Her heart is in the right place: an investigation of the ‘heartbeat hypothesis’ as an explanation of the left side cradling preference in a mother with dextrocardia

A majority of mothers, whether right- or left-handed, exhibit a preference to hold their babies to the left of the body midline. One of the earliest explanations for this finding proposed that babies were being held close to the mother's heart [Salk, L. (1960). World Mental Health, 12 , 168–175]. Salk suggested that the foetus becomes imprinted on the sound of the maternal heartbeat in utero. This paper reports a left holding preference in a mother who has the heart positioned on the right rather than the normal left side of the body. Salk's ‘heartbeat hypothesis’ is not supported by the holding preference of the dextrocardiac mother, nor by the detailed patterns of holding in the control group. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Attachment style,partner communication,and physical well‐being among couples coping with cancer

Attachment styles may influence interpersonal strategies used to cope with stress. We examined links between attachment style, communicative behaviors, and physical well‐being among 166 couples coping with cancer. Results of actor–partner interdependence mediation models indicated that insecure attachment styles were associated with greater self‐report of two different and seemingly contradictory communicative behaviors (disclosure and holding back), which in turn were associated with poorer physical well‐being. These effects were intrapersonal for both patients and spouses, with the exception of anxious attachment and holding back for spouses. They were also interpersonal in that spouse insecure attachment was associated with poorer patient physical well‐being through spouse communication (greater holding back and disclosure). Couple‐based communication interventions to support adjustment should consider attachment style.     

Stepparents’ Attachment Orientation,Parental Gatekeeping,and Stepparents’ Affinity-Seeking with Stepchildren

Remarried stepfamilies are a sizable portion of American families; in a 2011 Pew Center survey, 42% of respondents reported at least one stepfamily member. Family clinicians and researchers suggest that stepparents’ ability to develop close bonds with stepchildren may be critical to the well-being of couple and family relationships. Using actor-partner interdependence models to analyze dyadic data from 291 heterosexual remarried stepfamily couples, we explored factors related to stepparents’ efforts to befriend their stepchildren. Specifically, we evaluated how remarried parents’ gatekeeping and stepparents’ perceptions of their attachment orientations were associated with their own and their spouse's perceptions of stepparents’ affinity-seeking behaviors. Securely attached stepparents and stepparents with anxious attachment orientations engaged more frequently in affinity behaviors than did stepparents with avoidant attachment orientations; there was no difference between securely attached and anxious stepparents. Stepparents’ reports of parents’ restrictive gatekeeping were strongly and negatively associated with both stepparents’ and parents’ reports of stepparent affinity-seeking (actor and partner effects). Parents’ reports of their own restrictive gatekeeping were also negatively (but more weakly) associated with parents’ reports of stepparent affinity-seeking. Implications for families, clinicians, and relationship researchers and theorists are discussed.     

Treating destructive behavior reinforced by increased caregiver compliance with the participant's mands

Functional analyses sometimes do not identify momentary fluctuations in the function of destructive behavior (Bowman, Fisher, Thompson, & Piazza, 1997). In such cases, individuals may mand for the reinforcer that is currently most preferred and display destructive behavior if that mand goes unreinforced. In this study, we conducted a mand analysis to test whether destructive behavior functioned as a precurrent response that increased reinforcement for the participant's mands. We then evaluated a treatment that matched this function of destructive behavior by providing differential or time-based reinforcement of participant mands in accordance with multiple or chained schedules with reinforcement-schedule thinning. Decreases in destructive behavior averaged 97.4% across cases. We discuss these results relative to the importance of matching treatments for destructive behavior to operant functions for both traditional and idiosyncratic functions of destructive behavior.