The influence of support and stress on maternal attitudes

OBJECTIVES: This study examines an expanded version of Belsky's (1984) multi-dimensional process model of parenting to determine whether changes in stress and support influence maternal attitudes during the first year of a child's life. METHOD: Data were collected from mothers of newborns eligible for Hawaii's Healthy Start program who had been randomly assigned to home visitation (n=108) or control (n=104) status. Multiple regression analyses were used to test hypotheses regarding the influence of change in contextual sources of support and stress on parenting attitudes as measured by the Child Abuse Potential Inventory (CAPI) Abuse Scale. A post hoc analysis of variance was conducted to explore interactions among the predictor variables and home visitation. RESULTS: Stress in the form of change in public assistance status led to more punitive parenting attitudes while increased support from the partner and from close associates emerged as significant predictors of less punitive parental attitudes. The exploratory analyses suggest that home visitation may moderate the impacts of stress and support on maternal attitudes. CONCLUSIONS: In line with Belsky's (1984) process model of parenting, increased stress adversely impacted maternal attitudes regarding physical punishment while increased support exerted favorable effects. The results also support further elaboration of Belsky's model including the expansion of marital support to include unmarried partners and the need to consider the impact of formal support sources on parenting.     

Maternal representations of the infant: associations with infant response to the still face

Mothers' representations of their infants may influence early development of emotional self-regulation. This study examined the associations between characteristics of mothers' (N = 100) narratives about their 7-month-old infants, maternal depression, and their infants' affect regulation during the Still Face procedure. Findings showed that (1) mothers' representations were linked with individual differences in their infants' behavior across the Still Face procedure, (2) the association between mothers' representations and their infants' behavior was mediated by parenting behavior, and (3) mothers' representations explained unique variance in their infants' affect regulation beyond the contribution of maternal depression. Although infants' displays of positive affect diminished while mothers held a still face, only infants of mothers in the balanced representation category returned to high levels of positive affect upon resuming interaction. These findings highlight the role of maternal representations in the process by which dyads repair temporary disruptions in interaction, as well as individual differences in infants' and mothers' responses to the Still Face.     

The Bacon Chow study: maternal nutritional supplementation and infant behavioral development

The effect of maternal nutritional supplementation during pregnancy and lactation on the mental and motor development of infants was studied in a rural population in Taiwan. Women were randomly assigned to 2 treatment groups: 1 received a high-calorie and protein supplement ("supplement" group); the other received a placebo ("control" group). Infants received no direct supplementation. At approximately 8 months of age, the mental and motor development of the infants was assessed using a research to maternal supplementation in either scale, nor were the mental scale scores of infants of supplement mothers significantly higher than infants of control mothers. However, the motor scores of supplement infants were higher than those of control infants, which is consistent with the findings of 2 other large-scale nutritional supplementation studies.     

The naive theory of the infant and other maternal attitudes in two subgroups in Israel

104 mothers of 1- and 3-year-old children were interviewed. Half of the mothers were of high and half of low SES. Low SES mothers believed that infants acquire basic cognitive skills, such as vision, hearing, and comprehending speech, at a later age than high SES mothers. Low SES mothers also believed that the introduction of cognitively stimulating activities during the first years, such as buying the first book or starting to feed the self, should occur later than did high SES mothers. No status group differences were observed in the favored timetable of physical caregiving, such as toilet training or weaning. Nor were there status group differences on the strictness/leniency dimension or in the unwillingness to put pressure on infants for accelerated development. The naive theory of the infant as a cognitive being and the timing of cognitively enriching activities were found to belong to a common cluster, separated out from the rest of the maternal attitudes, in an analysis of the intercorrelation matrixes obtained in the two samples.     

Parenting stress, infant emotion regulation, maternal sensitivity, and the cognitive development of triplets: a model for parent and child influences in a unique ecology

To examine the development of triplets, 23 sets of triplets were matched with 23 sets of twins and 23 singletons (N=138). Maternal sensitivity was observed at newborn, 3, 6, and 12 months, and infants' cognitive and symbolic skills at 1 year. Triplets received lower maternal sensitivity across infancy and exhibited poorer cognitive competencies compared with singletons and twins. The most medically compromised triplet showed the lowest regulation, received lower maternal sensitivity, and demonstrated the weakest outcomes compared with siblings. Structural modeling charted three levels of influence on cognitive outcomes: direct, indirect, and contextual. The triplet ecology provides a context for assessing the relations among infant inborn dispositions, the rearing environment, and the role of exclusive parenting in development.     

Paid maternal leave is associated with infant brain function at 3 months of age

The first months of life are critical for establishing neural connections relevant for social and cognitive development. Yet, the United States lacks a national policy of paid family leave during this important period of brain development. This study examined associations between paid leave and infant electroencephalography (EEG) at 3 months in a sociodemographically diverse sample of families from New York City (N = 80; 53 males; 48% Latine; data collection occurred 05/2018–12/2019). Variable-centered regression results indicate that paid leave status was related to differences in EEG power (ps < .02, R²s > .12). Convergent results from person-centered latent profile analyses demonstrate that mothers with paid leave were 7.39 times as likely to have infants with EEG profiles characterized by increased higher-Hz power (95% CI, 1.9–36.9), potentially reflecting more mature patterns of brain activity.     

