Maternal Sensitivity: From Child to the Neighborhood

The purpose of this study was to explore the possible association between maternal sensitivity and distal factors such as neighborhood quality. 480 mother-child dyads were videotaped during a naturalistic interaction. Maternal sensitivity was assessed from video-tapes using the Maternal Behavior Q-sort (MBQS; Pederson & Moran, 1995). Results of a hierarchical regression showed that maternal sensitivity was associated with: child characteristics (e.g. infant weight), maternal characteristics (e.g. age and depression) and family attributes (e.g. household income). Interviewers’ ratings of neighborhood challenge and mothers’ report of neighborhood quality were found to significantly relate to maternal sensitivity and explained additional variance. Results indicate that mothers’ ability to parent sensitively is hindered in contexts where the neighborhood challenges are great. These findings have important implications for policy interventions at the neighborhood level to promote maternal sensitivity

Psychometric Properties of a Short Version of the Maternal Behavior Q-sort: What You Need to Know Before Analyzing the Data

OVERVIEW • N =116 mother-infant dyads (2 months old) • Coders completed the MBQS-mini 2 ways—forced vs. unforced q-sort distributions—to determine whether psychometric properties differed. SENSITIVITY SCORES: • were virtually identical:r= .99. BEHAVIORAL DOMAINS: • Attachment related domains: esponsiveness, Non-Interference, Affective Communication. • For all 3 (but not the Teaching domain) forced and unforced were highly correlated, and high internal consistency. CONCLUSIONS: • Results support the use of forced q-sort data, but show no benefits associated with using forced over unforced distributions. Internal consistency was higher for the unforced teaching domain

Parent cardiac response in the context of their child’s completion of the cold pressor task: A pilot study

Parents’ ability to regulate their emotions is essential to providing supportive caregiving behaviours when their child is in pain. Extant research focuses on parent self-reported experience or observable behavioural responses. Physiological responding, such as heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV), is critical to the experience and regulation of emotions and provides a complementary perspective on parent experience; yet, it is scarcely assessed. This pilot study examined parent (n = 25) cardiac response (HR, HRV) at rest (neutral film clip), immediately before the cold pressor task (pre-CPT), and following the CPT (post-CPT). Further, variables that may influence changes in HR and HRV in the context of pediatric pain were investigated, including (1) initial HRV, and (2) parent perception of their child’s typical response to needle procedures. Time-domain (root mean square of successive differences; RMSSD) and frequency-domain (high-frequency heart rate variability; HF-HRV) parameters of HRV were computed. HR and HF-HRV varied as a function of time block. Typical negative responses to needle pain related to higher parental HR and lower HRV at rest. Parents with higher HRV at baseline experienced the greatest decreases in HRV after the CPT. Consequently, considering previous experience with pain and resting HRV levels are relevant to understanding parent physiological responses before and after child pain

Mother–infant interaction and child brain morphology : a multidimensional approach to maternal sensitivity

Emerging research suggests that normative variation in parenting quality relates to children's brain development. However, although the young brain is presumed to be especially sensitive to environmental influence, to our knowledge only two studies have examined parenting quality with infants as it relates to indicators of brain development, and both were cross‐sectional. This longitudinal study investigated whether different components of maternal sensitivity in infancy predicted the volume of two brain structures presumed to be particularly sensitive to early experience, namely the amygdala and the hippocampus. Three dimensions of sensitivity (Cooperation/Attunement, Positivity, Accessibility/Availability) were observed in 33 mother–infant dyads at 1 year of age and children underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging at age 10. Higher maternal Accessibility/Availability during mother–infant interactions was found to be predictive of smaller right amygdala volume, while greater maternal positivity was predictive of smaller bilateral hippocampal volumes. These longitudinal findings extend those of previous cross‐sectional studies and suggest that a multidimensional approach to maternal behavior could be a fruitful way to further advance research in this area, given that different facets of parenting might be differentially predictive of distinct aspects of neurodevelopment

Reconsidering the links between sibship size, maternal sensitivity, and child attachment : a multidimensional interactive approach

