Abstract
The unpredictability of maternal sensory signals in caregiving behavior has been recently found to be linked with infant neurodevelopment. The research area is new, and very little is yet known, how maternal anxiety and depressive symptoms and specific parental characteristics relate to the unpredictable maternal care. The aims of the current study were to explore how pre- and postnatal maternal anxiety and depressive symptoms and self-regulation capacity associate with the unpredictability of maternal sensory signals. The study population consisted of 177 mother-infant dyads. The unpredictability of the maternal sensory signals was explored from the video-recorded mother-infant free play situation when the infant was 8 months of age. Pre- and postnatal anxiety and depressive symptoms were measured by questionnaires prenatally at gwks 14, 24, 34, and 3 and 6 months postpartum. Maternal self-regulation capacity, a trait considered to be stable in adulthood, was assessed using adult temperament questionnaire when the infant was 12 months of age. We found that elevated prenatal maternal anxiety symptoms associated with higher unpredictability in the maternal care while depressive symptoms were unrelated to the unpredictability of maternal care. Moreover, the association was moderated by maternal self-regulation capacity, as higher anxiety symptoms during pre-and postnatal period were associated more unpredictability among the mothers with low self-regulation capacity. The combination of higher amount of maternal anxiety symptoms and lower self-regulation capacity seems to constitute specific risk for the unpredictable maternal care.
Highlights
An extensive previous literature on parenting proposes that the quality of maternal care such as maternal sensitivity to child’s cues and child secure attachment are crucial determinants for child development and are related to various health outcomes (Bowlby, 1969; Ainsworth et al, 1978; Sroufe, 2005; Easterbrooks et al, 2012; Groh et al, 2012)
The unpredictability of maternal sensory signals in caregiving behavior is analyzed at a microlevel based on the predictability of the transitions between maternal auditory, visual and tactile signals (Davis et al, 2017; Vegetabile et al, 2019)
The aim of the current study was to explore, in mothers with their 8 month old children, (1) whether the amount of maternal pre- and postnatal anxiety and depressive symptoms and maternal self-regulation capacity are related to the unpredictability of maternal caregiving behavior (2) and whether maternal self-regulation moderates this potential association
Summary
An extensive previous literature on parenting proposes that the quality of maternal care such as maternal sensitivity to child’s cues and child secure attachment are crucial determinants for child development and are related to various health outcomes (Bowlby, 1969; Ainsworth et al, 1978; Sroufe, 2005; Easterbrooks et al, 2012; Groh et al, 2012). A novel paradigm in the parenting research suggests that in addition to the emotional quality and synchrony of the care, the patterns of the caregiving signals per se, are crucial for child brain development (Davis et al, 2019, 2017; Vegetabile et al, 2019). Covariance analysis (ANCOVA) was conducted to test whether the association between elevated prenatal anxiety symptoms (gwk 24) and the unpredictability of maternal signals remained significant after socioeconomic factors were controlled for. Higher levels of prenatal anxiety symptoms (β = 0.197, p = 0.007) remained related to higher unpredictability after controlling for socioeconomic factors. The level of education (β = 0.173, p = 0.035) and a younger maternal age (β = −0.168, p = 0.028) were significantly associated with higher unpredictability (see Table 5)
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