This investigation examined associations between pre- and postnatal reports of 1st-time mothers' depression, anxiety, and marital quality and postnatal reports of infant temperament and changes in feelings of efficacy. Maternal efficacy measured prenatally was associated with concurrent measures of depression, anxiety, marital conflict, and levels of previous child-care experience. Mothers' perception of infant temperament postnatally accounted for a significant proportion of variance in postnatal reports of maternal efficacy. Although individual differences in women's feelings of efficacy were fairly stable, significant increases in maternal efficacy were also observed over time. Findings suggest that 1st-time mothers' beliefs about their ability to perform nurturing routines may changes from a global sense of self-competence to more differentiated perceptions of nurturing efficacy.

In this study the authors attempted to unravel the relational, dynamical, and historical nature of mother-infant communication during the first 6 months. Thirteen mothers and their infants were videotaped weekly from 4 to 24 weeks during face-to-face interactions. Three distinct patterns of mother-infant communication were identified: symmetrical, asymmetrical, and unilateral. Guided by a dynamic systems perspective, the authors explored the stability of and transitions between these communication patterns. Findings from event history analysis showed that (a) there are regularly recurring dyadic communication patterns in early infancy, (b) these recurring patterns show differential stabilities and likelihoods of transitions, (c) dynamic stability in dyadic communication is shaped not only by individual characteristics (e.g., infant sex and maternal parity) but also by the dyad's communication history, and (d) depending on their recency, communication histories varying in temporal proximity exert differential effects on the self-organization processes of a dyadic system.

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This U.S.A.-based study examined the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of sleep, as well as the role of sleep, in the association of stress with depression, fatigue, and health-related quality of life (H-QOL) among mothers with a low-birth-weight, preterm infant in the neonatal intensive care unit at early postpartum. Fifty-five first-time mothers kept a sleep diary and filled out a battery of questionnaires. The wrist actigraphy method was also applied to collect information on maternal sleep. We tested a path model, with sleep disturbance and depression mediating the effect of stress on health-related well-being. Results showed that the majority of the study participants were stressed, depressed, fatigued, and at risk for poor physical and mental health. Poor sleep quality as perceived by mothers was significantly associated with their stress, fatigue, and poor mental and physical H-QOL. A cascading effect was found in the path model where maternal stress contributed to poor sleep quality and depression, which in turn contributed to poor mental H-QOL. In addition, poor sleep quality was associated with fatigue, which in turn contributed to poor physical and mental H-QOL. The underlying neurobiological mechanisms through which sleep affects the stress–health relation are discussed. The implications of sleep for intervention and prevention are also addressed.