Quality Of Mother-child Interaction Research Articles

Home-visiting Parenting Programs to Improve Mother-Infant Interactions at Early Ages: A Systematic Review.

Objective: To systematically review studies examining the effects of home-visiting preventive parenting programs (HV-PPs) on improving the quality of mother-child interactions in early childhood. Method: Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses protocol, we identified 3,586 studies published between 2018 and 2022 by searching the following databases: PubMed, Web of Science, BVS/LILACS, SciELO, and PsycNET/PsycINFO. After applying the eligibility criteria, 17 articles were selected for review. Results: Most studies were conducted in high-income countries (53%) and the remainder were conducted in upper-middle-income countries, predominantly using a randomized controlled trial design and with strong methodological quality. The 17 studies applied 13 different HV-PPs, predominantly using video feedback, based on various dosages and schedules. Most studies (77%) showed significant positive effects on mother-child interactions by improving mainly positive maternal behaviors (e.g., sensitivity and responsiveness). Positive effects occurred independent of the study design, sample characteristics, measures, and constructs assessed. However, the findings suggest that the combination of fewer than six sessions, durations shorter than three months, and a very early start did not impact mother-child interactions, as expected. Few studies have explored negative maternal behaviors, children's behaviors, and dyadic interactions such as mutuality and synchrony. Conclusions: HV-PPs positively impacted mother-child interactions in early childhood despite the large heterogeneity across program designs, outcome measures, and overlapping constructs. Based on the results, we discuss the practical and economic implications of using parenting programs as a preventive approach.

The Quality of Mother-Child Feeding Interactions Predicts Psychopathological Symptoms in Offspring and Mothers Seven Years Later: A Longitudinal Study on the General Population.

The increased risk of internalizing and externalizing symptoms in children has been observed in the presence of maternal psychopathology. This study aimed to investigate a potential pathway involving the quality of early interactions between mothers and their children. A sample of 150 mother-child dyads underwent assessment when the children were 3 years old and around the age of 10. Video recordings of feeding exchanges between mothers and children were analyzed to evaluate the quality of mother-child interactions. Maternal psychopathology and child internalizing and externalizing symptoms were measured through self-report and report-form measures completed by mothers. The quality of mother-child feeding interactions at three years of age significantly differentiated (p < 0.001), eight years later, between mothers at high and low psychopathological risk and between children exhibiting clinical and subclinical internalizing symptoms. Clinically relevant child symptoms were notably more prevalent when the mother-child interaction quality at three years of age was maladaptive, particularly in the context of concurrent high maternal psychopathological risk. The study findings underscore the importance of focusing on the early quality of mother-child feeding interactions to identify potential situations of maternal and child clinical risk for the development of psychopathological symptoms and to guide preemptive measures and policies.

Predictors of executive function among 2 year olds from a Thai birth cohort

Executive function (EF) is a critical skill for academic achievement. Research on the psychosocial and environmental predictors of EF, particularly among Southeast Asian, agricultural, and low income/rural populations, is limited. Our longitudinal study explored the influence of agricultural environmental, psychosocial, and temperamental factors on children’s emerging EF. Three-hundred and nine farm worker women were recruited during the first trimester of pregnancy. We evaluated the effects of prenatal insecticide exposure and psychosocial factors on “cool” (i.e., cognitive: A-not-B task, looking version) and “hot” EF (i.e., affective, response inhibition) measures of emerging EF. Maternal urine samples were collected monthly during pregnancy, composited, and analyzed for dialkylphosphate (DAP) metabolites of organophosphate insecticides. Psychosocial factors included socioeconomic status, maternal psychological factors, and quality of mother-child behavioral interactions. Backward stepwise regressions evaluated predictors of children’s EF at 12 (N = 288), 18 (N = 277) and 24 (N = 280) months of age. We observed different predictive models for cool EF, as measured by A-not-B task, vs. hot EF, as measured by response inhibition tasks. Report of housing quality as a surrogate for income was a significant predictor of emerging EF. However, these variables had opposite effects for cool vs. hot EF. More financial resources predicted better cool EF performance but poorer hot EF performance. Qualitative findings indicate that homes with fewer resources were in tribal areas where children must remain close to an adult for safety reasons. This finding suggests that challenging physical environments (e.g., an elevated bamboo home with no electricity or running water), may contribute to development of higher levels of response inhibition through parental socialization methods that emphasize compliance. Children who tended to show more arousal and excitability, and joy reactivity as young infants in the laboratory setting had better cognitive performance. In contrast, maternal emotional availability was a significant predictor of hot EF. As expected, increased maternal exposure to pesticides during pregnancy was associated with worse cognitive performance but was not associated with inhibitory control. Identifying risk factors contributing to the differential developmental pathways of cool and hot EF will inform prevention strategies to promote healthy development in this and other unstudied rural, low income Southeast Asian farming communities.

