Mother–infant skin‐to‐skin contact and mother–child interaction 9 years later

Abstract

The study investigated the longitudinal relation between mother–infant skin‐to‐skin contact (SSC) and mother–child interactions in middle childhood. Mothers and their 9‐year‐old children (born full term), who participated in a SSC study in the children’s infancy, engaged in conversations about remembered emotional events in the children’s lives that were assessed on the Autobiographical Emotional Events Dialogue. Mothers and children who had been in the SSC group showed more engagement and reciprocity in the dialogues than mothers and children who had been in the control group. Mothers’ sensitive guidance of the dialogues mediated the effect of SSC grouping on the children’s cooperation and involvement in the conversations. A higher proportion of dyads from the SSC group, than the control group, were classified as emotionally matched. Mother–infant SSC set the mother–infant relationship on a positive developmental trajectory that was related to mother–child emotional engagement in middle childhood.

Mother–Infant Skin-to-Skin Contact: Short‐ and Long-Term Effects for Mothers and Their Children Born Full-Term

“…However, long-term follow-up studies of SSC are rare. Only three such studies are published ( Feldman et al, 2014 ; Charpak et al, 2017 ; Bigelow et al, 2018 ), two of which followed infants born premature. Charpak et al (2017) followed premature infants with prior Kangaroo Care and matched controls for 20 years.…”

“…A follow-up study of mother–child dyads with children born full-term provides a more conservative test of the long-term association of SSC to the mother–child relationship. When children who had been in the infancy study were 9 years, they and their mothers participated in a study that investigated whether the positive trajectory begun in infancy was evident in the children’s middle childhood ( Bigelow et al, 2018 ). The follow-up study assessed how mother–child conversations about remembered emotional events in the children’s lives assist children to explore and reflect upon their emotional experiences.…”

“…Dyads who returned for the follow-up study did not differ from dyads who did not return on children’s sex, racial–ethnic parentage, position in the family, or socio-economic status (SES) at children’s birth. However, returning mothers were older and more educated at the children’s birth than mothers who did not return ( Bigelow et al, 2018 ).…”

“…This brief report reviews findings from one of the few mother–infant skin-to-skin contact (SSC) studies involving full-term infants that follows mother–infant dyads beyond the immediate post-birth period ( Bigelow and Power, 2012 ; Bigelow et al, 2012 , 2014 ). When the children were 9 years, these dyads participated in the only long-term SSC follow-up study with children born full-term ( Bigelow et al, 2018 ). Findings indicate the facilitating association of SSC to the mother–child relationship in infancy and its sustaining association into children’s middle childhood.…”

“…At 3 months, SSC group infants were social bidding to their mothers during the still face phase. When the children were 9 years, the mother–child dyads engaged in conversations about the children’s remembered emotional events ( Bigelow et al, 2018 ). Mother–child dyads who had been in the SSC group showed more engagement and reciprocity in the conversations than mother–child dyads who had been in the control group.…”