Maternal attachment representations after very preterm birth and the effect of early intervention

Objective

For very preterm infants the mother-infant relationship may be compromised. Maternal attachment representations 18 (corrected) months after very preterm birth and the effect of the post-discharge Infant Behavioral Assessment and Intervention Program (IBAIP) were studied. The IBAIP is designed to assist parents to support and enhance their infant's regulatory competence and development. The intervention consisted of 6-8 home visits during the first 8 months after birth.

Method

Seventy-eight mothers of very preterm infants (<32 weeks and/or <1500 g) were interviewed, who participated in a randomized controlled trial: 41 from the intervention group and 37 from the control group. Maternal attachment representations were assessed with the Working Model of the Child Interview (WMCI). The interviews resulted in a classification of the attachment representations into balanced or non-balanced.

Results

30% of the mothers had non-balanced attachment representations. Qualitative content analysis of the answers showed that negative feelings when first seeing their baby and negative or ambivalent feelings in the first weeks at home with their baby are related to non-balanced attachment representations. The WMCI revealed no differences between the intervention and control group.

Conclusion

Early support for mothers of very preterm born infants to develop a healthy mother-infant relationship is recommended especially for mothers who report negative first experiences.     

Gender Role Traits Among Individuals with Social Anxiety Disorder

The present study investigated differences between individuals with and without social anxiety disorder (SAD) in instrumentality and expressiveness, personality traits traditionally linked to the male and female gender roles, respectively. Based on evolutionary and self-discrepancy theories, it was hypothesized that individuals with SAD would score lower on instrumentality and report a discrepancy between their perceived and ideal level of instrumentality compared to control participants. Sixty-four patients with SAD and 31 non-anxious control participants completed a battery of questionnaires, including ratings of their perceived and ideal gender role attributes and current psychosocial distress. Results supported the hypotheses, and provided initial evidence that a discrepancy between perceived and ideal instrumentality may be linked to social anxiety severity, depression and lower quality of life. No differences were detected between groups in expressiveness. The present findings suggest that individuals with SAD perceive themselves to be deficient in instrumentality. They also suggest that increasing instrumentality among individuals with SAD may be beneficial for treatment.     

The promise and potential of studying the “invisible hand” of teacher influence on peer relations and student outcomes: A commentary

Peers influence children's social-emotional development and school engagement in important and unique ways. Recent research on peer social networks documents that children are affected by the nature of the school-based peer ecology, as well as by their personal peer experiences. Yet, little is known about how teachers affect the peer ecology, nor how teachers can promote positive peer influences in the school context. The four studies in this special section examine this issue. Together, they document the promise and the potential of studying the “invisible hand” of teacher influence on peer relations, and illustrate the need for further research in this area. This commentary considers the contributions of these papers for conceptualizing processes of transactional teacher and peer influence on student outcomes, and implications for interventions designed to reduce problem behaviors or increase school engagement. In addition, it considers the limitations of current knowledge and directions for future research.     

Visual search for schematic emotional faces risks perceptual confound

Several studies have used a visual search task to demonstrate that schematic negative-face targets are found faster and/or more efficiently than positive ones, with these findings taken as evidence that negative emotional expression is capable of guiding attentional allocation in visual search. A common hypothesis is that these effects should be disrupted by face inversion; however, this has not been consistently demonstrated, and raises the possibility of a perceptual confound. One candidate confound is the feature of "closure" (see Wolfe & Horowitz, 2004) caused by the down-turned mouth adjacent to edge of the face. This was investigated in the present series of experiments. In Experiment 1, the speed advantage for upright negative faces was replicated. In Experiment 2, the effect was not disrupted with inversion, and an efficiency advantage emerged, suggesting that perceptual features could be causing the advantage. In Experiment 3, speed and efficiency effects were seen when this perceptual characteristic remained but face features were scrambled. Taken together, these findings suggest that visual search using schematic faces containing a curved-line mouth feature cannot provide a valid test of guided search by negative facial emotion unless this confound is controlled.     

Fundamental Beliefs,Origin Explanations and Perceived Effectiveness of Protection Measures: Exploring Laypersons' Chains of Reasoning About Influenza

Laypersons' chains of reasoning in explaining recent influenza outbreaks are investigated. Drawing on social representations theory, fundamental worldviews, that is, the belief in a dangerous world (BDW), are postulated to anchor explanations of disease origins, which in turn affect perceived effectiveness of protection measures. Our study, based on a longitudinal survey among the general public in Switzerland, showed that the lower people's BDW scores, the more they appeal to natural origins to explain outbreaks and the more they perceive official protection measures as effective. The higher people's BDW scores, the more they explain outbreaks via hygienic origins, which are linked with out‐group discrimination measures, and conspiracy origins, which are linked with lower perceived effectiveness of aid intervention measures. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

African American Women’s Limited Knowledge and Experiences with Genetic Counseling for Hereditary Breast Cancer

Genetic counseling and testing for hereditary breast cancer have the potential benefit of early detection and early interventions in African American women. However, African American women have low use of these services compared to White women. We conducted two focus groups with African American women diagnosed with breast cancer (affected group, n?=?13) and women with at least one first-degree relative with breast/ovarian cancer (unaffected group, n?=?8). A content analysis approach was employed to analyze interview data. Breast cancer survivors had more knowledge about genetic counseling and testing than participants who were unaffected with cancer. However, knowledge about genetic counseling was limited in both groups. Barriers to pursuing genetic counseling and testing included poor understanding of the genetic counseling and testing process, fear of carrying the mutation, concerns about discrimination, and cost. Motivators to participate in genetic counseling and testing included desire to help family members, insurance coverage, and potential of benefiting the larger African American community. Education efforts are needed to increase genetic counseling and testing awareness in the African American community.     

Longitudinal Interviews of Couples Diagnosed with Diminished Ovarian Reserve Undergoing Fragile X Premutation Testing

About 10 % of infertile/subfertile women are diagnosed with diminished ovarian reserve (DOR), of which?<?5 % will become pregnant spontaneously. Fragile X (FMR1) genetic testing may provide a reason for her early ovarian aging and/or have reproductive implications. Seven women with DOR (genetic study subset) and the male partners of six of these women were separately interviewed about the experience of being asked to undergo this unanticipated genetic test. Three interviews were conducted (before, within 1 week after, and 3 months after learning the test results). None of the participants carried the FMR1 premutation (largest FMR1 allele 27–50 CGG repeats). For women, their pregnancy-seeking journey was long and exhausting. Women understood the reproductive implications of carrying the FMR1 premutation, and hoped for a negative result. Being offered a genetic test caused women to pause and re-think their future reproductive plans. Husbands viewed the infertility journey as filled with unknowns, of which the genetic test results would be one more puzzle piece. The expense of fertility testing/treatment was mentioned by both spouses, though more notably by husbands. The introduction of a possible genetic cause of infertility, with additional potential health consequences for future biological children, caused women to re-think their quest for pregnancy. In contrast, the genetic test was viewed as an additional source of information for their husbands as opposed to raising concern regarding potential reproductive ramifications.