Maternal experience of their infants’ crying in the context of war trauma: Determinants and consequences

We examined, first, how prenatal maternal mental health and war trauma predicted mothers’ experience of their infant crying, indicated by emotions, cognitions, and behavior; and second, how these experiences influenced the mother–infant interaction and infant development. Participants were 511 Palestinian mothers from the Gaza Strip, reporting their war trauma, symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and perceived stress during pregnancy (Time 1). They reported experiences of infant crying at 4 months (Time 2), and the mother–infant interaction and infant sensorimotor and language development at 12 months of infants’ age (Time 3). Results revealed that maternal mental health problems, but not war trauma, were important to experiences of infant crying. A high level of PTSD symptoms predicted negative emotions evoked by infant crying, and high depressive symptoms predicted low active and positive responses to crying. Unexpectedly, high prenatal perceived stress predicted high active and positive responsiveness. Concerning the consequences, mothers’ sensitive interpretation of infant crying predicted optimal infant sensorimotor development, and mothers’ active and positive responses predicted high emotional availability in mother–infant interaction. Crying is the first communication tool for infants, and mothers’ sensitive responses to crying contribute to infant well-being. Therefore, reinforcing mother's optimal responses is important when helping war-affected dyads.     

Effects of male postpartum depression on father–infant interaction: The mediating role of face processing

It is estimated that postpartum depression affects up to 25% of men. Despite such high prevalence, the majority of studies on postpartum depression are focused on mothers, and the role of paternal depression and its effects on infant development have been overlooked by researchers and clinicians. The present study aimed to fill this gap by investigating the effect of paternal postpartum depression on father–infant interactions. In addition, we examined whether differences in face recognition mediated the effects of paternal postpartum depression on father–infant interactions. A total of 61 father–infant dyads (17 postpartum depression, 44 controls) took part in the study. Results revealed that compared to controls, fathers with postpartum depression had a worse pattern of interaction with their infants on measures of responsiveness, mood, and sensitivity; they also had greater difficulty in recognizing happy adult faces, but greater facility in recognizing sad adult faces. Depressed fathers attributed greater intensities to sad adult and infant faces. The tendency to attribute greater intensity to sad adult faces was confirmed as a partial mediator of the effect of paternal postpartum depression on measures of father responsiveness and as a full mediator of the effects of paternal depression on father sensitivity. Clinical implications and suggestions for further studies are discussed.     

从家长的角度探讨有关低出生体重儿的生命伦理学问题

为了了解家长关于低出生体重儿医疗救治权的观点,为医疗决策提供伦理学依据,按1：1匹配各选择124例单胎低出生体重儿及正常儿建立队列,调查两组家长对低出生体重儿医疗救治观点的认识。结果显示,两组家长大多认同低出生体重儿应积极救治且医疗救治权应当由医生和家长共同决定。因此,应加强围产期保健教育,积极预防低体重儿出生。     

Interactive silences within spontaneous early infant–father ‘dialogues’

The present longitudinal and naturalistic study aims to investigate infants' and fathers' facial expressions of emotions during pauses preceding and following spontaneous early infant–father conversation. Studying emotional expressions in the course of pauses in early infant–father interaction is important because it may extend our knowledge on how, without being able to speak, infants begin communication and develop a capacity to share understanding of what they and Significant Others (such as fathers) mean by what they do. Eleven infant–father dyads from Crete, Greece, were observed during their natural interactions at home from the second to the sixth month of life. The microanalysis of fathers' and infants' facial expressions of emotions provided evidence that: (a) in the course of pauses preceding and following early infant–father conversation, either the infant is interested in the father while the latter expresses pleasure to the infant, or the infant expresses external interest while the father is interested in the infant, (b) infants seem to attune their descending and stable emotional intensity to the same direction as their father's emotional intensity, (c) infants and fathers remain consistent in their emotional expression in the beginning and at the end of the pause, and (d) infant and paternal pleasure and interest did not change significantly across the nine age points of this study. Exploratory analysis of the relationship of paternal and infant emotional expressions across infants' birth order provided evidence of certain differences and similarities. It is proposed that pausal interruptions preceding and following free early infant–father ‘dialogues’ constitute interactive silences, since in their course there is evidence of inter‐subjective emotional coordination and intra‐subjective regulation of emotion. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Toddlers' use of cues in a search task

