An Exploration of Parenting Behaviours and Attitudes During Early Infancy: Association with Maternal and Infant Characteristics

The importance of warm and democratic parenting styles for optimal social, emotional and cognitive outcomes in children over the age of five is well established. However, there is a dearth of literature exploring variations in parenting styles during infancy, despite many popular parenting books aimed at this period. The primary aim of this study was to explore parenting styles in infancy and their association with infant and maternal characteristics. Five hundred and eight mothers of infants under 12 months of age completed a 36‐item questionnaire examining cognitive and behavioural aspects of early parenting (Infancy Parenting Styles Questionnaire). Items for the questionnaire were generated from popular culture early parenting books, and those raised in discussion with mothers. The underlying factor structure of the Infancy Parenting Styles Questionnaire revealed five independent factors: discipline, routine, anxiety, nurturance and involvement, which mapped onto existing concepts of warmth/nurturance and control for parenting older children, with additional constructs pertaining to the challenge of caring for young infants. Early parenting style was associated with maternal age and education, and infant birth weight, gender and age. The findings are discussed in relation to the parenting styles literature for older children and the attachment literature. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Pete the diesel: Psychotherapy with a severely disturbed five-year-old boy

The psychic significance of the figure of the grandmother in psychodynamic psychotherapy has received scant attention. This paper develops the concept of the ‘grandmaternal transference’ in parent–infant psychotherapy and explores its identification, its possible functions and its therapeutic significance. The grandmaternal transference has special relevance to parent–infant psychotherapy since the grandmother often represents both the mother’s mother and the child’s grandmother and offers a unique third position between mother and child. Three clinical vignettes illustrate how the grandmaternal transference may operate in this third position. In the first vignette, the therapist becomes in the transference a containing grandmother thereby facilitating maternal containment. In the second case, the therapist may be experienced as a differentiating grandmother able to help mother and infant with separation and individuation. In the third one, the therapist is transferentially experienced as a paternal grandmother who acts as a pseudo-father able to embody the paternal function. In each of these positions, the transference and countertransference – whether positive or negative – require that the therapist responds to rather than enacts the grandmaternal role. The three configurations of the grandmaternal transference have different clinical manifestations and offer different therapeutic ports of entry.     

Are uninvolved fathers really incompetent and unsatisfied? Testing the mediator role of father involvement from fathers’ perspectives

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between fathers’ involvement and maternal gatekeeping, gate-opening, and traditional paternal gender roles, as well as to evaluate fathers’ involvement as a mediating role in the relationship between maternal gate-opening, gatekeeping, traditional paternal gender roles, paternal competence, and marital satisfaction. Turkish fathers (N = 239) with a child aged 2–6 years were included in the study. They assessed maternal gatekeeping and gate-opening, their traditional gender roles, parenting competence, and marital satisfaction. Results indicated that fathers’ involvement is positively related to maternal gate-opening and negatively associated with traditional paternal gender roles; in addition, fathers’ involvement has a mediatory role between maternal gate-opening, traditional paternal gender roles and paternal competence and marital satisfaction. The results suggest that fathers who are involved in their children’s lives are more competent and have higher marital satisfaction.     

Differential Effects of Short- and Long-Term Early Maternal Separation on Subsequent Maternal Behavior in Rats

Female Sprague-Dawley pups were separated from mothers every other day for 8 hr (long-term separation/LTS), 4 hr (short-term separation/STS), or 0 hr (no separation/NS) from postnatal day 2–20. In adulthood, they were mated and tested for maternal behaviors during two lactations. It was expected that females separated from mothers as pups would show deficits in maternal behavior as adults. Contrary to expectations, LTS showed better nest building and grouped young faster during both lactations. LTS were first to display aggression and displayed more aggression during the second lactation. Notably, while some measures decreased from first to second lactation in NS and STS, LTS maintained levels of maternal care. These results suggest that extended periods of maternal separation may exaggerate some aspects of maternal behavior.     

The impact of mothers' trait anxiety on their expectations of approach‐avoidance behaviour in anxious and non‐anxious children

This study investigated estimates of approach and avoidance behaviour in clinically anxious and non‐anxious children, and whether mothers' expectations of their children's avoidance differed as a function of high trait anxiety (HTA) versus low trait anxiety (LTA). Participants were 62 clinically anxious and 60 non‐anxious children aged 7–12 years and their mothers. Estimates of avoidance were obtained using an analogue task in which children and mothers were given threat and pleasant information about two novel animals and were asked to estimate children's avoidance of the threat animal's habitat when the threat animal was present (threat condition) and absent (safe condition) from the habitat and when its presence was uncertain (ambiguous condition). Contrary to expectation, anxious children did not differ from controls in estimates of avoidance in any condition. However, relative to HTA mothers of anxious children and LTA mothers of non‐anxious children, HTA mothers estimated greater approach behaviour by their non‐anxious children in the threat condition. Findings suggest that mothers' expectations of children's approach‐avoidance behaviour is influenced by both maternal and child factors.     

Stability of Maternal Sensitivity Across Time and Contexts with Q‐Sort Measures

This study examined stability of maternal sensitivity and efficacy of a Q‐sort measure of maternal sensitivity across time and context. Two versions of the maternal behavior Q‐set (MBQS) were employed, first during the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) and second at home, 2.5 years later based on an available subsample. Findings revealed that the MBQS scores assessed at two time points in two contexts were significantly correlated, showing the stability of maternal sensitivity of the subsample over a time period of 2.5 years. The MBQS scores assigned to mothers of preschoolers were also significantly correlated with their children's early interactive behavioural scores given during the SSP. The current findings further support validating the consistency, the versatility and the efficacy of the MBQS as a sound measure of maternal sensitivity. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of Early Maternal Separation on Subsequent Reproductive and Behavioral Outcomes in Male Rats

To investigate effects of maternal separation on reproductive and behavioral outcomes, male Wistar rats were separated from their mothers daily for 3 hr (maternal separation; MS) or 0 hr (control) from postnatal day (PND) 1 to 14. Timing of puberty, reproductive parameters, hormone levels, and aggressive behaviors in juvenile and adult rats were examined. Contrary to expectations, there was no effect of maternal separation on any measure of aggression. However, maternal separation altered peripubertal testosterone secretion and increased mean day of preputial separation. In addition, adult MS males demonstrated less total sexual behavior. There was no difference in sperm counts or testosterone levels at necropsy on PND 56 or in adulthood, but seminal vesicle weights were increased in adult MS rats. These results suggest that early life stress may influence hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis development in males, at least during peripuberty.