The emotional tone of child descriptions during pregnancy is associated with later parenting.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined prospective associations between prenatal descriptions of the unborn child's personality and later parenting behavior and found that greater use of positive words to describe the unborn children's personality was associated with higher observed sensitivity, warmth, and engagement during mother-infant interactions, whereas negative words were associated with high interference and lower levels of sensitivity.
Abstract: INTRODUCTION How parents think and feel about their young children has implications for the parent-child relationship. We examined prospective associations between prenatal descriptions of the unborn child's personality and later parenting behavior. METHODS Pregnant women (N = 120; mean age = 26.16, SD = 5.71) were recruited in their third trimester for a longitudinal study. The sample is demographically diverse and predominantly economically disadvantaged. During prenatal interviews, women described their unborn child's personality, from which positive and negative emotion words were coded. Parenting behavior was coded 12 months postpartum (n = 105 for longitudinal analyses). RESULTS Use of positive and negative words was negatively correlated (r = -.34, p < .001). Greater use of positive words to describe the unborn child's personality was associated with higher observed sensitivity, warmth, and engagement during mother-infant interactions, whereas negative words were associated with higher interference and lower levels of sensitivity. Mothers who used anxiety- and/or anger-related words to describe their unborn child, relative to mothers who did not, demonstrated higher interference and lower warmth and sensitivity. CONCLUSION Descriptions of a child's personality before the child is born were associated with postnatal parenting behavior. Prenatal interventions that address negative thoughts and feelings regarding the child may be beneficial for promoting positive parenting postnatally.
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TL;DR: In this article , the role of mental-state language (MSL) as a measure of mentalization in prenatal and postnatal narratives and their sentiment in a sample of 91 primarily White mothers from the western United States, followed from the second trimester of pregnancy, through the third trimester, to 4 months postpartum.
Abstract: Nancy Suchman's work highlighted the fundamental role of maternal mentalization in maternal addiction, mental health, and caregiving challenges. In this study, we aimed to examine the role of mental-state language (MSL) as a measure of mentalization in prenatal and postnatal narratives and their sentiment in a sample of 91 primarily White mothers from the western United States, followed from the second trimester of pregnancy, through the third trimester, to 4 months postpartum. Specifically, we investigated the use of affective and cognitive MSL in prenatal narratives when mothers visualized caring for their baby and postnatal narratives when mothers compared their prenatal visualization to the current caregiving reality. Results indicated moderate consistency in MSL between the second and third trimesters, but prenatal and postnatal MSL was not significantly correlated. Across all time points, higher use of MSL was related to more positive sentiment, indicating an association between mentalization and positive caregiving representations across the perinatal period. Women used more affective than cognitive MSL in prenatal imagination of caregiving, but this pattern was reversed in their postpartum reflection. Implications on assessing parental mentalization prenatally and considering the relative dominance of affective and cognitive mentalizing are discussed while considering study limitations.
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TL;DR: In this article , the authors used wearable LENA devices to assess parent mind-mindedness as a predictor of parent-infant conversation at 7 months, followed 93 low-risk British heterosexual couples across the transition to parenthood.
Abstract: Abstract Parental mind‐mindedness (MM), defined as the propensity to view one's child as an agent with thoughts, feelings, and desires, is associated with positive child outcomes (McMahon & Bernier, 2017) and can be assessed in expectant parents by using five‐minute speech samples (Magaña et al., 1986). Individual differences in MM appear stable across the transition to parenthood (Foley et al., in press), offering an exciting intervention opportunity, as expectant mothers' thoughts and feelings about their unborn infants are associated with the quality of mother‐infant interactions. To assess prenatal MM as a predictor of parent‐infant conversation at 7 months, we followed 93 low‐risk British heterosexual couples across the transition to parenthood. Mothers' and fathers' MM was measured both in the third trimester of pregnancy and at 4 months. Wearable LENA devices were used to gather detailed measures of mother‐, father‐, and infant‐initiated conversations at 7 months. Prenatal MM in both parents was associated with more frequent infant‐initiated conversations at 7 months, while prenatal maternal (not paternal) MM was also associated with more mother‐ and father‐initiated conversations. While longitudinal research with more diverse samples is needed, these findings highlight the importance of parental mentalizing in the prenatal period for early family interactions.
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TL;DR: With the increasing recognition that a sizable proportion of infants from families with serious social risk factors display disorganized forms of attachment strategies, the question of whether disorganized behaviors emerge in the context of particular patterns of parent-infant interaction also must be addressed.