Effect of frequency response on language learning

Conclusion The number of errors in the recognition of unfamiliar phonemic contrasts increases with high or low frequency limitation. This increase in errors is not the same for all phonemic contrasts, but the contrasts are affected in the same manner by either limitation. Consonants are affected more, and German shows a much clearer picture than does French. Rank ordering contrasts according to numbers of errors give support to a concept of“order of difficulty” of recognition of foreign phonemic contrasts.     

Gene-environment contributions to the development of infant vagal reactivity: the interaction of dopamine and maternal sensitivity

This study investigated dopamine receptor genes (DRD2 and DRD4) and maternal sensitivity as predictors of infant respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and RSA reactivity, purported indices of vagal tone and vagal regulation, in a challenge task at 3, 6, and 12 months in 173 infant-mother dyads. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) revealed that at 3 and 6 months, RSA withdrawal in response to maternal separation was greater (suggesting expected physiological regulation) in infants without the DRD2 risk allele than those with the risk allele. At 12 months, infants with the risk allele who were also exposed to maternal sensitivity showed levels of RSA withdrawal comparable to infants who were not at genetic risk. Findings demonstrate the importance of developmental analysis of gene-environment interaction.     

Maternal depressive symptoms, dysfunctional cognitions, and infant night waking: the role of maternal nighttime behavior

Mechanisms were examined to clarify relations between maternal depressive symptoms, dysfunctional cognitions, and infant night waking among 45 infants (1-24 months) and their mothers. A mother-driven mediational model was tested in which maternal depressive symptoms and dysfunctional cognitions about infant sleep predicted infant night waking via their impact on mothers' bedtime and nighttime behavior with infants (from video). Two infant-driven mediational models were also examined, in which infant night waking predicted maternal depressive symptoms, or dysfunctional cognitions, via their impact on nighttime maternal behavior. Stronger support for the mother-driven model was obtained, which was further supported by qualitative observations from video-recordings. This study provides important insights about maternal depression's effects on nighttime parenting, and how such parenting affects infant sleep.     

Effect of maternal rubella on hearing and vision: a twenty year post-epidemic study

Three years of research conducted at NTID beginning in 1984 examined the hearing and vision characteristics of two groups of deaf college students. All 242 students studied received complete audiometric assessments and ophthalmological examinations. Of those students examined, 104 were known to be deaf as a result of maternal rubella (congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) group). The remaining 138 (non-CRS group) became deaf for a variety of other reasons. No significant differences were found between groups in puretone thresholds for frequencies measured at octave intervals from 250 thru 8000 Hz. There were, however, significant differences between the two groups relative to their vision characteristics. Seven visual pathologies or resulting conditions were found to be more prevalent with the CRS population. Among them were 38 cases of amblyopia which might have been prevented with early intervention. The various implications of this problem are discussed.     

The plant response: stress in the daily environment

Journal of Zhejiang University-SCIENCE A -     

Effects of infant sociability and the caretaking environment on infant cognitive performance.

40 middle-class mothers and their 12-month-old infants participated in an examination of the extent to which infant sociability and infant home experiences were correlated with cognitive capacity. Results indicated that the measures of the home environment (including Caldwell's Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment [HOME] inventory) were not correlated with the measures of cognitive competence (Bayley Mental Development Index [MDI], Ordinal Scales of Psychological Development) except among firstborns. Measures of the home environment were, however, correlated with measures of infant sociability (assessed inside and outside the test situation): sociable infants had sociable mothers. The infants' reactions to strange adults clearly influenced their performance in testing situations. Strong relationships were found between both measures of sociability and both measures of cognitive competence. The sociable friendly infants received higher scores on both cognitive tests than the less sociable babies did.     

马氏体相变对P91钢焊接残余应力的影响

基于仿真模拟软件SYSWELD,建立了P91钢材料属性数据库,设计开发了考虑马氏体相变的“热-冶金-力学”耦合计算方法,采用热循环曲线法对P91钢平板对接接头残余应力场进行数值模拟仿真分析。参照原始焊接工艺方案进行上下0.5mm/s焊接速度的调整,并进行残余应力仿真计算。结果表明,马氏体相变能抵消焊缝热收缩时产生的拉应力。后道焊缝焊接过程中施加的热载荷对前道焊缝应力变化和平板角变形有着显著的影响。考虑后道焊缝焊接过程中施加的热载荷对前道焊缝组织变化的影响时,焊接接头整体的拉应力大幅度下降,热影响区的拉应力上升,角变形起缓和作用。焊接速度越大,Von Mises残余应力和横向残余应力越大,纵向残余压应力越小。