Explaining mental health and quality of mother-child interaction with attention deficit-hyperactivity based on parenting styles

Explaining mental health and quality of mother-child interaction with attention deficit-hyperactivity based on parenting styles

A longitudinal study of families created using egg donation: Family functioning at age 5.

Findings are reported from Phase 2 of a longitudinal study of family functioning in heterosexual-couple families with 5 year olds conceived using identity-release egg donation. Seventy-two egg donation families were compared to 50 in vitro fertilization (IVF) families (ethnicity: 93% White British) using standardized observational, interview, and questionnaire measures. There were no differences between family types in the quality of mother-child or father-child interaction, apart from lower structuring by fathers in egg donation families. Egg donation mothers and fathers reported higher levels of parenting stress and lower levels of confidence and competence than their IVF counterparts. Egg donation mothers reported lower social support and couple relationship quality, greater anger toward their child, and perceived their child as more angry and less happy, compared to IVF mothers. Egg donation fathers showed greater criticism and anger toward their child, less joy in parenting, and were less satisfied with the support they received, than IVF fathers. Children in egg donation families showed higher levels of externalizing problems than IVF children as rated by mothers, fathers, and teachers, whereas they were rated as having higher levels of internalizing problems by teachers only. Externalizing problems were predicted by mothers' lower initial social support, steeper increases in parenting stress and greater concurrent criticism, whereas internalizing problems were associated with poorer initial couple relationship quality as rated by mothers. Both were predicted by fewer gains in reflective functioning. There was a moderation effect such that parenting stress was a stronger predictor of externalizing problems for egg donation than IVF families. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Observing mother-child interaction in a free-play vs. a structured task context and its relationship with preterm and term born toddlers' psychosocial outcomes

IntroductionHigh quality of mother-child interaction is associated with better psychosocial outcomes in children. However, this association might depend on the context in which mother-child interaction is observed as well as specific child characteristics. In this study, we examine differences in the assessment of mother-child interaction in a free-play and a structured task context. In addition, it will be investigated whether the behaviors per context are differently associated with preterm vs. term born toddlers' psychosocial outcomes.MethodsA total of 201 Dutch mother-child dyads participated in the study, of whom 108 children were moderate to late preterm (MLP) and 93 were born at term. Mother-child interaction was observed in a free-play and a structured task context when the child was 18 months of (corrected) age. Six subscales of mother-child interaction were assessed using the Coding Interactive Behavior scheme: maternal stimulation, maternal warmth, child's negative affect, active mother and child engagement, dyadic synchrony and tense interaction. Psychosocial outcomes were assessed at 24 months of (corrected) age using the Ages and Stages Questionnaire – Social Emotional and the Child Behavior Checklist.ResultsMother-child interaction was reliably assessed (α &amp;gt; .60) in each context, except for tense interaction during free-play (α = .41) and child's negative affect when averaged across contexts (α = 0.55). Compared to the free-play context, during the structured task, more child's negative affect, tense interaction and active mother and child engagement was observed in MLP and term born children, and less dyadic synchrony in MLP children (p's &amp;lt; .01). Only during a structured task and for term born children, active mother and child engagement was related to less social-emotional difficulties, internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Only during free-play and for MLP children, active mother and child engagement was related to less externalizing behaviors. Dyadic synchrony during a structured task was associated with less social-emotional difficulties in MLP and term born children, and dyadic synchrony during free-play was only associated with less social-emotional difficulties in term born children (all p's &amp;lt; .05).DiscussionMost mother-child interactive behaviors can be reliably assessed in both contexts. The structured task context elicited more varied behaviors than the free-play context. With the observations in the structured task context, more associations with children's psychosocial outcomes were found than with the observations in the free-play context. Mother-child interactions characterized by active, engaged and synchronous behaviors were associated with better psychosocial outcomes in toddlers, with some differences observed for MLP vs. term born children and for the free-play vs. the structured task context. Suggestions for future research as well as clinical practice are provided.

