Maternal Regulation of Infant Reactivity From 2 to 6 Months.

Abstract

Previous research has investigated the effect of maternal soothing behaviors on reducing infant reactivity but not the differential effects of specific maternal behaviors on infant stress responses. The present study investigated maternal regulation of 2-and 6-month-olds' responses to an inoculation and found a significant decline with age in both the intensity and duration of infants' crying. Maternal affection and touching decreased from 2 to 6 months, whereas maternal vocalizing and distraction behaviors increased. At both ages, the combination of maternal holding/rocking and vocalizing was associated with decreases in all levels of infant reactivity. Neither strategy alone, however, was found to be effective. Feeding/ pacifying behaviors were effective only when initial distress was at a low or moderate level, which suggests that the effectiveness of maternal regulatory behaviors may depend on the intensity of infants' crying.

A categorical approach to infants’ individual differences during the Still-Face paradigm

“…These interpretations, however, must be considered with respect to characteristics of the FFSF procedure. Prior research (Jahromi et al, 2004) suggests that, in response to infant distress, mothers should use more vigorous soothing behaviors, such as holding and actively rocking their infants, rather than the limited techniques that can be used during a face-to-face interaction (e.g., touching, vocal soothing, distraction, vocalizations). Regardless, these findings indicate that patterns of play behaviors before the Still-Face contribute to infant, mother, and dyadic responses to the maternal Still-Face and Reunion episodes, highlighting the fact that infant characteristics are important in accounting for the transactional nature of mother-infant interactions and the ability of infants to cope with the stress (Mesman et al, 2013).…”

“…Moreover, we did not find differences among the three clusters for maternal socio-demographic characteristics and depressive symptomatology, so that these factors did not appear sufficient to account for the individual differences in the infants' behavior observed in the Negatively Engaged cluster. Possibly, some specific infant characteristics (i.e., high negativity, no positivity and low social contact) solicit these types of monitoring behaviors from the caregiver, who adjust their behavior to modulate the reactivity of their infants (Jahromi, Putnam, & Stifter, 2004), perhaps because they regarded high negativity of their infants as a challenge or/and as a signal of special need (Crockenberg, 1986).…”

Singing, sharing, soothing – biopsychosocial rationales for parental infant-directed singing in neonatal pain management

“…Multimodal interventions applied by a parent have been shown to alleviate procedural pain in infants (Bellieni et al, 2007). A combination of maternal soothing behaviours has shown to decrease infant reactivity in a painful situation (Jahromi, Putnam, & Stifter, 2004). The combination that was most used among the mothers and most effective at reducing all levels of infant distress, was holding/rocking together with soothing vocalising behaviours (Jahromi et al, 2004).…”

“…A combination of maternal soothing behaviours has shown to decrease infant reactivity in a painful situation (Jahromi, Putnam, & Stifter, 2004). The combination that was most used among the mothers and most effective at reducing all levels of infant distress, was holding/rocking together with soothing vocalising behaviours (Jahromi et al, 2004). Singing with an infant is a social and often multimodal action, which includes rhythmically organised auditory, visual, olfactory, tactile, kinaesthetic and vestibular modalities (Longhi, 2009;MacKinlay & Baker, 2005;Trehub et al, 2015).…”

Effects of maternal parity, depression and stress on two-month-old infant expression of pain

“…Hertenstein, 2002;Moszkowski & Stack, 2007;Kisilevsky, Stack & Muir, 1991). Furthermore, Jahromi, Putnam and Stifter (2004) found that the duration and intensity of infant cry during immunisation decreased with affectionate touch and vocalisations by mothers.…”