Effects of maternal interference on the attachment and exploratory behavior of one-year-olds

Effects of maternal interference on social behavior toward mother and exploratory play were examined in a laboratory experimental paradigm. Subjects were 40 1-year-olds and their mothers. Mothers of the 20 interference-group infants were instructed periodically to physically interfere with their child's independent object play during the first half of the observation session. A postinterference free-play period immediately followed. The 20 control-group infants were permitted by mother to play freely throughout the session. Groups were matched for exposure to play materials. Despite its aversiveness, interference had no subsequent effect on infant social initiatives to mother, responsiveness to mother's social bids, or exploratory play.     

The use and effectiveness of maternal scaffolding in mother-infant games

Maternal behaviors within mother-infant games were examined to determine the amount, type, and functional value of maternal helping behaviors. 17 mother-infant pairs were videotaped on monthly visits from 8 to 16 months as they played 5 separate games. 2 of these games, roll the ball and peekaboo, were analyzed in terms of "rounds" of each game. Results show that dyads play more rounds of both games in the first months that infants perform game-relevant behaviors (e.g., returning a ball, performing uncovering or covering-uncovering). Maternal attention-getting and physical "stage-setting" behaviors occur in the early rounds of both games. In roll the ball, maternal hands-out and reinforcement behaviors increase in the months after the child begins to return the ball, while the percentage of rounds in which dyads play nonreturn variants decreases. Infants are more likely to return a ball when mother holds out her hands than when she does not. Infants are also able to perform returning or uncovering in game contexts before they perform similar behaviors in cognitive tests. The general similarity of findings in the peekaboo and roll-the-ball games, in spite of differences in the amounts of scaffolding, attention-getting, stage-setting, and reinforcement behaviors between the 2 games, indicates that the types and functions of maternal helping behaviors may be generalizable to other contexts of mother-infant interactions.     

Effects of familiar and unfamiliar objects on mother-infant interaction

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the dynamics and structure of mother-child interactions around toys vary with the familiarity of toys. Twelve mother-child dyads with a 5- or 9-month-old infant were filmed two consecutive 5-minute sessions in the presence of familiar or novel objects. By relating the mother’s behaviour to her infant’s, we were able to define episodes consisting of phases of joint engagement of the two partners on the same topic or reference object. In a context involving familiar objects, mothers more often took the initiative to introduce a topic, and they kept the child’s attention focused on the object for longer periods, by means of various manipulations. In contrast, the attractiveness of the novelty gave the infants more initiative, and the mothers followed the child by providing mostly verbal support.     

The mother-infant relationship and infant attachment in a South African peri-urban settlement

A sample of 147 mother-infant dyads was recruited from a peri-urban settlement outside Cape Town and seen at 2- and 18-months postpartum. At 18 months, 61.9% of the infants were rated as securely attached (B); 4.1% as avoidant (A); 8.2% as resistant (C); and 25.8% disorganized (D). Postpartum depression at 2 months, and indices of poor parenting at both 2 and 18 months, were associated with insecure infant attachment. The critical 2-month predictor variables for insecure infant attachment were maternal intrusiveness and maternal remoteness, and early maternal depression. When concurrent maternal sensitivity was considered, the quality of the early mother-infant relationship remained important, but maternal depression was no longer predictive. Cross-cultural differences and consistencies in the development of attachment are discussed.     

How early maternal separation and juvenile experience with pups affect maternal behavior and emotionality in adult postpartum rats

To assess the effects of preweaning and juvenile experiences on adult maternal behavior, two experiments were completed. In Experiment 1, pups were separated for long periods or short periods or were left undisturbed over the 1st week. Following weaning, the rats were exposed to foster pups over a 5-day period or were left undisturbed. There were no effects of early experience on juvenile behavior. In adult postpartum maternal tests, short separations reduced latencies to express maternal behaviors, whereas long separations combined with juvenile exposure to pups increased latencies. In Experiment 2, pups were separated for long periods or were left undisturbed over the 1st week. Following weaning, the rats were exposed to foster pups for 4 days or 8 days or were left undisturbed. Long separation retarded maternal responding in juvenile animals but had no effect on the adults. Four days of juvenile experience had negative effects on adult behavior, whereas 8 days did not have an effect.     