The Role of Childhood Trauma on Prenatal Attachment: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Although the quality of prenatal attachment is a strong predictor of the quality of postnatal mother-infant attachment and mother-child interaction, little is known about the specific impacts of maternal exposure to childhood traumas, and it deserves more attention. This study was conducted to determine whether there is a relationship between childhood traumas and pren1atal attachment levels. Prenatal attachment and childhood trauma were evaluated in 104 pregnant women using the Prenatal Attachment Scale and Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Our results showed that all kinds of childhood traumatic experiences were associated with lower prenatal attachment scores. Also, more severe childhood traumas were strongly associated with weaker prenatal attachment. This study contributes to the very limited literature on the prenatal attachment of expectant mothers with childhood traumas by emphasizing the importance of pregnant women's exposure to childhood traumas as a risk factor for low prenatal attachment.

The multiple mediators of early differences in academic abilities by parental financial resources in Germany.

This paper examines the mediators of differences in academic abilities by parental income and wealth among pre-schoolers in Germany. Families' investment, parental stress and parenting, neighbourhood effects, and parents' educational norms and aspirations are considered as mediators. Unlike most existing studies, we explicitly consider the interdependence of these mediators and, therefore, apply sequential joint mediation analysis. We find that children in income-poor households score up to 0.34 standard deviations lower and children in households with a negative net worth up to 0.24 standard deviations lower in tests of academic ability, even when controlling for a comprehensive set of other familial characteristics. All mediators together explain on average 47% of the differences by income, but only 17% of the wealth differences. Parental investment is the most important mediator, followed by neighbourhood effects. Parental Stress, mother-child interaction quality, and educational norms and aspirations seem to be less relevant as mediators.

The Effect of a Telehealth Intervention on Mother-Child's Feeding Interactions During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

PurposeThis study evaluated the outcomes of a telehealth intervention aimed at enhancing exchanges in mother–child dyads who showed an impoverishment of the quality of their feeding interactions and a worsening of their psychopathological symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsN=334 mothers and their three-year-old children were recruited to assess their feeding interactions through an observational tool administered via a web platform, and maternal and offspring psychopathological symptoms were measured through the SCL/90-R and the CBCL 1.5–5. This study constitutes the third wave (T3) of a longitudinal research.ResultsOur results showed that the intervention significantly improved the quality of mother–child feeding interactions. Moreover, mothers’ psychopathological symptoms reduced after the intervention, especially in the interpersonal sensitivity, hostility, depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive-compulsive subscales; offspring emotional/behavioral functioning and dysregulation symptoms also decreased, particularly in the subscales of withdrawn anxious/depressed attention problems and aggressive behavior.ConclusionThis study adds knowledge to the literature on COVID-19 pandemic effects on psychological health of parents and young children, proposing a method of intervention that had been effectively adopted previously but whose effectiveness had not been investigated during the pandemic.

[Can the GroupTherapy "Arriving" Support Refugee Mothers with their Young Children? Results from a Longitudinal Pilot Study].

Refugee mothers are exposed to multiple sources of psychological distress given their migration histories and the experience of motherhood in a foreign country and often in social isolation. "Aacho" ("Arriving") is a psychoanalytic-oriented group therapy for refugee mothers with babies and toddlers in Switzerland.The present pilot study evaluated "Aacho" concomitantly and explored changes in the mothers' symptom burden, in the developmental status of their children, and in the quality of mother-child interaction. Five mother-child dyads participated in a longitudinal study with two to three time points. Mothers self-reported on symptomatology (HSCL, HTQ, SSS 8) and the groups' psychotherapists evaluated family functioning levels (HBS-L) and maternal levels of illness (CGI). In addition, the child's developmental level (Bayley-III) and the quality of mother-child interaction (CARE index) were assessed. The symptom burden of the mothers was severe over the entire study period with varying symptom development (decrease/increase). The children's language development tended to be delayed.The quality of mother-child interaction tended to increase over the study period. Refugee mothers with young children often experience severe psychological distress and require psychotherapeutic support that is specifically tailored to them. The evaluation of services offering such support poses specific methodological challenges.

