Effects of infant hearing loss and maternal support on mother-infant interactions at 18 months

Abstract

Research is reported showing the positive effects of social support on mothers' interactions with their 18-month-old deaf infants. Subjects were 40 normally hearing mothers-20 with hearing-impaired infants and 20 with normally hearing infant. Two raters viewed videotapes of unstructured mother-infant play and rated mothers, infants, and dyads on 13 behavioral dimensions. A Support Index was constructed from mothers' questionnaire responses. Compared to mothers with hearing infants, mothers with deaf infants were rated as less likely to use frequent and positive Touch, to be less Sensitive (more Intrusive), less Flexible and less Consistent. Mothers with deaf and with hearing children were subdivided by high or low levels of support. Ratings of mothers with hearing children did not differ by support level; ratings for mothers with deaf children receiving high levels of social support were no different from those of the mothers with hearing children. Mothers with deaf children receiving low levels of social support were rated significantly more negatively than those in the three other groups. For mothers with deaf children, support reported closer to the time of diagnosis of the child's hearing loss showed a stronger relationship to the behavior ratings; support levels were more important than number of support sources; combined support over time and across sources increased the positive effects.