Childhood experiences of maltreatment,reflective functioning and attachment in adolescent and young adult mothers: Effects on mother-infant interaction and emotion regulation

BackgroundMaternal childhood experiences of maltreatment affect parenting and have consequences for a child’s social-emotional development. Adolescent mothers have a higher frequency of a history of maltreatment than adult mothers. However few studies have analyzed the interactions between adolescent mothers with a history of childhood maltreatment and their infants.ObjectiveThe aim of the study was to examine the effect of maternal childhood experiences of maltreatment on mother-infant emotion regulation at infant 3 months, considering both infant and mother individual emotion regulation and their mutual regulation.ParticipantsParticipants were 63 adolescent and young adult mother-infant dyads recruited at a hospital.MethodsThe mothers were administered the Adult Attachment Interview to evaluate reflective functioning and attachment and the Childhood Experiences of Care and Abuse was used to evaluate maternal childhood experiences of maltreatment. Mother-infant interactions were coded with a modified version of the Infant Caregiver Engagement Phases.ResultsDyads with mothers with childhood maltreatment (vs dyads with mothers with no maltreatment) spent more time in negative emotional mutual regulation (p = .009) and less time in positive and neutral mutual emotion regulation (p = .019). Cumulative maternal childhood experiences of maltreatment were associated positively with mother and infant negative states at individual and dyadic level and with the AAI scales of Passivity and Unresolved Trauma (p < .05). The effect of cumulative maternal childhood experiences of maltreatment on mother-infant emotion regulation was direct and not mediated by maternal attachment and reflective function.ConclusionsMaternal childhood experiences of maltreatment increase the risk connected to early motherhood, affecting mother-infant emotion regulation.     

Effects of maternal absence due to employment on the quality of infant-mother attachment in a low-risk sample

Recent reports have suggested that day-care experience initiated prior to 12 months of age is associated with increased proportions of infants whose attachment to mother is classified as "insecure-avoidant." However, reviewers have questioned the generality of these findings, noting that samples in which associations between early day-care experience and avoidant attachment patterns have been reported come from high-risk populations, and/or that the infants' day-care settings may not have been of high quality. In the present study, effects of maternal absences on infant-mother attachment quality were assessed in a low-risk, middle-class sample (N = 110). In all instances, substitute care had been initiated at least 4 months prior to the infant's first birthday and was provided in the infant's home by a person unrelated to the baby. Infants were assessed using the Ainsworth Strange Situation when they were 12-13 months of age. Analyses indicated that a significantly greater proportion of infants whose mothers worked outside the home (N = 54) were assigned to the category "insecure-avoidant" as compared to infants whose mothers remained in the home (N = 56) throughout the first year of life. Analyses of demographic and psychological data available for the sample indicated that this relation is dependent upon maternal parity (primi- vs. multiparous mother). The association between attachment quality and work status was significant only for firstborn children of full-time working mothers. The results are interpreted as evidence that the repeated daily separations experienced by infants whose mothers are working full-time constitute a "risk" factor for the development of "insecure-avoidant" infant-mother attachments.     

The importance of shared environment in mother-infant attachment security: a behavioral genetic study

In a sample of 157 monozygotic and dizygotic twins, genetic and environmental influences on infant attachment and temperament were quantified. Only unique environmental or error components could explain the variance in disorganized versus organized attachment as assessed in the Ainsworth Strange Situation Procedure. For secure versus nonsecure attachment, 52% of the variance in attachment security was explained by shared environment, and 48% of the variance was explained by unique environmental factors and measurement error. The role of genetic factors in attachment disorganization and attachment security was negligible. Genetic factors explained 77% of the variance in temperamental reactivity, and unique environmental factors and measurement error explained 23%. Differences in temperamental reactivity were not associated with attachment concordance.     

The impact of maternal characteristics and contextual variables on infant-mother attachment

This prospective study examined the effects of maternal characteristics, social support, and risk factors on infant-mother attachment in a heterogeneous sample. Two hundred and six women between the ages of 18 and 40 were interviewed during their last trimester of pregnancy and 1 year postpartum. Structural equation modeling revealed that maternal attachment experiences were significantly related to prenatal representations of the infant and of the self as a mother, which were significantly related to infant-mother attachment assessed by the Strange Situation. Maternal risk factors were significantly related to prenatal representations, and social support from other women predicted infant-mother attachment. The overall model indicated a good fit. Thus, both individual and contextual factors were important in explaining infant attachment security.     

Art eases the process of attachment and separation

According to many developmental theorists, when young children enter a new situation, issues of separation and attachment rise quickly to the surface. Therefore these issues are critical for early childhood providers and teachers to address. Extensive research has shown that a child's inability to manage the process of attachment and separation has a direct correlation to various behaviors including aggressiveness, dependency, difficult parent-child relationships, and inferior socialization skills. See Gardner, 1980; Turner, 1991; Hock & Schirtziner, 1992; Lyons-Ruth, 1991, Booth, Rose-Krasner, & Rubin, 1991.     

Effects of craniofacial deformity in infancy on the quality of mother-infant interactions

Self-report and behavioral observation procedures were used to assess the quality of mothers' interactions with facially deformed infants. This assessment strategy also provided an opportunity to evaluate the hypothesis that parents of facially deformed infants may deny or be unaware of deficits in their relationships with these children. 10 mothers, 5 with unattractive/craniofacially deformed infants and 5 with normal infants, completed self-report measures of stress, social support, satisfaction with parenting, and general life satisfaction. Mother-infant interactions were videotaped and rated on discrete and global behavioral measures. Results revealed that mothers of deformed infants rated their parental satisfaction and current life satisfaction more positively than did mothers of normal infants. However, these same mothers were observed to behave in a consistently less nurturant manner than mothers of normal children. These results suggest that infant facial deformity/unattractiveness may affect the quality of infant-caregiver interactions without parental awareness.     

