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.     

Maternal aggression in mice: Protection of young is a by-product of attacks at the home site

Lactating female mice attacked male intruders in their home cages but showed little attack behavior either in novel cages or in cages with which they had been familiarized. Presence or absence of young did not determine the occurrence of maternal aggression, whereas attacks on the young by the intruder decreased maternal aggression and increased cannibalism of pups by the dams. Apparently, if the function of maternal aggression in mice is protection of the young, such protection occurs because the pups are in a place where attacks are likely to occur and not because the dam “defends” the young.     

Infanticide and maternal aggression: Synchrony of male and female reproductive strategies in mice

Thirty-six percent of male mice from three strains attacked newborn pups sired by another male. No male attacked its own offspring. Females did not show differential aggression toward males likely (strangers) or unlikely (sires) to attack their pups. Both forms of aggression were unaffected by housing in rooms which did or did not contain the aggression targets. The three strains differed in strength of maternal aggression but not in the incidence of infanticide. Females showed more aggression when mated with males of the same, rather than a different, strain but no differences with intruders of the same or a different strain. Infanticide by males is best viewed as a postcopulatory, intermale-competition strategy, and maternal aggression as a counter strategy.     

Maternal verbal interaction in different situations with infants born prematurely or at term

The present study investigates whether maternal verbal behaviour, in terms of the use of declaratives, interrogatives and imperatives, can be accounted for by gestational age of the infant, or the situation in which mother–infant pairs were observed. Thirteen mothers and their premature and term babies were observed twice in three situations, namely playing with, feeding and changing their infants. The first observation took place at a mean gestational age of 40 weeks and the second observation took place approximately 7 weeks later. All mothers used more imperatives during play than during changing or feeding situations. Mothers used more interrogatives during play than during changing or feeding, and they used more declaratives during both changing and playing than during feeding. In contrast, gestational age influenced only the complexity of maternal interrogatives. It is concluded that situational factors are significant and hence that the mother's role has to be judged relative to the context in which mothers and infants are observed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

母亲消极情绪表露与儿童焦虑的关系：有调节的中介模型

本研究以临沂市3所小学1173名一至六年级的学生及其母亲为被试,探讨了母亲消极情绪表露与儿童焦虑的关系,以及母子冲突和母子亲密在这一关系中的作用。采用家庭情绪表露问卷、亲子关系问卷、儿童焦虑性情绪障碍筛查表进行研究。结果表明：(1)母亲消极情绪表露与母子冲突、儿童焦虑两两显著正相关,母子亲密与母亲消极情绪表露、母子冲突、儿童焦虑的相关不显著;(2)母亲消极情绪表露显著正向预测儿童焦虑;(3)母子冲突在母亲消极情绪表露与儿童焦虑间起中介作用,且上述中介效应的后半段路径受到母子亲密的调节。     

The potential effects of protected nests and cage complexity on maternal aggression in house mice

I studied the behavior of nursing house mice (Mus musculus) in captivity and used a two-by-two factorial design to test the hypothesis that the combination of a protected nest along with a chance for the intruders to retreat would improve the ability of resident females to defend their litters from infanticidal males. A chance for the intruder to retreat was manipulated by testing the resident females in either a single- or a two-compartment cage. The effect of a protected nest was examined by providing females with a nest box having a narrow entrance. During each test, an infanticidal adult male was introduced into the cage of a resident female and her pups. I observed that neither the presence of a protected nest nor the chance for the intruders to retreat to a different compartment, or a combination of the two, increased the ability of a female to defend her litter against an intruder male. Moreover, neither of these two factors influenced the overall behavior of the resident females. I obtained similar results after using data from previous studies to examine the influence of both of these factors on the efficiency of maternal aggression. Overall, these two approaches showed that females are often unable to prevent intruders from committing infanticide. I discuss the validity of the hypothesis that maternal aggression evolved as a mechanism to protect offspring from infanticide. Aggr. Behav. 24:385–396, 1998. © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Maternal aggression during the mouthbrooding cycle in the Cichlid fish,Oreochromis mossambicus

