Longitudinal changes in term and preterm infant night wakings: The role of caregiver anxious-depression

Changes in infant night waking during the first year of life are associated with individual (e.g., prematurity) and family (e.g., caregiver psychopathology) factors. This study examined the association between infant night waking and caregiver anxious-depressive symptoms during the first year of life in preterm and term infants. We considered between-person differences and within-person changes in caregiver anxious-depressive symptoms in relation to changes in infant night waking from 2- to 9-months. Racially (30.0% Black, 60.4% White, 9.5% multiracial/other) and socioeconomically (40.0% below median household income) diverse caregivers (N = 445) of full term (n = 258) and preterm (n = 187) infants were recruited from hospitals and clinics in two midwestern states. Caregivers completed measures of anxious-depression and their infant's night waking at four sampling periods (2-, 4-, 6-, and 9-months). Infant night wakings declined from 2- to 9-months. Between-person differences were observed, such that caregivers with higher average anxious-depressive symptoms or infants born full term reported more night wakings. Within-person effects of caregiver anxious-depressive symptoms were not significant. Caregiver anxious-depression is closely associated with infant night wakings. By considering a caregiver's average severity of anxious-depression, healthcare providers can more effectively plan infant sleep interventions. If caregiver anxious-depressive symptoms are ameliorated, night wakings may also decrease.     

Professional isolation and pandemic teleworkers’ satisfaction and commitment: The role of perceived organizational and supervisor support

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has abruptly and profoundly changed the way people interact with their organization, their colleagues and their supervisor.ObjectiveThis study assesses the effects of telework-induced professional isolation due to the pandemic. Drawing on organizational support theory, this study examines the relationship between professional isolation and satisfaction with the telework experience and affective organizational commitment during mandatory teleworking caused by the COVID-19 crisis. It does so by focusing on the moderating role of perceived organizational and supervisor support in these relations.MethodsData was collected via self-reported survey questionnaires from 728 pandemic teleworkers from various industry sectors in Quebec during the COVID-19 crisis. The study's hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM), and moderation effects were probed with the Johnson-Neyman technique.ResultsThe results reveal that professional isolation negatively affects satisfaction with the telework experience, but does not affect affective organizational commitment. The relationship between satisfaction with telework and professional isolation was moderated by perceived organizational support, and the relationship between affective organizational commitment and professional isolation was moderated by perceived supervisor support.ConclusionThis study expands the organizational support theory by examining perceived organizational and supervisor support during a crisis as a counterbalance to a challenging social and organizational climate that has led to professional isolation. The implications of the findings as well as future directions for research on professional isolation and telework are discussed.     

The risk of low risk: First time motherhood,prematurity and dyadic well-being

Premature birth has a well-documented impact on infants, mothers and their dyadic interactions. First time motherhood in the context of low risk premature birth—relatively unexplored in the literature—is a specific experience that sits at the nexus of premature infancy, motherhood and the processes that underpin dyadic connection. This qualitative study analyzed semistructured interviews with first time mothers of low risk premature babies. Findings were generated in response to research questions concerning mothers’ meaning-making, bonding and identity. Findings demonstrated that maternal meaning-making emerged from a dyadic framework. When mothers or their infants were considered outside of a dyadic context, surplus suffering inadvertently occurred. Findings have important implications for infant mental health practice in medical settings, for postnatal support in the aftermath of premature birth, and for understanding the meaning of risk.     

Parent–Child Interaction Therapy with Toddlers in a community-based setting: Improvements in parenting behavior,emotional availability,child behavior,and attachment

Parent–Child Interaction Therapy with Toddlers (PCIT-T) is a new attachment-based parenting intervention designed to meet the needs of children aged 12–24 months presenting with challenging behaviors. This study examined outcomes of the first phase of PCIT-T, Child Directed Interaction–Toddler (CDI-T), 4-months post treatment. Participants were 56 toddlers (Child Mage = 19.13 months) referred to receive CDI-T over an 8-week period at an Australian community-based child behavior treatment clinic for treatment of difficult toddler behaviors. Participants completed questionnaires and observational measures at baseline (Time 1), post-treatment (Time 2), and 4-month follow-up (Time 3). At both Time 2 and Time 3, there were statistically significant increases in observed positive parenting skills and emotional availability and decreases in negative parenting behaviors and child noncompliance. There were also significant improvements in parent-reported child externalizing and internalizing behaviors, parental stress, and maternal depression. There was a pattern of a shift away from attachment insecurity and attachment disorganization. Results suggest that the CDI-T phase of PCIT-T is a promising intervention for toddlers presenting with behavioral issues. Future studies should be conducted to assess efficacy in other settings, using larger samples and utilizing randomized controlled designs.     