Search for a ball that has undergone hidden motion rapidly improves during the second year of life (Dev. Psychol., 2000; 36 :394–401). In three experiments we investigated whether the poor performance of younger toddlers was due to attentional failure by highlighting the major cue for the hidden object. We observed only slight improvement in search behaviour. We performed two other experiments that tested the depth of understanding of 3‐year‐olds in this task and found that their performance was robust to changes in the apparatus and experimental procedures. Overall, the results point to a rapidly developing ability in the second year of life to either reason about space or select the correct motor response in search tasks. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Level of Detail in Infants' Word Learning

ABSTRACT— This article summarizes recent findings on infant word learning and recognition. Infants initially store very detailed representations of words, including details that are not truly necessary for word recognition. As they are exposed to more varied productions of words, they develop more sophisticated knowledge about which details are important, and streamline their representations, allowing them to better recognize words across different contexts, speakers, and environments.     

Parental assessment of early childhood development: biological and social covariates

This study uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (N=8605) to investigate the effects of unfavourable birth outcomes and dimensions of the family environment on the development of Canadian children aged 0–47 months. Among children under 24 months of age, it was found that sex of the child, birth order and low birthweight were significant covariates while the familial environment tended to have little influence. However, among children aged 24–47 months, effects of parenting style, social support, and positive social‐structural conditions of the family supplemented the effects of sex of the child and low birthweight. The results suggest that the cumulative effects of a positive family environment begin to occlude the neonatal disadvantages in the first 47 months of life. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of maternal inattentiveness on infant social referencing

The aim of the study was to clarify the meaning of infant looking behaviour when the infant is confronted with an ambiguous situation in order to disentangle the two processes social referencing and attachment. Ninety‐six 12‐month‐olds, presented with an ambiguous or an unambiguous toy, were assigned to one of four conditions; mother inattentive, mother conveyed positive information, and mother conveyed negative information about the ambiguous toy. In the fourth condition (control condition), an unambiguous toy was presented (mother inattentive). The ambiguous situation elicited more referencing looks than the unambiguous situation. During the presentation of the ambiguous toy, infants with inattentive mothers referenced the experimenter more than infants whose mothers provided guidance. In the following free‐play situation, infants in the inattentive group referenced mother to a higher degree than did the other infants. They played less with the toy than infants who had received positive information and infants in the control group, and were less eager to explore the surroundings than infants in the other three groups. When mother turned attentive the infants ceased referencing her and showed an interest in exploring. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Differential sucking by neonates of depressed versus non-depressed mothers

Forty-two neonates (M = 39-h old) of depressed and non-depressed mothers sucked on cold (50 °F) and warm (78 °F) nipples on alternating trials. Half the infants received the cold nipple on the first of the eight trials (20 s each) and the other half received the warm nipple first. Neonates of depressed mothers sucked twice as much as neonates of non-depressed mothers, suggesting arousal dysregulation, overactivity or greater hedonic behavior in the newborns of depressed mothers. Although the newborns did not show a preference for cold or warm nipples, a temperature order effect revealed that neonates who received the cold nipple on the first trial sucked significantly more on trials 2–8 than those who received the warm nipple on the first trial, suggesting that an initially cold nipple might elicit greater sucking. More research is needed on maternal mood effects and temperature of objects to determine how these factors affect neonatal sucking behaviors.     

The developmental change in strategies parents employ to settle young children to sleep,and their relationship to infant sleeping problems,as assessed by a new questionnaire: the Parental Interactive Bedtime Behaviour Scale

The development of a new parental self‐report questionnaire, the Parental Interactive Bedtime Behaviour Scale (PIBBS) is described. The PIBBS was designed to capture a wide range of parental behaviours used to settle infants off to sleep. The commonest behaviours employed were giving a feed, talking softly to the child, cuddling in the arms, and stroking. A factor analysis revealed five settling strategies; ‘active physical comforting’ (e.g. cuddling in arms); ‘encouraging infant autonomy’ (e.g. leaving to cry); ‘movement’ (e.g. car rides), ‘passive physical comforting’ (e.g. standing next to the cot without picking the infant up), and ‘social comforting’ (e.g. reading a story). Excessive ‘active physical comforting’ and reduced ‘encourage autonomy’ strategy use was associated with infant sleeping problems. Regarding developmental change in strategy between 1 and 2 years, the later the onset at which ‘encourage autonomy’ became the principal strategy used, the more likely that persistent infant sleeping problems would be present. Factors accounting for the change in strategy use over time were: (i) parental adaptation to infant developmental maturation; (ii) the interaction between maternal cognition and strategy, and, to a lesser extent; (iii) the interaction between infant temperament and parental strategy. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.