Maternal aggression was studied in Oreochromis mossambicus during the mouthbrooding cycle. Brooding females were observed in heterosexual captive groups, and their agonistic interactions and behavioural activities were registered. Brooding females were classified into three classes according to the developmental stage of the brood they were incubating: phase 1, brooding eggs; phase 2, brooding fry with yolk-sac; phase 3, brooding fry with exogeneous feeding. The behaviour of the brooding females was compared with the behaviour of control non-incubating females. During the brooding cycle females become increasingly more aggressive toward other individuals, with their aggressiveness reaching a peak in phase 3. During the brooding cycle the females also suppress their feeding activities. The outcome of the agonistic interactions (victories–defeats) of the brooding females was positively correlated with the brooding phase but not with clutch size. The main function of maternal aggression in O. mossambicus seems to be the defence of the vulnerable brood against predators, including conspecifics, at a developmental stage when the fry start to forage outside the mother's mouth. Aggr. Behav. 24:187–196, 1998. © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Maternal Separation Anxiety and Attitudes About Maternal Grandmother Participation in Child Care

A sample of 75 primiparas in Athens, Greece were interviewed 3 days following birth (T1) regarding their attitudes towards maternal grandmother participation in child care. A follow-up questionnaire measuring the same attitudes and maternal separation anxiety (MSA) was answered 3–8 months later (T2). It was found that maternal grandmothers were going to assist in child care in 68% of the cases. Higher scores on the MSA subscale ‘employment-related separation concerns’ were obtained by all mothers who were not assisted in child care by the maternal grandmother and were highest among those mothers intending to work before the child was 1 year old. Mothers who intended to work as well as those who had a higher educational level had significantly lower scores on the MSA subscale ‘maternal separation anxiety’. Overall, mothers expressed favourable attitudes towards maternal grandmother participation at T1 and T2. Positive attitudes were especially observed among mothers who relied on grandmothers for child care.     

Need Satisfaction as a Mediator of Associations between Interparental Relationship Dimensions and Autonomy Supportive Parenting: A Weekly Diary Study

Guided by the self-determination theory, this weekly diary study tested a process model in which week-to-week mother-reported interparental conflict and perceived partner responsiveness were associated with maternal autonomy support by means of maternal psychological need satisfaction. During six consecutive weeks, 258 mothers (M_age = 41.71 years) and their 157 adolescents (51.4% females, M_age = 14.92 years) from Turkey provided weekly reports of the study variables via an online survey. Multilevel analyses showed that maternal need satisfaction was predicted by lower levels of interparental conflict and greater levels of perceived partner responsiveness. Maternal need satisfaction, in turn, was positively associated with maternal and adolescent reports of maternal autonomy support. Further, these week-to-week associations were partly moderated by maternal perfectionism. The results underscore the dynamic nature of the intra-family relationships, the important role of particular conditions in which mothers may become more autonomy supportive, and the necessity to consider mother’s personal characteristics while examining these dynamics.     

Evaluation of early relational disturbance in high-risk populations: Borderline personality disorder features,maternal mental state,and observed interaction

Despite the longstanding theoretical association in the attachment literature between maternal trauma history and disturbances in the mother–infant interaction, few studies have investigated mechanisms of transmission of traumatogenic relational patterns in high-risk mother–infant dyads. This study investigated interrelationships among maternal trauma history, distorted maternal representations (DMRs, i.e. disturbed thoughts and feelings about the infant and self-as-parent), maternal mentalisation (i.e. capacity to conceive of self and other's intentions in terms of mental states including thoughts, feelings, and desires), and quality of interaction in a clinical sample of mothers with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) features and their infants (N = 61). Measures used included the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Parent Development Interview, Mother–Infant Relationship Scale, Borderline Symptom Checklist-23, and the Emotional Availability Scales. The results indicated BPD features mediated the relationship between maternal trauma history and DMRs predicting disturbance in interaction. In addition, analyses showed that maternal mentalisation had a buffering effect between DMRs and maternal non-hostility and yet the severity of BPD features moderated the relationship between mentalisation and DMRs. The findings suggest postpartum borderline pathology may adversely impact the experience of being a parent for women with a relational trauma history including deficits in mentalisation (i.e. hypermentalising) and disturbances in the mother–infant interaction. Implications for research and clinical practice are discussed.