Change in atypical maternal behavior predicts change in attachment disorganization from 12 to 24 months in a high-risk sample

This longitudinal study examined links between disorganization and atypical maternal behavior at 12 and 24 months in 71 adolescent mother-child dyads. Organized attachment and maternal not disrupted behavior were more stable than disorganization and disrupted behavior, respectively. At both ages, disorganization and maternal disrupted behavior were significantly correlated. Change in atypical maternal behavior predicted change in disorganization across time. The results provide substantial support for extant theories linking anomalous maternal behavior to the development of disorganized attachment. The Interesting-but-Scary paradigm, introduced in this study, promises to be a useful tool for assessing attachment and maternal behavior in toddlerhood.     

The relative effects of maternal and child problems on the quality of attachment: a meta-analysis of attachment in clinical samples.

In this meta-analysis of 34 clinical studies on attachment the hypothesis is tested that maternal problems such as mental illness lead to more deviating attachment classification distributions than child problems such as deafness. A correspondence analysis on 21 North American studies with normal subjects produced a baseline against which the clinical samples could be evaluated. Separate analyses were carried out on studies containing the traditional A, B, C classifications and on studies that also included the recently discovered D or A/C category. Results show that groups with a primary identification of maternal problems show attachment classification distributions highly divergent from the normal distributions, whereas groups with a primary identification of child problems show distributions that are similar to the distributions of normal samples. The introduction of the D or A/C classifications (about 15% in normal samples) reveals an overrepresentation of D or A/C in the child problem groups, but the resulting distribution still is much closer to the normal distributions compared to the samples with maternal problems. In clinical samples, the mother appears to play a more important role than the child in shaping the quality of the infant-mother attachment relationship.     

Infant approach behavior as related to attachment.

The chief purpose of this study was to identify characteristics that distinguish approach as an attachment behavior from approach serving other behavioral systems. Locomotor approaches of 16 male and 10 female white middle-class infants to an attachment figure (the mother) and to a nonattachment figure (the visitor-observer) were examined under naturalistic conditions at home. Observations were made during 4-hour home visits at 3-week intervals; those from 26 to 54 weeks were used. When approach was examined in a free-choice situation and without regard to behavioral context, infants approached the mother proportionally (though slightly) more often than the visitor (p less than .05). In 2 behavioral contexts, however, spontaneous infant approaches were sharply differential to the mother; approaches accompanied by crying and approaches terminating in a pickup appeal were directed almost exclusively to the mother (p less than .0001 for both). Touching upon completion of the approach was not differential, except in the context of a pickup appeal. Object-oriented approaches were more often directed to the visitor than to the mother (p less than .002) and may be either exploratory or affiliative. It is suggested that neither approach nor touching can be assumed to serve the attachment system without consideration of context- both environmental and behavioral.     

Prematurity stereotyping: effects on mother-infant interaction

The possibility that the self-fulfilling prophecy process can adversely affect the caregiving environment of premature infants was explored in this study. A portion of this process was investigated experimentally by assessing cognitive and behavioral reactions of 27 mothers to unfamiliar full-term infants who were labeled either full-term or premature. Infants who were described as premature were touched less and given a more immature toy to play with, were rated as smaller, finer-featured, and less cute, and were liked less than infants who were labeled full-term. In turn, infants labeled premature were less active during the interaction than infants labeled full-term. College students who later observed the videotapes made of the mother-infant interactions were able to accurately guess which label was assigned to the infants. The results of this study further support the existence of a prematurity stereotype and the impact of expectations on perceptions and behavior.     

Influence of postpartum shock controllability on subsequent maternal behavior in rats

Responses of mother rats were observed 24 h before and 24 and 72 h after exposure to one of three 8-day postpartum treatments: shock escape training, yoked inescapable shock, or restrained with no shock. In contrast to those in the other two groups, the dams given inescapable shock showed slower speed to approach the nest, shorter durations of being on the nest, and lower frequency and shorter total duration of oral contact with their pups. These dams also retrieved their pups less frequently, but this measure, as well as the frequency of leaving the nest, did not result in significant differences between groups. Since the traditional interpretations of the learned-helplessness effect were not entirely able to account for these findings, the observed uncontrollable-stress-produced changes in maternal behavior were examined from an ethological perspective.     

The synchrony of mother-infant needs

Growing evidence continues to demonstrate the benefits infants derive from breastfeeding, and the connection to natural births and breastfeeding is made apparent; however, mothers may misunderstand. They may mistakenly believe they must sacrifice in order to give their infants the best start in life. Childbirth educators can help mothers understand how they, too, may personally benefit from natural childbirth and breastfeeding. These mother-infant needs are not competitive; instead, they are synchronous.