Mothers' beliefs about behavioral causes for their developmentally disabled infant's condition: What do they signify

Mothers of young infants with perinatal medical problems or genetic syn-dromes strongly associated with developmental disability were interviewed about causes of the infant's condition. Mothers who assigned causal respon-sibility to their own behavior, mothers who blamed others ' behavior, and mothers who did not suspect behavioral causes were compared on other vari-ables measured concurrently with attributions and from follow-up home visits at 9 and 18 months. Group differences were found for concurrently report-ed mood disturbance and caretaking difficulties; reported caretaking problems at 9 months; maternal responsiveness, involvement with the child and or-ganization of the infant's environment at 9 and 18 months; and total scores on the HOME Inventory, measuring support for the infant's social, cogni-tive, and emotional development, at 18 months. For each significant analy-sis, more optimal scores were associated with behavioral self-blame. Blaming 'This study was supported by grants from the Connecticut State Department of Education and University of Connecticut Research Foundation to the first two authors and by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to the third author. The authors thank the staffs o