Mother–infant socioemotional contingent responding in families by adoption and birth

Abstract

Contingencies of three maternal and two infant socioemotional behaviors that are universal components of mother-infant interaction were investigated at 5 months in 62 mothers (31 who had adopted domestically and 31 who had given birth) and their first children (16 males in each group). Patterns of contingent responding were largely comparable in dyads by adoption and birth, although the two groups of mothers responded differentially to the two types of infant signals. Mothers in both groups were more responsive than infants in social and vocal interactions, but infants were more responsive in maternal speech-infant attention interactions. Family type x Gender statistical interactions suggested a possible differential role of infant gender in establishing mother-infant contingencies in families by adoption and birth.

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

“…Comparing dyads by adoption status, vocal-attention interactions (speak-attend, attend-speak) were significantly contingent for both groups whether mothers or infants initiated them, and a similar contingency has been highlighted for infant-initiated vocal interactions (vocalize-speak) for both groups. Two pairs of behaviors were contingent for one group but not the other: attend-encourage (contingent for adoptive only) and vocalize-encourage (contingent for birth only) (Suwalsky et al, 2012 ).…”

Mother–Child Interaction in Families With Internationally Adopted Children and Families With Biological Children at Age 2: Similarities and Differences

“…Consequently, adoptive mothers may experience anxiety and be generally more protective of their children than biological parents (Suwalsky et al, 2008). Adoptive parents often monitor their children differently by fostering a kind of dependency, which may explain some of the differences in the early behavioral interaction between adoptive and biological mothers evident in the present study (Suwalsky et al, 2012). (Stams et al, 2002).…”

“…Given that the adoptive mothers appeared more intrusive during the free play situation, possibly as a reaction to their child being less proactive, the dynamic in these dyads was different and seemingly driven more by the mother's initiatives. Adoptive parents have often waited long for their child to arrive, and the preadoption process tends to be stressful (Suwalsky et al, 2012).…”

“…The research describing mother-child interactions in adoptive families is scarce. A notable exception is the work by Suwalsky and colleagues (i.e., Suwalsky et al, 2008;Suwalsky et al, 2012;Suwalsky et al, 2015) in families with low-risk adopted children. In one study, Suwalsky et al (2015) examined whether mothers and their 4-year-olds had developed a well-functioning relationship by focusing on the quality of child, maternal and dyadic interactions in low-risk adoptive (n=33) and biological (n=35) families.…”

Parenting in the Context of the Child: Genetic and Social Processes

“…In addition, detailed observational comparisons of adoptive and nonadoptive mothers show both to be responsive, attentive, and respond effectively and contingently to their child's social and emotional clues (Suwalsky et al, 2008(Suwalsky et al, , 2012. These behavioral observations have been confirmed by EEG studies of biological and adoptive mothers responding to recordings of crying babies as well as pictures of babies; both groups of mothers were clearly different than nonmothers, suggesting brain functioning had been adapted to motherhood in adoptive mothers without the hormonal changes occasioned by birth and lactation (Perez-Hernandez et al, 2017).…”