Abstract: A central question in the study of atypical attachment relationships in infancy is whether interactive processes between caregiver and infant are associated with the infant’s display of disorganized strategies (Main & Hesse, 1990). Attachment theory locates one central influence on the infant’s attachment strategies in the interplay between parent and infant over the 1st year, especially in the degree of sensitive responsiveness to the entire range of the infant’s affectively charged communications (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters & Wall, 1978). Linkages between appropriate parental responsiveness and secure infant attachment strategies have been supported in a number of empirical studies (Ainsworth et al., 1978; Belsky, Rovine, & Taylor, 1984; Grossmann, Grossmann, Spangler, Seuss, & Unzner, 1985; Londerville & Main, 1981; van IJzendoorn, 1995). These earlier studies, however, were undertaken prior to the discovery of the disorganized/disoriented infant attachment pattern. They explored the relation between maternal behavior and the three organized infant attachment strategies only (ambivalent/avoidant/ secure). With the increasing recognition that a sizable proportion of infants from families with serious social risk factors display disorganized forms of attachment strategies, the question of whether disorganized behaviors emerge in the context of particular patterns of parent-infant interaction also must be addressed. The issues of whether and how mother-infant interactive processes are related to disorganization of infant attachment patterns gains additional importance from recent findings that early disorganized or controlling
524 citations
TL;DR: This meta-analysis was based on 63 studies that reported correlations between child-parent attachment and children's peer relations and found that the overall effect size (ES) for child-mother attachment was in the small-to-moderate range and was quite homogeneous.
Abstract: The central premise of attachment theory is that the security of the early child-parent bond is reflected in the child's interpersonal relationships across the life span. This meta-analysis was based on 63 studies that reported correlations between child-parent attachment and children's peer relations. The overall effect size (ES) for child-mother attachment was in the small-to-moderate range and was quite homogeneous. ESs were similar in studies that featured the Strange Situation and Q-sort methods. The effects were larger for peer relations in middle childhood and adolescence than for peer relations in early childhood. ESs were also higher for studies that focused on children's close friendships rather than on relations with other peers. Gender and cultural differences in ESs were minimal. The results for the few studies on father-child attachment were inconclusive.
490 citations
TL;DR: In a series of meta-analyses on 32 studies, the authors found that the quality of attachment is not related to intelligence (DQ or IQ) and to language competence, while secure children appeared to be more competent in the language domain than insecure children.
Abstract: In attachment theory, several hypotheses about the association between attachment and cognitive development have been generated. In a series of meta-analyses on 32 studies, we tested whether the quality of attachment is related to intelligence (DQ or IQ) and to language competence. Attachment showed a weak association with DQ and IQ measures (combined r = .09; N = 1026). The combined effect size for the relation between attachment and language competence was r = .28 (N = 303). We conclude, first, that differences in intelligence do not play a major role in shaping attachment relationships. Differences in quality of attachment are not confounded in any significant way with differences in intelligence. Second, secure children appeared to be more competent in the language domain than insecure children. Language development appears to be stimulated in the context of a secure attachment relationship because secure parents may be better ‘teachers’ and secure children may be better motivated ‘students’.
283 citations
TL;DR: The existing literature supports the general notion that insecure attachment relationships in early life, particularly avoidant attachment, are associated with subsequent internalizing behaviors, although effect sizes are not strong.
Abstract: Empirical research supporting the contention that insecure attachment is related to internalizing behaviors has been inconsistent. Across 60 studies including 5,236 families, we found a significant, small to medium effect size linking insecure attachment and internalizing behavior (observed d = .37, 95% CI [0.27, 0.46]; adjusted d = .19, 95% CI [0.09, 0.29]). Several moderator variables were associated with differences in effect size, including concurrent externalizing behavior, gender, how the disorganized category was treated, observation versus questionnaire measures of internalizing behavior, age of attachment assessment, time elapsed between attachment and internalizing measure, and year of publication. The association between avoidant attachment and internalizing behavior was also significant and small to moderate (d = .29, 95% CI [0.12, 0.45]). The effect sizes comparing resistant to secure attachment and resistant to avoidant attachment were not significant. In 20 studies with 2,679 families, we found a small effect size linking disorganized attachment and internalizing behavior (observed d = .20, 95% CI [0.09, 0.31]); however, the effect size was not significant when adjusted for probable publication bias (d = .12, 95% CI [-0.02, 0.23]). The existing literature supports the general notion that insecure attachment relationships in early life, particularly avoidant attachment, are associated with subsequent internalizing behaviors, although effect sizes are not strong.
283 citations
TL;DR: The stability and predictive validity of classifications of mothers' representations of their infants as determined by the Working Model of the Child Interview (WMCI) were examined and problems with the skewed distribution of the sample, the low concordance between pregnancy and 11 months for one of the three classifications, and future directions for research are discussed.
Abstract: The stability and predictive validity of Classifications of mothers' representations of their infants as determined by the Working Model of the Child Interview (WMCI) were examined. Concordance between mothers' representations of their infants assessed prenatally and again one year later and infant Strange Situation (SS) attachment classifications at 12 months was also examined. WMCI classifications were stable over 12 months in 80% of mothers, compared to 51 % expected by chance alone. Pregnancy WMCIs predicted infant SS classifications in 74% of cases, compared to 54% expected by chance. Concordance between 11-month WMCI and 12-month SS classifications was 73 % (vs. 55% expected by chance). Problems with the skewed distribution of the sample, the low concordance between pregnancy and 11 months for one of the three classifications, and future directions for research are discussed.
282 citations