need supportiveness.     

Introduction: Reflections on mothering and on reexperiencing the early relationship experience

As President of the World Association for Infant Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines the Editor has invited me to introduce this issue, which continues with papers from the Stockholm Congress. Advances in developmental biology and medical genetics make it clear that the future of psychiatric and mental health research will be centered in preventive intervention. This prospect highlights the need for more knowledge about environmental/individual interactions. The caregiving relationship experience is a crucial aspect of these interactions and frames the later development of strength or disorder. Several papers in this issue focus on the caregiving experience and provide me an opportunity to offer some reflections on the nature of experiencing and reexperiencing. Propositions that seem important include the following: The experience of caregiving involves a reexperiencing of earlier represented relationships; reexperiencing in this sense involves other past relationships that had a similar role relationship context; reexperiencing involves a dynamic interplay on both sides of a represented role relationship (that is, self and other interacting); early formative relationships are apt to be represented as affective prototypes such that reexperiencing occurs mainly without conscious awareness. Understanding such affective representations can guide infant psychiatry as it opens new opportunities for brief interventions. These can benefit infants and caregivers through the medium of the infant-caregiver relationship experience. Activating formative aspects of that experience can promote health and the strengths of individuality and provide a buffer against illness and self-defeating attitudes.     

The compatibility of hunting and mothering among the agta hunter-gatherers of the Philippines

Women's hunting is widely held biologically impracticable in foraging societies, chiefly because hunting is presumed incompatible with maternal responsibilities. A three-year study of hunting practices among the Agta Negrito people of northern Luzon reveals women's active participation in hunting, singly and in groups, without detriment to normal fertility and child care.     

A short measure of the need for affect

Two studies are presented to introduce a 10-item short form of the Need for Affect Questionnaire (NAQ-S; cf. Maio & Esses, 2001 ). Study 1 was based on 4 independent samples (German or English language; N (total) = 2,151) and demonstrated the expected factorial structure of the NAQ-S; its measurement invariance with respect to gender, age, and education; and the predicted associations with relevant personality measures. A latent state-trait analysis conducted in Study 2 (N = 140) suggests that most of the reliable variance of the NAQ-S represents stable individual differences.     

Multiple birth and its influence on the mothering experience: A case study of parent/infant psychotherapy with quadruplets

The treatment of a mother of quadruplets during the first year of the infants' lives serves as a case example of the issues associated with a multiple birth and how these issues can be addressed via parent/infant psychotherapy. Issues concerning an individual's self-esteem, dependency, envy, and competency as a parent are exaggerated by a multiple birth. The ensuing developmental crisis provides an ideal opportunity for therapeutic work.