Maternal Responsiveness to Infants in Three Societies: The United States, France, and Japan

This study examines and compares prominent characteristics of maternal responsiveness to infant activity during home-based naturalistic interactions of mother-infant dyads in New York City, Paris, and Tokyo. Both culture-general and culture-specific patterns of responsiveness emerged. For example, in all 3 locales infants behaved similarly, mothers also behaved similarly with respect to a hierarchy of response types, and mothers and infants manifest both specificity and mutual appropriateness in their interactions: Mothers responded to infants' exploration of the environment with encouragement to the environment, to infants' vocalizing nondistress with imitation, and to infants' vocalizing distress with nurturance. Differences in maternal responsiveness among cultures occurred to infant looking rather than to infant vocalizing and in mothers' emphasizing dyadic versus extradyadic loci of interaction. Universals of maternal responsiveness, potential sources of cultural variation, and implications of similarities and differences in responsiveness for child development in different cultural contexts are discussed.     

Neonatal characteristics and mother-infant interaction in two observational situations.

134 mothers and their newborn infants were studied in order to evaluate the realtionship's between neonatal characteristics and mother-infant interaction. The procedure included a newborn assessment with the Brazelton Neonatal Assessment Scale and 2 mother-infant interaction observations, 1 carried out during feeding and the other during a semistructured situation. The results indicated that there were consistent relationships between infant and maternal behavior; more alert and responsive infants had more responsive and sensitive mothers. These consistencies were found for both infants and mothers across the different situations. Both infant and maternal responsiveness to a variey of social stimuli were noted.     

Lenghth of Maternity Leave and Quality of Mother-Infant Interactions

The aim of this study was to assess the association between the length of maternity leave and the quality of mother-infant interactions; 198 employed mothers of 4-month-old infants were interviewed and videotaped in their homes during a feeding time. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated a direct association between shorter length of leave and more negative affect and behavior in maternal interactions with their infants. Infant and mother stressor/protective variables added significantly in predicting the quality of the mother-infant relationship. There were also significant interaction effects between the length of leave and these variables. Mothers who either reported more depressive symptoms or who perceived their infant as having a more difficult temperament and who had shorter leaves, compared with mothers who had longer leaves, were observed to express less positive affect, sensitivity, and responsiveness in interactions with their infants. The public policy implications of the relation between length of maternity leave, maternal and infant individual differences, and the quality of mother-infant interactions are discussed.     

Responses of Free-ranging Rhesus Monkeys to a Natural Form of Social Separation. I. Parallels with Mother-Infant Separation in Captivity

Observations of 23 free-ranging rhesus monkey infants on Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico, indicated that mothers' first postpartum estrous periods were marked by large increases in the amount of time infants were separated from their mothers, by disturbances in mother-infant relationships, and by increases in infant distress behavior. When their mothers resumed mating, most infants showed signs of agitation; a few briefly showed indications of depression. Male infants responded to their mothers' resumption of mating by playing more, whereas females engaged in less play and more allogrooming. The results suggest ( a ) that basic parallels exist between the behavioral responses of rhesus infants to their mothers' resumption of mating in the field and to forcible separation from their mothers in captivity and ( b ) that early separation experiences may play a role in the normal development or manifestation of sex differences in behavior.     

Simulating conditions of learned helplessness: the effects of interventions and attributions

We report 2 experiments that assess factors potentially responsible for a proactive interference with the sensitivity of a mother's response to infant signals. Using a version of the "learned helplessness" paradigm, mothers' performance on a solvable task was assessed following pretreatments that involved exposure to an infant cry but that differed in the mothers' ability to exert control over the termination of the cry. Each experiment explored the role of varying attributions made by a mother in the development of, or the reversal of, the helplessness phenomenon. The first experiment addressed the question of whether a specific intervention (i.e., providing the mother an attribution for failure) can reduce the debilitating effect of prior experience with failure. The results indicated that the debilitating effects associated with previous failure were reversed for the 16 mothers assigned to the intervention group. 40 mothers participated in the second experiment, which varied attributions assigned to an identical cry stimulus (i.e., the cry was produced by an "easy" vs. a "difficult" infant). This experiment assessed the effect of varying attributions on the mothers' ability to terminate the cry. We found that mothers pretreated with inescapable cries and those receiving the experimental manipulation of attributing the cry to a "difficult" infant showed debilitated performance in stopping the cry when given the opportunity. We propose that models based on learned helplessness theory have value in the study of caregiver-infant relationships, in particular, caregivers' perceived and objective effectiveness in responding to an infant's signals.     

