MEDIATING ROLE OF MATERNAL SENSITIVITY: ENHANCING LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT IN AT‐RISK FAMILIES

Home‐visiting programs have gained increasing importance in family‐centered prevention and intervention. However, few studies have examined the mechanisms underlying early intervention treatment effects. The goal of this study is to analyze the mediating role of maternal sensitivity in enhancing language development with the home‐visiting program Parents as Teachers (PAT). Data were collected and analyzed within the ongoing, long‐term ZEPPELIN study, a randomized controlled trial with 251 participating at‐risk families. Via longitudinal mediation analysis, we examined whether effects of the PAT on receptive and expressive language outcomes at 24 and 36 months were mediated by maternal sensitivity at 12 months. Within a moderated mediation framework, we investigated whether the level of family psychosocial stress affects this mediation. Results showed that intervention effects on language outcomes are mediated by maternal sensitivity—weakly and through specific pathways. Moderation and moderated mediation analyses indicated that effects of the PAT and also specific mediation effects increase with the level of psychosocial stress. Implications of the results for practice are discussed.     

Image du corps chez l’enfant sourd. Perception et vécu à travers le dessin et le TSEA

The body is as a living entity with three interrelated aspects: the physical motor skills, development processes, social and emotional interaction. The young child, regardless of his mental or physical condition, appropriates this entity when he is in contact with the surrounding world. Thus, the self-image will depend, in large part, on the person he is, the situation in which he lives (society, family), the nature and frequency of surrounding stimuli. A child carrying a handicap is likely to have a poor representation of his own self-image (disproportionate or deformed body) and an altered self-image, as far as he lives in a rejecting environment. In this paper, we have focused our research on how deaf children sees their self-image, based on our nineteen years of experience as a psychologist with hearing impaired children, in special schools. The various observations and assessments in this research, in addition to groups support offered to parents during all these years, give us today enough elements to show what kind of self-image the deaf child has of himself. Our assessment material was essentially thematic projective test of socialization –TSEA– and the drawing of the person.     

Les apprenti-e-s face aux contraintes en formation professionnelle en alternance : entre souffrance et plaisir

This paper focuses on the Swiss dual system of vocational education and training (VET), on the basis of the results of a study on VET dropouts. The adopted theoretical framework and method of analysis is the psychodynamic of work, which makes it possible to stress the specific constraints of a system that is closely related to the world of work. The various forms of suffering evoked by apprentices, as well as the strategies implemented to cope with it, are highlighted. The analyses also stress the pleasure young people can experience in VET. Between pleasure and suffering, these elements make it possible to consider both the assets and the shortcomings of this education system.     

震后一年半灾区小学生的创伤症状调查研究——以“八一帐篷学校”为例

本研究对总装备部·绵阳八一帐篷学校的小学生进行创伤症状调查研究,了解震后一年半小学生的心理健康状况。方法:使用儿童创伤症状量表简版(TSCC-A)对八一帐篷学校3～6年级小学生进行评估。结果:(1)八一帐篷学校的小学生震后一年半最为突出的创伤症状是焦虑,其次为抑郁和分离症状;(2)在创伤症状得分上不存在性别差异性,但是存在年级差异性,三年级学生创伤症状得分均低于其他年级学生;(3)震后一年半学生创伤症状比震后半年学生创伤症状有所减轻。结论:灾区小学生心理健康状况仍存在一些问题,焦虑、抑郁等症状仍比较明显,还应进行持续的心理危机干预。     

The day the clock stopped. Primitive states of unintegration,multidimensional working through and the birth of the analytical subject

This paper is based on one idea and built around one clinical experience that helped me to broaden my comprehension of it. The idea, underlying the work of several authors, is that when the analytic field is saturated with primitive and unintegrated mental contents, the analyst’s somatic countertransference is a precious indicator of a deep, dissociated form of communication. The clinical experience concerns the difficult elaboration of a complex, multifaceted countertransference that took place during the early stages of the analysis of a sensitive patient who used to communicate in a very dissociated way and that I found hard to contain. This experience, closely described in the article, led me to formulate the clinical idea that the transference field may be made of distinct layers (psychoid, affective, verbal), and that each one of them may potentially convey dissociated, even contrasting bits of information. The corollary of this is that the analyst should be ready to accept contrasting sensations, feelings and thoughts at the same time, as they might be the basic ingredients of a complex reverie. The analyst could find himself/herself in front of his/her own internal unelaborated multiplicity before a symbolic image may emerge to link the scattered pieces of the experience. Nevertheless, the heart of this paper is not about suggesting an idea, but in the sharing of a complex working through, which fostered the birth of a new, more human relational perspective: the capacity of being together in time, in a transitional space where there is neither total separation nor fusion.     

FATHER PLAY: IS IT SPECIAL?

Both mothers and fathers play with their children, but research on parent–child play interactions is conducted with mothers three times more often than it is with fathers. The articles in this special issue address this gap by focusing on the nature and quality of father–child play, across cultural contexts, and considering whether father play offers something unique and special for early human development, in infancy or early childhood. The studies show that fathers can be just as developmentally supportive as are mothers in terms of being playful and engaged with their children in ways that are related to greater child socioemotional competence, emotion regulation, and vocabulary, and to less aggression, anxiety, and negativity. We encourage future research to examine the cultural influences, family system dynamics, and specificity of timing and types of father–child play in relation to children's developmental competence.     

Newborn behavioral observations system in rural Pakistan: A feasibility and acceptability study

The Newborn Behavioral Observations (NBO) system is a relationship-based tool that helps parents recognize their infant's competencies and learn their behavioral cues, with the goals of enhancing parental responsiveness and satisfaction in the infant-parent relationship. In our study, a pediatrician integrated the NBO into 44 pediatric health care visits of infants in rural Pakistan villages, under the remote guidance of two U.S.-based child psychiatrists. A clinician then gave the mothers a survey about their experience of the NBO and found that the mothers were highly satisfied, reporting greater appreciation of their infant's strengths, greater understanding of their infant's behavioral cues, stronger attachment to their infant, and greater self-confidence as a mother. In their consideration of these results, the authors explore cultural reasons for the mothers’ responses and generate hypotheses to inform an outcome study of a similar intervention. This was a feasibility and acceptability study and was not randomized, had no control group, and did not use objective measures of outcome.     

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.     

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.