Maternal Depression and Motherese: Temporal and Intonational Features

Abstract

Children of depressed parents are at increased risk for depression and other developmental problems. Recent research indicates that disturbances exist in face-to-face interactions between depressed mothers and their infants. In the present study, the effects of maternal depression on motherese, an interactive behavior that plays a significant role in affective, cognitive, and social development, were examined. 2 paralinguistic features of motherese were examined: temporal parameters of utterances and pauses and the frequency of use of 5 types of intonation contours typically found in motherese utterances. Face-to-face interactions between 36 mothers and their 3-4-month-old infants were audio-recorded, and hard copy records of pitch contours and relative intensity were produced for 2-min interaction sequences. Results indicated that depressed mothers failed to modify their behavior according to the behavior of the infant. They were significantly slower to respond to an infant vocalization, had more variable utterances and pauses, and were less likely to utilize the exaggerated intonation contours that are characteristic of motherese. The results provide evidence for a mechanism through which maternal depression increases the infant's risk for psychopathology.

Implications of Timing of Maternal Depressive Symptoms for Early Cognitive and Language Development

“…During interactions with infants, chronically depressed mothers seem to be less facially and vocally expressive, to be more likely to speak with a "flat" tone of voice (Breznitz, 2001;Field, 1995;Martinez et al, 1996;Puckering, 1989), and to use less infant-directed speech (Bettes, 1988). Infant-directed speech, often called "motherese" or "parentese," differs from adult-directed speech in that parents use a greatly exaggerated prosody (Kaplan, Bachorowski, Smoski, & Hudenko, 2002).…”

The Work of the Eye in Infant Pedagogy: A Dialogic Encounter of ‘Seeing’ in an Education and Care Setting

“…Their discovery that a musical-like matching exchange takes place during interaction highlights the centrality of timing and rhythmic sequences in determining the nature and duration of communication. As Bettes (1988) asserts, timing of response is central to infant well-being. Guellai and Streri (2011) suggest that the gaze alters in different interactive settings, according to the sustained nature of the 'look' and with, or without, the accompaniment of speech.…”

“…the delay). Results suggest that teachers took, on average, more than one second to respond to an infant-causing some concern in consideration of Bettes' (1988) assertion that a delay of one second or more can disadvantage infants in their attempts to communicate with adults. Yet taking into account the significance of watch articulated by the teachers and in our quantitative analysis, we propose that a different set of response rates might be contemplated in early childhood education settings.…”

Intuitive parenting from the perspective of individual differences comments on Papousek and Papousek’s paper

“…In one recent study, for example, Bettes (1988) reported that just the kind of intuitive parenting processes discussed by the Papouseks varied as a function of maternal psychological state. More specifically, depressed mothers of 3-4 month olds whose interactions with their babies were recorded during the course of close, face-to-face encounters failed to modify their behavior according to the behavior of their infant.…”