Minimizing adverse effects of low birthweight: four-year results of an early intervention program

The outcome of an early intervention program for low-birthweight (LBW) infants was examined in this study. The intervention consisted of 11 sessions, beginning during the final week of hospitalization and extending into the home over a 3-month period. The program aimed to facilitate maternal adjustment to the care of a LBW infant, and, indirectly, to enhance the child's development. Neonates weighing less than 2,200 grams and under 37 weeks gestational age were randomly assigned to experimental or control conditions. A full-term, normal birthweight (NBW) group served as a second control. 6-month analyses of dyads who completed all assessments over a 4-year period (N's = 25 LBW experimental, 29 LBW control, and 28 NBW infant-mother dyads) showed that the experimental group mothers reported significantly greater self-confidence and satisfaction with mothering, as well as more favorable perception of infant temperament than LBW control group mothers. A progressive divergence between the LBW experimental and LBW control children on cognitive scores culminated in significant group differences on the McCarthy GCI at ages 36 and 48 months, when the LBW experimental group caught up to the NBW group. Possible explanations for the observed delay in the emergence of intervention effects on cognitive development and the mediating role of favorable mother-infant transactional patterns are discussed in light of recent evidence from the literature.     

An Ordinal Pattern Analysis of Four Hypotheses Describing the Interactions between Drug-addicted, Chronically Disadvantaged, and Middle-Class Mother-Infant Dyads

This study investigated mother-infant interactions in 18 dyads. All participants were African American and enrolled in an early intervention program because the infants (2–26 months of age) had developmental disabilities or were at high risk for developmental disability. Some mothers had used drugs during their pregnancy, and all mothers were of low or middle socioeconomic status. Dyads were videotaped interacting at 4 different times, separated by at least 5 months in time. Videotapes were rated in terms of infant involvement and maternal responsivity in the interaction. 4 hypotheses concerning the pattern of maternal interaction across time were tested using ordinal pattern analysis. The hypothesis that mothers would become less responsive to infants over time (H_D) as a function of drug addiction, poverty, or serious developmental delay was supported for only 4 of the 18 dyads. There was support for the hypothesis (H_j) that mothers naturally increase their responsivity over time ( N = 6) and support for the hypothesis (H_T) that mothers' interactive sensitivity fluctuates in relation to infants' involvement in the interaction over time ( N = 7). Ordinal pattern analysis has advantages in determining how well competing hypotheses describe individuals within populations relative to approaches that identify differences that apply to entire populations.     

Differentiating Maternal Sensitivity to Infant Distress and Non-Distress

Drawing from a domain specificity perspective, we assert that maternal sensitivity to infant distress cues is distinct from maternal sensitivity to non-distress cues. We review evidence from prior research demonstrating that the two constructs have more unshared than shared variance and that sensitivity to infant distress is a unique predictor of infants' early emotional well-being when both types of sensitivity are examined as simultaneous predictors. In addition, we present new evidence to test the hypothesis that maternal sensitivity to infant distress and non-distress have different origins. We draw on data from a subset of mothers and infants who participated in Phase I of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care (Study 1) and from 101 mother-infant dyads who participated in a longitudinal study of the origins of maternal sensitivity (Study 2). In both studies, maternal sensitivity to distress and non-distress were rated when infants were 6 months old. In both studies, socio-demographic risk (i.e., young, unmarried, low income mothers) was a stronger predictor of sensitivity to non-distress than of sensitivity to distress. In Study 2, mothers' emotional and cognitive responses to videotapes of crying infants during the prenatal period predicted maternal sensitivity during tasks designed to elicit infant fear and frustration but were unrelated to maternal sensitivity in a non-arousing free play context. Maternal sensitivity during infancy can be further divided into specific sub-types that have unique origins and unique effects on subsequent child well-being. Methodological, theoretical, and applied implications of such an approach are discussed.     

Cultural Differences in Maternal Beliefs and Behaviors: A Study of Middle-Class Anglo and Puerto Rican Mother-Infant Pairs in Four Everyday Situations

This study examines cultural patterning in situational variability in mother-infant interactions among middle-class Anglo and Puerto Rican mothers and their 12 to 15-month-old firstborn children. Forty mothers were interviewed regarding their long-term socialization goals and childrearing strategies, and videotaped interacting with their infants in four everyday settings: feeding, social play, teaching, and free play. Results suggest that: (1) Anglo mothers place greater emphasis on socialization goals and childrearing strategies consonant with a more individualistic orientation, whereas Puerto Rican mothers place greater focus on goals and strategies consistent with a more sociocentric orientation; (2) coherence was found between mothers' childrearing beliefs and practices, with Puerto Rican mothers more likely to directly structure their infants' behaviors; and (3) situational variability arose in mother-infant interactions, but this variability showed a cultural patterning consistent with mothers' long-term socialization goals and childrearing beliefs.     