Maternal emotional availability relates to two-year-olds’ behavior in a challenging cooperative interaction

Cooperative interactions are an essential aspect of human life, which children start to engage in the course of toddlerhood. Cooperation can often be challenging and requires repair and realignment. So far, little effort has been made to investigate how young children deal with emotionally challenging cooperative interactions. Therefore, we examined which factors explain 24-month-old toddlers’ (n = 90) behavior to interruptions in two frustrating cooperative interactions, that is, their disengagement from the task, approach to the mother, active help seeking, and reengagement. We focused on child temperament (i.e., shyness) and child cognitive skills (i.e., language and self-control), and were especially interested whether mother–child interaction quality (i.e., sensitivity and non-intrusiveness) contributes beyond child characteristics. Results indicated that maternal intrusiveness significantly predicted more child disengagement and more approach to the mother. Furthermore, toddler self-control was positively associated with approach to mother, while toddler language skills were positively related to active help seeking. Reengagement was neither predicted by child characteristics nor by maternal emotional availability. We discuss how the findings of the current study expand our knowledge of the factors that impact toddlers’ social competencies and coping strategies in emotionally challenging cooperative interactions with others.

The integrative model of family stress underlying Spanish and English vocabulary development in Mexican American children: Unique effects of financial and sociocultural hardships.

Early oral language development lays an essential foundation for academic and socioemotional competencies but is vulnerable to the impact of family stress. Despite robust evidence that family stress affects early oral language development in monolingual samples, little is known about whether the family stress processes affecting language acquisition are similar among dual language learners. Furthermore, although Mexican American families often face stressors related to their ethnic minority and immigrant status, no studies to date have tested whether exposure to sociocultural stressors may likewise have negative consequences for early language acquisition. The present study examined whether financial and sociocultural stressors were associated with maternal stress perception, parenting sensitivity, and child Spanish and English receptive vocabulary at child age 3 and 4.5 years. Participants included 322 low-income Mexican American mothers and their children followed from pregnancy through 4.5 years postnatal; most mothers preferred to speak Spanish (82%). Results of a path model indicated that links between family stress and child receptive vocabulary varied by language (Spanish or English) and stress type (financial or cultural). Specifically, Spanish acquisition was more closely related to the quality of mother-child interactions, whereas English acquisition was more susceptible to the direct impact of family stress. The consequences of family stress on children's vocabulary acquisition were evident earlier in development for Spanish than English, and appeared more pronounced for financial versus sociocultural stressors. Findings underscore a need to attend to the impact of poverty on children's Spanish and English language development in low-income, Mexican American children. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Predicting child problem behaviour at school age: The role of maternal sensitivity, child temperament and theory of mind

AbstractThe present longitudinal study aims at investigating the interplay between child temperament, mother–child interaction quality and child Theory of Mind (ToM) at preschool age with regard to the development of child problem behavior at school age in 115 participants. Maternal sensitivity and child temperament were assessed when children were 4 years old. At 5 years of age, child ToM was assessed. At 8 years of age, child problem behavior was assessed. Results showed that child problem behavior was independently predicted by child temperamental negative affectivity and maternal sensitivity. The current study underlines the important role of both endogenous as well as exogenous factors for healthy child development.

