Quality Of Mother-infant Relationship Research Articles

A developmental approach to dog's sociality

A special relationship between human and dog is considered to be established by dog's characteristic social skill and cognitive ability, based on adequate emotional and affiliative behavior. It has been emphasized that puppy's experience in its developing period is prerequisite for dog's socialization to human. On the other hand, it is also indicated that if maternal environment is deprived, it would cause various behavioral problems of impairing dog's sociality in adulthood, such as anxiety, fear-related behavior, or aggression toward human. These suggest that maternal environment in dogs could have a large impact on the human-dog relationship. In various mammalian species including human, the quality of mother-infant relationships has been shown to affect neurobehavioral development related to sociality. However, there are few studies in dogs. This article discusses how dog's sociality can be influenced by maternal environment in each developmental stage of puppy, and underlying predictable mechanisms for it. The developmental approach to dog's sociality will be beneficial for better understanding of a special relationship between human and dog.

Cognitive outcomes of Sally Ward’s early language-based intervention with mothers and babies in longitudinal perspective: Lessons of Head Start revisited

This report considers in longitudinal perspective the Baby Talk intervention pioneered by Sally Ward in Manchester. A close empirical look at the seven-year outcome data for 62 children is provided for the first time, as well as a look at the Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT) scores obtained for 33 children who participated in the 11-year follow-up. Results confirm that the early intervention appears to have significantly improved the cognitive profile of children at age 7, while the 11-year follow-up data do not replicate this pattern of results. Discussion concerns the possibly unrepresentative nature of the small subsample at 11-years, the need to broaden the focus of attention so that social as well as cognitive outcomes of early interventions are studied, and the enduring appeal and validity of early interventions aimed at facilitating mother-infant relationship quality.

Persistent crying in early infancy: a non-trivial condition of risk for the developing mother-infant relationship.

Infants between 1 and 6 months of age (mean age 3.6 months) who were referred to the Munich Interdisciplinary Research and Intervention Programme because of persistent crying and their mothers were examined and compared with an age-matched community-based control sample with no current cry problem. Three groups, referred extreme criers, referred moderate criers, and controls, were compared with regard to measures of psychosocial and organic risks, the mothers' perception of her own psychological state and infant temperament, the quality of mother-infant relationship, and intuitive parenting in mother-infant face-to-face interactions. In comparison with general-community samples of infants with persistent crying, the present clinical sample represents a biased group with particularly high levels of infant distress for long periods of time, with problems of sleep-wake organization, neuromotor immaturity, and difficult temperament. Moreover, extreme crying was associated with a cumulation of organic and psychosocial risks, including high rates of prenatal stress and anxiety, maternal psychopathology and partnership conflicts. Mothers in both referred groups scored similarly low on feelings of self-efficacy, and high on depression, anxiety, exhaustion, anger, adverse childhood memories, and marital distress. Mother-infant relationships were more often distressed or disturbed among referred dyads than among controls, and 40% as compared with 19% showed dysregulatory patterns of interactional failures in face-to-face contexts. The findings suggest that factors related to parental care did not cause persistent crying, but functioned as maintaining or exacerbating factors. Dynamic interactions between persistent crying, difficult temperament, and parenting factors which compromise maternal resources and intuitive parenting may put such families at long-term risk for both relationship and behaviour problems.

Professional decisions made by social workers regarding infant-mother attachment

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which social workers rely on professional as opposed to nonprofessional criteria in their decision-making regarding the quality of mother-child interaction. Ninety social workers observed the same video tapes displaying an infant interacting with its mother in the Strange Situation procedure, but were given different background material regarding the child's family. A third of the subjects received negative background information in advance of their viewing the film, another third received positive information, and the final third formed a control group and were given no advance information. After viewing the video tapes, subjects were asked to assess infant behavior, maternal behaviors and the quality of motherinfant relationship. Results clearly indicated that the social workers who were told that the family was neglectful were more inclined than the others to describe negatively both the child and the mother as well as their relationship. The findings underscore the need for greater awareness among social workers concerning the influence of bias involved in professional decision-making.

Scratching as a behavioral index of anxiety in macaque mothers

The aim of this study was to assess the validity of the notion that anxiety influences maternal style in monkeys. To this end, we investigated the correlations between measures of the quality of mother-infant relationship and scratching, a behavior pattern that reflects a state of anxiety. The subjects were seven group-living macaque mothers and their infants observed during the first 12 weeks postpartum. Postpartum scratching by the mothers was positively correlated with both maternal possessiveness and maternal warmth, two composite measures of the quality of mother-infant relationship that reflect a possessive and attentive maternal style. Evaluation of the correlations between maternal rank and scratching before and after parturition indicated that interactions with their infants, not those with other group companions, were the main source of anxiety for the mothers. These results support the notion that anxiety influences maternal style in monkeys and suggest that studies aimed at investigating physiological and social correlates of maternal emotionality in nonhuman primates could use scratching as a useful and simple behavioral measure.

Prenatal and infant health care in a medium-sized community.

COMMUNITY household surveys of health behavior and attitudes are an essential instrument in public health research.1-3 Such surveys are less frequently undertaken than studies based upon the records or the clientele of health agencies, public health departments, and hospitals. The reasons are not hard to find: any study which casts a data-gathering net into the community must mobilize intensive research resources, and it must rely upon the cooperativeness of many respondents who have no strong personal interest in the investigation. Yet only by such investigation can basic facts concerning community health needs and behavior be established. The study presented here deals with maternal and child health. Community studies in this area have particular contemporary relevance. Recent decades have seen striking improvements in infant and maternal health at the survival level; the reduction of the morbidity and mortality associated with pregnancy and birth is well known. Currently, there is rising interest in the promotion of positive maternal and child health. Increasing attention is paid to topics such as preventive measures for infant health and development, the quality of motherinfant relationships, and school health programs. This study deals with selected aspects of health care along the time sequence of pregnancy, delivery, and infant care. We present findings about prenatal care and utilization of preventive health measures. Special attention is given to the social status of the infant's family, and to the relationship between social class and health care. Further, these topics are examined with regard to the community context of health institutions and resources.