Infant – Mother Attachment among the Dogon of Mali

This study of mothers and infants from the Dogon ethnic group of Mali, West Africa examined three attachment hypotheses: (1) that infant attachment security is linked to the quality of mother-infant communication, (2) that mothers of secure infants respond more sensitively to their infants than do mothers of insecure infants, and (3) that infant disorganization is linked to maternal frightened or frightening behaviors. Participants were 27 mother-infant pairs from a rural town and 15 mother-infant pairs from two agrarian villages; infants ranged in age from 10 to 12.5 months at the first assessment. The distribution of the Strange Situation classifications was 67% secure, 0% avoidant, 8% resistant, and 25% disorganized. Infant attachment security was significantly related to the quality of mother-infant communication as observed in a well-infant exam. The correlation between infant attachment security ratings and maternal sensitivity (assessed in the home) was modest and approached significance. Mothers of disorganized infants had significantly higher ratings of frightened or frightening behaviors. Maternal sensitivity predicted little of the variance in infant security; however, the addition of the frightened/frightening variable in the regression equation tripled the explained variance. The findings are discussed in light of Dogon childrearing practices and key tenets of attachment theory.     

The Impact of Postnatal Depression and Associated Adversity on Early Mother-Infant Interactions and Later Infant Outcome

The impact of maternal depression and adversity on mother-infant face-to-face interactions at 2 months, and on subsequent infant cognitive development and attachment, was examined in a low-risk sample of primiparous women and their infants. The severe disturbances in mother-infant engagement characteristic of depressed groups in disadvantaged populations were not evident in the context of postpartum mood disorder in the present study. However, compared to well women, depressed mothers were less sensitively attuned to their infants, and were less affirming and more negating of infant experience. Similar difficulties in maternal interactions were also evident in the context of social and personal adversity. Disturbances in early mother-infant interactions were found to be predictive of poorer infant cognitive outcome at 18 months. Infant attachment, by contrast, was not related to the quality of 2-month interactions, but was significantly associated with the occurrence of adversity, as well as postpartum depression.     

Helping mothers discuss sexuality and AIDS with adolescents

The current study was designed to alter experimentally mothers' style when discussing sexuality and AIDS with their adolescent children. Mothers of 11- to 15-year-olds (N = 50) were assigned to an intervention or control group, resulting in 20 dyads in each group. All dyads were assessed twice, on self-reported and observed communication, AIDS knowledge, and perceived vulnerability to AIDS. Intervention group mothers received two training sessions. Observational data revealed that intervention group mothers reduced their amount of speaking, asked more open-ended questions, acted less judgmental, and discussed dating and sexuality more than did control group mothers. Intervention group adolescents reported increased discussions of birth control and increased daily comfort talking to their mothers. There was some evidence that intervention group girls increased in AIDS knowledge. There was no change in AIDS-related beliefs.     

Attachment for Infants in Foster Care: The Role of Caregiver State of Mind

The concordance between foster mothers' attachment state of mind and foster infants' attachment quality was examined for 50 foster mother-infant dyads. Babies had been placed into the care of their foster mothers between birth and 20 months of age. Attachment quality was assessed between 12 and 24 months of age, at least 3 months after the infants' placement into foster care. The two-way correspondence between maternal state of mind and infant attachment quality was 72%, kappa = .43, similar to the level seen among biologically intact mother-infant dyads. Contrary to expectations, age at placement was not related to attachment quality. Rather, concordance between maternal state of mind and infant attachment was seen for relatively late-placed babies, as well as early placed babies. These findings have two major implications. First, following a disruption in care during the first year and a half of life, babies appear capable of organizing their behavior around the availability of new caregivers. Second, these data argue for a nongenetic mechanism for the intergenerational transmission of attachment.     

Predicting IQ from mother-infant interactions.

Longitudinal observations of maternal and infant characteristics were used to investigate the consequences of early day-care intervention for infants at high risk for intellectual retardation due to sociocultural factors. High-risk infants and their mothers were compared on social and intellectual characteristics with a control group not enrolled in an intervention program and with a random sample of mother-child dyads from the general population. Results from group comparisons indicated that mothers of high-risk infants in a day-care intervention group interacted with their infants in ways quite similar to mother of high-risk infants who were not enrolled in the intervention program. Both high-risk groups differed from the general population of mothers on interaction and attitudinal measures. Changes across time on the measures taken were roughly parallel from all three groups. Multiple regression analyses using maternal variables and mother-infant interactional variables to predict 36-month Stanford-Binet scores for the high-risk samples indicated that children's intelligence was predictable from previous maternal behaviors and attitudes, particularly for the control group, and that early day-care intervention apparently had altered the predictiveness of some maternal factors.     