Finding focus in a difficult landscape: Therapists’ experiences with challenging video guidance processes for parent–infant dyads

Marte Meo video guidance uses filmed interaction of the actual parent–infant dyad in the guidance of caregivers. Exploring the challenges that therapists meet in the guidance of parent–infant dyads may illuminate important aspects of the method itself as well as the therapists’ role and requirements. This could lead to method development and improved practice, but is hitherto little addressed. In this paper, we explore how skilled therapists experience and handle challenging or failing guidance processes with parent–infant dyads. We analyzed interviews with 13 Marte Meo therapists/supervisors using team-based reflexive thematic analysis. Four main themes were identified: promoting relational growth in a coercive context, building an alliance that feels safe for the parents, looking at positive moments in difficult lives, and handling intense feelings as a therapist. Our findings show that therapists experience specific therapeutic and ethical challenges with a vulnerable subgroup of parent–infant dyads where child protective issues arise, where caregivers’ insecurities impede the therapeutic relationship, and where caregivers have unsolved relational or mental health problems. The therapists’ role becomes pivotal and demanding with regard to the therapeutic alliance, the therapeutic interventions in the guidance process, and their own need for regulation, supervision, and structure. Identification of these vulnerable dyads early in the process could facilitate a better adaptation and practice of video guidance. Our findings suggest a need for supporting structures, clinical supervision, and training that address these challenges.     

Maternal postpartum depression is a risk factor for infant emotional variability at 4 months

Maternal postpartum depression (PPD) is a risk for disruption of mother–infant interaction. Infants of depressed mothers have been found to display less positive, more negative, and neutral affect. Other studies have found that infants of mothers with PPD inhibit both positive and negative affect. In a sample of 28 infants of mothers with PPD and 52 infants of nonclinical mothers, we examined the role of PPD diagnosis and symptoms for infants’ emotional variability, measured as facial expressions, vocal protest, and gaze using microanalysis, during a mother–infant face-to-face interaction. PPD symptoms and diagnosis were associated with (a) infants displaying fewer high negative, but more neutral/interest facial affect events, and (b) fewer gaze off events.  PPD diagnosis, but not symptoms, was associated with less infant vocal protest. Total duration of seconds of infant facial affective displays and gaze off was not related to PPD diagnosis or symptoms, suggesting that when infants of depressed mothers display high negative facial affect or gaze off, these expressions are more sustained, indicating lower infant ability to calm down and re-engage, interpreted as a disturbance in self-regulation. The findings highlight the importance of not only examining durations, but also frequencies, as the latter may inform infant emotional variability.     

Maternal fatigue and burnout: From self-forgetfulness to environmental expectations

ObjectiveThe main objective of this study is to explore, through a qualitative approach, maternal and family expectations that could be related to maternal fatigue and exhaustion. The secondary objective is to identify aspects that could be specific to a specific age group.MethodA total of fourteen French mothers aged 28 to 42 (mean age 32 ± 4.3 years), with at least one child under 10 years of age, participated in a Focus Group. Mothers were grouped into two groups according to the age of their child(ren): 1) with children between 0 and 1 year of age; 2) with children between 1 and 10 years of age. Several themes were discussed: mothers’ sacrifices and efforts, maternal fatigue and exhaustion, maternal, family and social expectations, and means of prevention. A thematic analysis and a classification analysis were carried out.ResultsThe thematic analysis revealed that exhaustion is partly related to expectations and family and social remarks. The classification analyses showed that mothers’ discourse can be classified into three classes: the first class called “Self-forgetfulness and its consequences” (38.1%); the second class called “The mother as the main manager of the family's daily life” (39.2%) and the third “Social pressure” (22.7%).DiscussionThis exploratory study shows that maternal exhaustion has its origin in the tasks and responsibilities often associated with maternal role as well as in the pressure exerted by family and friends. Although differences exist between mothers in the two groups, several factors appear to be independent of the age of the children. Prevention strategies are discussed in this article.     

Opening the closed heart: affect-focused clinical work with the victims of early trauma

This paper begins with the understanding that early trauma leads to powerful dissociative defenses which injure the capacity to feel. It further explores ways to restore this capacity through body-centred attention to affect-in-the-moment in the psychoanalytic situation. Using the author’s personal experience while in analysis as well as a case of severe early trauma, he demonstrates the consciousness-killing effect of primitive defenses and shows how body-sensitive techniques hold the promise of restoring the patient’s sense of aliveness and hence, opening the unconscious to those affect-images that are the building blocks of the human imagination. A final section focuses on the neglect of feeling in Jungian psychology and suggests that the “creation of consciousness” which Jung described as his personal myth, is quintessentially a process of emotional transformation – of bringing unconscious suffering into consciousness – as feelings.     

La distribution du voisinage influence l'amorçage orthographique non masqué des mots écrits

The aim of the present research is to study whether orthographic neighbourhood distribution influences unmasked orthographic priming. Two word conditions were compared in the lexical decision task. All word targets had two higher frequency neighbours that were either spread across two letter positions (SINGE/linge-songe) or concentrated on a single letter position (RUCHE/riche-roche). Results showed an inhibitory effect of unmasked orthographic priming. Furthermore, this priming effect was influenced by the target neighbourhood distribution. Priming was only found when the word targets had two neighbours that were spread across two letter positions. These data are discussed within an interactive activation framework in terms of prime activation (Versace and Nevers, 2003).