Mother-child language style matching predicts children’s and mothers’ emotion reactivity

Rasmussen, Hannah F.; Borelli, Jessica L.; Smiley, Patricia A.; Cohen, Chloe; Cheung, Ryan Cheuk Ming; Fox, Schuyler; Marvin, Matthew; Blackard, Betsy

doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2016.12.036

Cited by 13 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…Thus, for new mothers, mentalizing for one’s partner may come at a cost. Similar to the cost of empathy (Manczak et al, 2016; Righetti et al, 2016), more often carried by women (Mestre et al, 2009), being sensitive to the feelings of others opens people up to experiencing others’ distress (Rasmussen et al, 2017). Perhaps mothers who are more aware of their partners’ mental states are also more cognizant of the challenges of this transition to parenthood and thus perceive their relationships or their own plight more accurately.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

I “get” you, babe: Reflective functioning in partners transitioning to parenthood

Borelli

Slade

Pettit

et al. 2020

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships

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Reflective functioning (RF) is a construct that has gained tremendous traction in the developmental psychology literature, demonstrating robust associations with parent–child attachment and interactional quality. Although theorists argue that RF should have meaningful links with relationship quality across the life span, to date this construct has not been applied to the study of adult romantic partnerships. The goal of the present investigation is to introduce the construct of Partner RF, the capacity to reflect on the thoughts and feelings of one’s partner and to consider their roles in guiding behavior in one’s partner and oneself. Next, we explore the degree to which Partner RF is associated with a range of theoretically related constructs—one’s partner’s Partner RF, as well as one’s own parental RF, attachment, relationship satisfaction, and coparenting—in first-time parents. In a longitudinal study of N = 107 primiparous couples, we found positive associations between mothers’ and fathers’ Partner RF and between mother’s Partner RF and their parental RF. Partner RF is higher among women who report lower prenatal attachment avoidance and demonstrate more prenatal positive communication with their partners. Counterintuitively, higher levels of maternal Partner RF predict greater decreases in couple and coparenting satisfaction across the transition to parenthood. Partner RF may be an important construct to measure and understand in terms of its role in couple relationship functioning and parental well-being.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

I “get” you, babe: Reflective functioning in partners transitioning to parenthood

Borelli

Slade

Pettit

et al. 2020

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships

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“…Among groups of strangers asked to complete a challenging cognitive task, higher LSM is associated with greater group cohesiveness and better performance (Gonzales et al, 2010). Finally, higher LSM in parent–child dyads is associated with children’s greater attachment security and lower physiological reactivity (Borelli et al, 2017; Rasmussen et al, 2017). Only one study has examined LSM in the therapeutic context, finding evidence that higher matching is associated with higher levels of observer-rated therapist empathy (Lord, Sheng, Imel, Baer, & Atkins, 2015).…”

Section: Language Style Matching: a Novel Metric Of Relational Attunementioning

confidence: 99%

Therapist–client language matching: Initial promise as a measure of therapist–client relationship quality.

Borelli¹,

Sohn²,

Wang³

et al. 2019

Psychoanalytic Psychology

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While research suggests that the therapeutic alliance is important in predicting outcomes of psychotherapy, relatively little is known about the development of the alliance or the moment-to-moment components of the relationship and how they combine to create an alliance, which may represent a serious limitation in existing methods of measurement. Language style matching (LSM), or the degree to which unconscious aspects of an interactional partner’s language mimic that of the other partner, is a promising, unobtrusive measure of interaction quality that could provide novel insight into the therapist–client alliance. In this article, we present a theoretical argument regarding the trajectory of therapist–client LSM across therapy sessions, as well as potential precursors and consequences of LSM. We then report on a pilot test of our hypotheses that examined how LSM, clients’ relational histories, and clients’ symptoms were associated within a therapeutic context. Using a small sample of substance dependent mothers (N = 7, 100% Caucasian women) enrolled in a randomized controlled trial of psychodynamic psychotherapy lasting 12 sessions, we examined client and therapist LSM across 4 of the 12 sessions. We found that, on average, LSM decreases over the course of treatment. Furthermore, greater client interpersonal problems prospectively predict lower early LSM in therapist–client dyads, which in turn predicts greater posttreatment psychiatric distress. Results generate questions for future research and support further investigations of LSM as one index of the quality of interactions between therapist and client.

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“…A complex capacity such as language could be used to assess the quality of bonding. For example, Rasmussen and colleagues [13] report that greater mother-child linguistic style matching, defined as a composite measure of the similarity of function word use in spoken or written language between two or more people, is associated with lower emotional reactivity (lower cortisol reactivity, reports of lower negative emotion) in children. Beyond the traditional concept of attachment is Yap and colleagues’ study of emotional mechanisms that could explain how cultural symbols act as extensions of the prototypical attachment figures and confer the sense of security in the face of threat [14].…”

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confidence: 99%

The development of attachment: Integrating genes, brain, behavior, and environment

Esposito

Setoh

Shinohara

et al. 2017

Behavioural Brain Research

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In humans, as in other animal species, early caregiver-infant interactions influence physiological and psychological processes by modulating brain sensitivity. Furthermore, early social interaction between caregiver and infant influences infants’ cognitive and socioemotional development, and subsequently the development of social, familial, and romantic relationships later in life. Here, we have collected longitudinal and cross-sectional empirical studies as well as review and perspective articles that focus on human or non-human mammals with the aim to investigate how genetic, hormonal, behavioural, and environmental factors, as well as cultural contexts, regulate early interactional experiences, and how these experiences translate into social and non-social competences later in life (see Graphical Abstract).

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Mother-child language style matching predicts children’s and mothers’ emotion reactivity

Cited by 13 publications

References 66 publications

I “get” you, babe: Reflective functioning in partners transitioning to parenthood

I “get” you, babe: Reflective functioning in partners transitioning to parenthood

Therapist–client language matching: Initial promise as a measure of therapist–client relationship quality.

The development of attachment: Integrating genes, brain, behavior, and environment

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