Infant and maternal sensitivity to interpersonal timing

A perturbation paradigm was employed to assess 3- and 6-month-old infants' and their mothers' sensitivity to a 3-s temporal delay implemented in an ongoing televised interaction. At both ages, the temporal delay affected infant but not maternal behavior and only when implementing the temporal delay in maternal (Experiment 1, N=64) but not infant (Experiment 2, N=60) behavior. In addition, the experimental manipulation influenced promptness of maternal smiling responses reliably more than promptness of infant smiling responses. The findings suggest that the timing of maternal behavior plays an important role in infants' perception of maternal responsiveness, whereas mothers seem to monitor general aspects of infant behavior such as overall level of engagement.     

Does Infant Carrying Promote Attachment? An Experimental Study of the Effects of Increased Physical Contact on the Development of Attachment

This study was designed to test the hypothesis that increased physical contact, experimentally induced, would promote greater maternal responsiveness and more secure attachment between infant and mother. Low-SES mothers of newborn infants were randomly assigned to an experimental group (n = 23) that received soft baby carriers (more physical contact) or to a control group (n = 26) that received infants seats (less contact). Using a transitional probability analysis of a play session at 31/2 months, it was demonstrated that mothers in the experimental group were more contingently responsive than control mothers to their infants' vocalizations. When the infants were 13 months old, the Ainsworth Strange Situation was administered. Significantly more experimental than control infants were securely attached to their mothers. We infer from these results that for low-income, inner-city mothers, there may be a causal relation between increased physical contact, achieved through early carrying in a soft baby carrier, and subsequent security of attachment between infant and mother.     

Parental sensitivity, infant affect, and affect regulation: predictors of later attachment

This longitudinal study on 94 families examined the extent to which parent sensitivity, infant affect, and affect regulation at 4 months predicted mother-infant and father-infant attachment classifications at 1 year. Parent sensitivity was rated from face-to-face interaction episodes; infant affect and regulatory behaviors were rated from mother-infant and father-infant still-face episodes at 4 months. Infants' attachment to mothers and fathers was rated from the Strange Situation at 12 and 13 months. MANOVAs indicated that 4-month parent and infant factors were associated with infant-mother but not infant-father attachment groups. Discriminant Function Analysis further indicated that two functions, "Affect Regulation" and "Maternal Sensitivity," discriminated infant-mother attachment groups; As and B1-B2s showed more affect regulation toward mothers and fathers than B3-B4s and Cs at 4 months, and mothers of both secure groups were more sensitive than mothers of Cs. Finally, the association between maternal sensitivity and infant-mother attachment was partially mediated by infant affect regulation.     

The Influence of Early Patterns of Positive Parenting on Children's Preschool Outcomes

This study examined for patterns of maternal warm responsiveness and restrictiveness across 6, 12, and 24 months of age to determine if there were subgroups of mothers who varied in the way they adapted to children's changing developmental needs. The study included 136 healthy full-term children and 228 preterm children of high (n = 90) and low (n = 138) medical risk. We identified four distinct clusters of mothers; one of which appeared the most optimal in terms of adapting. This maternal cluster showed high levels of warm responsiveness across ages and only slight increases in restrictiveness. Two less optimal clusters showed low levels of warm responsiveness and dramatic increases in restrictiveness with increasing age. A final cluster of mothers also displayed dramatic increases in restrictiveness and withdrew warm responsiveness as the infant approached the toddler period. Mothers who displayed the most optimal pattern were older, of higher socioeconomic status, held less restrictive and more child-centered childrearing attitudes, and had higher social support. These mothers also had children with more optimal social and cognitive outcomes at 40 months of age. These analyses provide support for targeting in intervention programs mothers' attitudes regarding childrearing and their needs for positive social support.     

Taxing times: an educational intervention to enhance moral reasoning in tax

This paper outlines the development and implementation of an online educational intervention designed to enhance moral reasoning in higher level tax students. Before decisions are made about how to behave ethically, cognitive moral reasoning takes place. The importance of education in developing morally sensitive individuals who use principled moral reasoning has been widely acknowledged. The literature contends that moral reasoning might be enhanced through certain forms of intervention studies. An online educational intervention designed to enhance moral reasoning in tax was developed and empirically tested for effectiveness through the use of a pre- and post-test and focus group feedback gathered from students. Students' contributions to ethical discussions were analysed to determine their perceptions of salient issues concerning ethics in tax. This paper will inform future educators and researchers designing effective ethics interventions.