Despite being a well-documented predictor of children’s cognitive and social development, sibship has received remarkably little attention in the attachment and maternal sensitivity literature. The only study that has examined both sensitivity and attachment in relation to sibship found greater maternal sensitivity but no more secure attachment among first-born infants. In the current study, we sought to examine the same links while testing two related hypotheses: that sibship size relates only to some specific aspects of sensitivity, and that sibship size relates to sensitivity only among certain mothers, namely those who are at risk for suboptimal parenting because of an insecure attachment state of mind. We assessed three dimensions of maternal sensitivity at 12 months and child attachment at 15 and 25 months among 258 mother–infant dyads living in intact biparental families. Compared with mothers who had fewer children, those with more children were observed to be less accessible/available, less positive, but not less cooperative/attuned, when interacting with their infant. These links were moderated by maternal attachment state of mind, such that significant relations were observed only among mothers presenting a more insecure state of mind. Finally, sibship size was unrelated to attachment. These findings suggest that failure to consider different dimensions of sensitivity or important parental moderators may result in the erroneous conclusion that birth order and sibship size are inconsequential for parent–child relationships

Antecedents of Mother-Child Co-Construction of Coherent Narratives of Past Emotional Experiences

The purpose of this longitudinal study is to further our knowledge of the early developmental antecedents of coherent mother-child emotion dialogues in the preschool years

Sibling Mother-Infant Attachment: Different Patterns of Interaction Lead to Similar Relationships

PURPOSE: To investigate the role of maternal sensitivity and interactive behavior in sibling attachment non-/concordance. RESULTS:1) Global measures of sensitivity suggest that mothers of concordant-secure and non-concordant infants demonstrate a similar degree of sensitivity towards each child. 2) Mothers with non-concordant infants interact more similarly with each child on domains of maternal sensitivity, compared to mothers whose infants are concordant. CONCLUSION: The quality of the attachment relationship in families with non-concordant mother-infant relationships –in contrast to families with concordant dyads –does not appear to be systematically affected by maternal sensitivity as typically assessed. More detailed assessment of the interactions suggest that mothers with non-concordant relationships with their infants may be unable to adapt their behaviour to suit the unique needs of each child

The Puzzle of Sibling Attachment Non-Concordance: Implications of Categorical versus Continuous Approaches to Attachment

PURPOSE OF THE CURRENT STUDY: To determine whether characterizing the quality of attachment as a continuous measure impacts the extent to which siblings’ attachment relationships are judged concordant. To investigate whether continuous measures of attachment provide additional information regarding the similarity of more specific aspects of siblings attachment relationships

Deconstructing maternal sensitivity: Predictive relations to mother-child attachment in home and laboratory settings

Despite the well-documented importance of parental sensitivity for child development, there is a lack of consensus regarding how best to assess it. We investigated the factor structure of maternal caregiving behavior as assessed at 12 months by the Maternal Behavior Q-Sort (Pederson, Moran, & Bento, 1999) with 274 mother-infant dyads. Subsequently, we examined associations between these empirically-derived dimensions and child attachment, assessed in the home and laboratory (final N = 157). Three dimensions of maternal behavior were identified, corresponding fairly closely to Ainsworth’s original scales. They were labeled Cooperation/Attunement, Positivity, and Accessibility/Availability. Only Cooperation/Attunement consistently predicted home-based attachment at 15 months and 2 years, and at comparable strength to the overall sensitivity score, suggesting that this construct may be central to sensitivity. At 18 months, compared to their primarily secure counterparts, different types of laboratory-assessed insecure attachment were associated with different patterns of maternal behavior. Mothers in avoidant relationships (n = 18) were low on Cooperation/Attunement and Accessibility/Availability, but fairly high on Positivity. Mothers of disorganized infants (n = 11) were Cooperative/Attuned but somewhat less Positive toward, and less Accessible/Available to, their infants. A multi-dimensional approach to parental behavior may facilitate the identification of parenting precursors of insecure parent-child relationships