The quality of mother-child feeding interactions during COVID-19 pandemic: An exploratory study on an Italian sample

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the life of individuals in several realms such as work, education, and interpersonal interactions. No research has so far investigated the possible influence of the emergency on the quality of mother-child exchanges during feeding. The present study aimed to do so in a sample of mothers and children (N = 359) recruited in the general population. The SVIA was used to evaluate the quality of the dyadic feeding interactions; the SCL-90/R and the BSFC were employed to assess mothers’ psychopathological risk and caregiving distress. The CBCL 1,5–5 was used to tap mothers’ perception of offspring’s emotional/behavioral functioning. All measures were administered at 18 (T1) and 36 months (T2) of the children (respectively pre-pandemic and during the pandemic periods). Results showed that the quality of the feeding interactions worsened from T1 to T2. Mothers’ psychopathological risk, depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsion scores and caregiving distress significantly increased. Children’s emotional/behavioral functioning worsened during the pandemic, with significantly higher Internalizing and Externalizing scores. This is the first study to focus on the quality of mother-child feeding interactions during the pandemic. This exploratory study can expand the knowledge on the possible negative outcomes of COVID-19 on family life and caregiving.

Patterns of Maternal Childhood Maltreatment and Disrupted Interaction Between Mothers and Their 4-Month-Old Infants.

Maternal childhood maltreatment (MCM) is associated with parenting disruptions which may contribute to the intergenerational transmission of negative health and social outcomes. Most prior work has used variable-centered approaches to assess MCM. Complementary person-centered approaches can identify groups of participants characterized by similar patterns of maltreatment. The current study assessed both types and patterns of MCM in relation to disrupted parenting among 179 mothers and their 4-month-olds. In variable-centered analyses, physical abuse was related to negative-intrusive maternal behavior and physical neglect to role-confused behavior. Person-centered analyses derived three classes of MCM, which differed in disrupted parenting. For example, mothers who experienced multiple types of maltreatment displayed more withdrawal than mothers in both other classes. Results document the differential effects of particular types and patterns of MCM on aspects of parenting and reveal that mother's history of maltreatment can affect the quality of mother-child interaction as early as 4 months of age.

Quality of Mother-Child Interaction Before, During, and After Smartphone Use.

Studies have demonstrated that parents often exhibit a still face while silently reading their cell phones when responding to texts. Such disruptions to parent-child interactions have been observed during parental media use such as texting and these disruptions have been termed technoference. In the present study, we explored changes to mother-child interactions that occur before, during and after interruptions due to texting using an adapted naturalistic still face paradigm. Specifically, we examined the effect of an interruption due to either maternal smartphone use or use of an analog medium on maternal interaction quality with their 20- to 22-month-old children. Mother-child interactions during free play were interrupted for 2 min by asking the mothers to fill out a questionnaire either (a) by typing on the smartphone (smartphone group) or (b) on paper with a pen (paper-pencil group). Interactional quality was compared between free-play and interruption phases and to a no-interruption control group. Mixed ANOVA across phase and condition indicated that maternal responsiveness and pedagogical behavior decreased during the interruption phase for both the interruption groups (smartphone and paper-and-pencil) but not for the no-interruption group. Children also increased their positive bids for attention during the paper-and-pencil and the smartphone conditions relative to the no-interruption control. These findings are consistent with a large body of research on the still-face paradigm and with a recent study demonstrating that smartphone interruptions decreased parenting quality. The present study, however, connects these lines of research showing the many everyday disruptions to parent-child interactions are likely to decrease parenting quality and that toddlers are likely to detect and attempt to repair such interruptions.

The effects of home visiting on mother-child interactions: Evidence from a randomized trial using dynamic micro-level data

BackgroundHome visiting programs constitute an important policy to support vulnerable families with young children. One of their principal aims is to improve infant-parent relationships, so a key measure of their effectiveness is based on observational measures of parent-children interactions. In the present study we provide novel evidence on the effectiveness of home visiting programs in improving mother-child interactions within a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of the Pro Kind program. A major goal of the Pro Kind program is to promote child development by strengthening the intuitive parenting skills of mothers. On this basis, the following research question is addressed in this paper: What is the impact of the Pro Kind home visitation program on the quality of mother-child interaction? MethodsA randomly chosen subsample of the original sample was selected to participate on video recordings. This subsample of 109 mother-child dyads was videotaped during a 3-min typical play situation at the participants’ homes when the child was aged 25 months. We use a novel micro-coding system which allows us to examine how the intervention affected the dynamic feedback responses of both mothers and children in three key measures of behavior: orientation, positive contingency, and negative/lack of contingency. The analysis was conducted using a set of static probit models and dynamic cross-lagged panel probit models for each measure. ResultsThe intervention significantly improved the interactions between girls and their mothers, by increasing the prevalence of orientation and positive contingency (and reducing that of negative/lack of contingency). This was achieved by increasing both the persistence of positive behaviors and also the probability of switching from negative to positive behaviors in the treatment group. Mixed impacts were detected for boys. ConclusionsOverall, it can be said that the Pro Kind program has a positive impact on the quality of mother-daughter interaction. However, our findings might also influence the design and delivery of home visiting programs, to the extent that they suggest that more attention has to be devoted to the interactions between boys and their mothers. Furthermore, the results show the importance of careful dynamic modelling of interactions data from videotaped observations to have a more complete understanding of the effectiveness of home visiting programs.

