The Connection and Development of Unpredictability and Sensitivity in Maternal Care Across Early Childhood.

Eeva Holmberg,Saara Nolvi,Linnea Karlsson,Elysia Poggi Davis,Marjukka Pajulo,Hetti Hakanen,Eeva-Leena Kataja,Hasse Karlsson,Riikka Korja

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.803047

Abstract

Both patterns of maternal sensory signals and sensitive care have shown to be crucial elements shaping child development. However, research concerning these aspects of maternal care has focused mainly on maternal sensitivity with fewer studies evaluating the impact of patterns of maternal behaviors and changes in these indices across infancy and childhood. The aims of this study were to explore how maternal unpredictability of sensory signals and sensitivity develop and associate with each other from infancy to toddlerhood and whether elevated maternal depressive and anxiety symptoms relate to maternal unpredictable signals and sensitivity in toddlerhood. The study population consisted of 356 mother–child dyads assessed at 30 months; a subset of 103 mother–child dyads additionally participated in 8 months assessment. Maternal unpredictability and sensitivity were assessed from video-recorded free-play episodes at 8 and 30 months. Maternal depressive and anxiety symptoms were assessed with questionnaires at gestational weeks 14, 24, 34 and 3, 6, 12, and 24 months. Mean level of mothers’ unpredictability decreased on average whereas sensitivity did not change between infancy and toddlerhood. Both maternal unpredictability and sensitivity showed moderate level of individual stability from infancy to toddlerhood and these two measures were modestly correlated within each age. Elevated maternal depressive and anxiety symptoms were not related to unpredictability but related to lower maternal sensitivity in toddlerhood. These results identify unpredictable sensory signals as a characteristic of parental care that is independent of standard quality measures and suggest that it may be less influenced by maternal depressive and anxiety symptoms.

Highlights

Parental care is a critical aspect of early experiences that has long lasting consequences for child development
The current study examined the development and relations of a novel aspect of caregiving, unpredictable maternal sensory signals (Davis et al, 2017; Vegetabile et al, 2019) and a more traditional aspect of maternal sensitivity (Biringen, 2008; Biringen et al, 2014) from infancy to toddlerhood
Previous research has focused mainly on emotional aspect of caregiving behavior such as sensitivity with fewer studies evaluating the patterns of maternal behaviors or changes in these caregiving aspects across infancy and childhood

Summary

Introduction

Parental care is a critical aspect of early experiences that has long lasting consequences for child development. Recent research has demonstrated that patterns of maternally derived sensory signals is potentially an additional component of caregiving behavior that shapes development (Davis et al, 2017, 2019; Noroña-zhou et al, 2020; Granger et al, 2021). Research area is new, and more basic methodological research is needed to explore normative developmental pathway of maternal unpredictable sensory signals from infancy onward and its relations to traditional measurements of parenting quality. We compare two distinct aspects of maternal care: unpredictability of maternal sensory signals (a more novel measure of parental care) and maternal sensitivity (a more traditional measure used in previous studies). We compare how these aspects of maternal care develop from infancy to toddlerhood at group and individual levels. We study whether maternal psychological distress, as one of the most studied risk factor for maternal caregiving quality in infancy, contributes to this development

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