Don’t worry, be (moderately) happy: Mothers’ anxiety and positivity during pregnancy independently predict lower mother–infant synchrony

Moore, Ginger A.; Quigley, Kelsey M.; Voegtline, Kristin; DiPietro, Janet A.

doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2015.11.002

Cited by 11 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 38 publications

(63 reference statements)

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“…Therefore, it may be that higher synchrony mothers’ higher PNS tones and lower arousal allowed them to reflect infants’ emotions rather than relying more heavily on positive affect to help infants recover from distress. This is consistent with prior work on this sample finding that high maternal verbal positivity and greater anxiety during pregnancy independently predicted lower behavioral synchrony at six months postpartum (Moore, Quigley, Voegtline, & DiPietro, 2016). The authors speculated that high levels of expressed positive affect may reflect a tendency to avoid negative emotion—a characteristic that might impede synchronous engagement during infant distress.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

In sync: Physiological correlates of behavioral synchrony in infants and mothers.

Busuito¹,

Quigley²,

Moore³

et al. 2019

Developmental Psychology

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Infant–mother behavioral synchrony is thought to scaffold the development of self-regulation in the first years of life. During this time, infants’ and mothers’ physiological regulation may contribute to dyadic synchrony and, in infants, dyadic synchrony may support infants’ physiological regulation. Because the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) serve different regulatory functions, the current study aimed to elucidate relations between infants’ and mothers’ SNS and PNS functioning and dyadic behavioral synchrony. Skin conductance (SC; SNS index), respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA; PNS index), heart period (HP; index of joint SNS and PNS arousal), and behavioral synchrony were assessed in 6-month-old infants (N = 140) and their mothers during a mild social stressor, the Face-to-Face Still-Face paradigm (Tronick, Als, Adamson, Wise, & Brazelton, 1978). Synchrony was related to infants’ and mothers’ PNS and to mothers’ broad autonomic arousal but not to SNS-specific arousal. Higher levels of behavioral synchrony were associated with lower infant RSA but with higher mother HP and RSA at baseline and in each Face-to-Face Still-Face paradigm episode. Therefore, lower RSA infants may have required more synchronous engagement with mothers to support regulation, while higher RSA, less aroused mothers may have been particularly well-attuned to infants’ emotions. Findings suggest that each individual’s physiological state may contribute to the behavioral functioning of the dyad.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

In sync: Physiological correlates of behavioral synchrony in infants and mothers.

Busuito¹,

Quigley²,

Moore³

et al. 2019

Developmental Psychology

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“…Lower levels of synchrony are observed during Play compared to Reunion in the FFSF procedure (Moore and Calkins, 2004 ). During normal face-to-face interactions, synchrony and matching of affective states are highly correlated (Moore et al, 2016 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The extent of infants' positive emotionality was not found to be a significant predictor of mother-infant synchrony (Weinberg et al, 2006 ). As for maternal antecedents of mother-infant synchrony, Moore et al ( 2016 ) showed that maternal pre-partum anxiety was significantly correlated with lower mother-infant synchrony during the play episode of the FFSF procedure. Greater maternal dysregulation was associated with higher mother-infant gaze synchrony (Lotzin et al, 2015 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disentangling the Dyadic Dance: Theoretical, Methodological and Outcomes Systematic Review of Mother-Infant Dyadic Processes

et al. 2018

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Background: During the last decades, the research on mother-infant dyad has produced a great amount of data, methods and theories, which largely contributed to set a revolution in the way we look at developmental changes during infancy and childhood. Very different constructs depict the different aspects of the “dyadic dance” occurring between a mother and her infant; nonetheless, a comprehensive and consistent systematization of these concepts in a coherent theoretical landscape is still lacking.Aim: In the present work, we aim at disentangling the different theoretical and methodological definitions of 9 dyadic constructs and we highlight their effects on infants' and children developmental outcomes.Methods: A literature search has been conducted on three databases—PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science. Three different reviews are reported here: (1) a review on the theoretical definitions of dyadic constructs; (2) a review of operational definitions, settings and methods of dyadic processes; (3) a systematic review of dyadic processes' outcomes for infants' and children developmental trajectories.Results: Two constructs emerged as wide meta-theoretical concepts (reciprocity and mutuality) and seven described specific processes (attunement, contingency, coordination, matching, mirroring, reparation, synchrony). A global model resuming the relationships among different processes is reported, which highlights the emergence of two specific cycles of dyadic functioning (i.e., matching-mismatching-reparation-synchrony; contingency, coordination, attunement, mirroring). A comprehensive review of the adopted measures is also provided. Finally, all the processes provided significant contributions to infants' behavioral, cognitive, and socio-emotional development during the first 3 years of age, but limited research has been conducted on specific processes (e.g. reparation and mirroring).Conclusion: The present study provides an original research-grounded framework to consider the different nature of mother-infant dyadic processes within a unified dyadic eco-system. Different levels of evidence emerged for the role of diverse mother-infant dyadic processes on infants' and children development. Open questions and future research directions are highlighted.

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“…It is possible that some of the mothers scoring higher on the EPDS also experienced above‐average anxiety. Moore, Quigley, Voegtlin, and Dipietro () found that anxious mothers smiled more at their infants than did depressed and nonanxious mothers, and it is possible that infants might start to respond to maternal smiles, resulting in more frequent, but shorter, SP (Kaye & Fogel, ; Moore et al., ). On the other hand, a higher maternal depressive symptom score was associated with shorter SP‐MD.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maternal and infant characteristics connected to shared pleasure in dyadic interaction

Puura

Leppänen

Salmelin

et al. 2019

Infant Mental Health Journal

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The aim of the study was to analyze which maternal factors (depressive symptoms, effect of life events, maternal sensitivity and structuring) and infant characteristics (temperament, social withdrawal symptoms, interactive behavior, genotype, gender) contribute to shared pleasure (SP) in parent–infant interaction. Participants were 113 mother–infant dyads. The mothers filled in the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, the Infant Behavior Questionnaire, and the Life Events Questionnaire. The dyads were videotaped in a free‐play situation, and the videos were analyzed using the Alarm Distress Baby Scale and the Emotional Availability Scales. The infants were genotyped for four genes involved in emotion regulation. The occurrence and duration of SP (SP‐MD) in mother–infant interactions were analyzed from the videotapes. Higher maternal sensitivity and depressive symptoms, better infant responsiveness, and the infant having the GG variant of the gene tryptophan hydroxylase isoform 2 (TPH2) ‐307 were associated with the occurrence of SP. Lower level depressive symptoms, better maternal structuring, and greater infant involvement were associated with the longer duration of SP. Those dyads where the mother and infant were best able to read each other's positive cues and to respond to them were more likely to experience mutual positive affect, as seen in SP.

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Don’t worry, be (moderately) happy: Mothers’ anxiety and positivity during pregnancy independently predict lower mother–infant synchrony

Cited by 11 publications

References 38 publications

In sync: Physiological correlates of behavioral synchrony in infants and mothers.

In sync: Physiological correlates of behavioral synchrony in infants and mothers.

Disentangling the Dyadic Dance: Theoretical, Methodological and Outcomes Systematic Review of Mother-Infant Dyadic Processes

Maternal and infant characteristics connected to shared pleasure in dyadic interaction

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