Effects of self-healing intervention on quality of life and mother-child interaction among female breadwinners

ObjectivesThis study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of self-healing (the healing codes) intervention on quality of life (QoL) and mother-child interaction among female breadwinners. MethodsThe study population comprised all female breadwinners who referred to the welfare centers of Isfahan in 2020; using convenience sampling, we selected 30 women and divided them into experimental and control groups (n = 15 per group). The experimental group underwent fourteen sessions (90-min sessions per week) of self-healing training. ResultsThe mean ± SD of QoL and mother-child interaction for experimental and control groups in the post-test stage were 84.33 ± 3.92 and 160.86 ± 8.74 respectively. Self-healing intervention had significant effects on QoL and mother-child interaction among female breadwinners. The intervention program improved the components of QoL and mother-child interaction among female breadwinners (p < 0.01). ConclusionsSelf-healing training can be used as a novel approach to enhance QoL and mother-child interaction in this group of women.

Predicting mother and child emotional availability in Singaporean bilingual English and Mandarin dyads: A multilevel approach to the specificity principle

When interacting with one another, bilingual caregivers and their young bilingual children can switch from one language to another to convey emotion and information in meaningful ways. The Specificity Principle (Bornstein, 2017) states that specific setting conditions affect specific outcomes in specific ways in specific individuals at specific times. Here we tested three constituents of the Specificity Principle: We evaluated how the language used in interaction (setting condition) differentially affects different dimensions of emotional availability (outcomes) in mothers and children (individuals). Twenty-six Singaporean English-Mandarin bilingual mother-child dyads (Mother M age = 33 years; Child M age = 19 months) participated in two counterbalanced play sessions, one exclusively in English and one exclusively in Mandarin. Using recursive-partitioning analyses, we assessed (i) how child language dominance, dimensions of maternal emotional availability, and mother-child physiological synchrony accounted for dimensions of child emotional availability and (ii) how child language dominance, child emotional availability, and mother-child physiological synchrony accounted for overall maternal emotional availability. In agreement with predictions from the Specificity Principle, our results show that different predictors of different dimensions of child and mother emotional availability differ according to whether the mother interacted with her child in the child's dominant or non-dominant language. The findings suggest that language specificity influences the quality of mother-child interactions.

Parenting Behavior at 18 Months Predicts Internalizing and Externalizing Problems at 6 Years in Moderately Preterm and Full Term Children.

Moderately preterm born children (MPT) are at increased risk for behavior problems compared to full term born (FT) children. MPT children may receive less optimal parenting, and in response, may develop behavior problems. Our aims were to examine whether parenting behavior and mother–child interaction quality mediate the association between birth status and child behavior problems. Participants were 120 MPT children and 100 FT children. At 18 months of age, mothers reported on their parenting behavior (support and structure), and mother–child interaction (sensitivity and limit-setting) was observed. At 6 years of age, mothers reported on children’s behavior problems. Using structural equation modeling, birth status was found to predict attention problems, but not internalizing and externalizing problems. Mothers of MPT children set less appropriate limits than mothers of FT children at 18 months of age. More maternal structure at 18 months predicted fewer internalizing and externalizing problems, but not attention problems, at 6 years. These associations between parenting behavior, mother–child interaction quality, and child behavior problems were similar for MPT and FT children. Our findings indicate that maternal structure in toddlerhood is an important predictor of later internalizing and externalizing problems for both MPT and FT children.