Parental Sensitivity and Responsiveness as Mediators Between Postpartum Mental Health and Bonding in Mothers and Fathers

Radoš, Sandra Nakić

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2021.723418

Cited by 22 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 94 publications

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“…These results are congruent with those of previous studies in underlining the significant role of prenatal depression in the quality of parent‐infant bonding postpartum 6,7 . Parents suffering from depression may have a compromised ability to engage in sensitive caregiving, which may in turn influence their bonding with the infant 28 . The mothers in this study reported higher levels of depressive symptoms than their partners during pregnancy and the postpartum period, which is in line with previous findings 29,30 .…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Predictors of Parent‐Infant Bonding Among Postpartum Chinese Mothers and Fathers

Ngai

Lam

2022

J Midwife Womens Health

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Introduction The emotional bond that parents feel with their child is a crucial determinant of the child's psychosocial well‐being and future development. Few studies have evaluated the predictive roles of depressive symptoms, relationship satisfaction, and family sense of coherence in the quality of parent‐infant bonding for both parents during the perinatal period. The aim of this study was to determine the predictive effects of depressive symptoms, relationship satisfaction, and family sense of coherence during pregnancy; changes thereof from pregnancy to 6 weeks postpartum; and the partner's bond with the infant on the quality of parent‐infant bonding at 6 weeks postpartum in Chinese mothers and fathers. Methods This was a secondary analysis of data from an intervention study. A convenience sample of 231 Chinese childbearing couples was recruited from the antenatal clinics of public hospitals in Hong Kong. Parent‐infant bonding, depressive symptoms, relationship satisfaction, and family sense of coherence were measured using the Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire, Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, Dyadic Adjustment Scale, and Family Sense of Coherence Scale during pregnancy and at 6 weeks postpartum. Results The findings indicated that higher depressive symptoms during pregnancy and poor partner bonding with the infant were the major predictors of impaired parent‐infant bonding at 6 weeks postpartum for both parents. Prenatal relationship satisfaction was not a significant predictor of parent‐infant bonding at 6 weeks postpartum for either parent. Prenatal family sense of coherence was a strong predictor of parent‐infant bonding for mothers but not for fathers. Discussion The findings highlight the significant effects of depressive symptoms, family sense of coherence, and the partner's bond with the infant on parent‐infant bonding during the perinatal period. Comprehensive early prenatal programs that promote parental well‐being and strengthen family sense of coherence should be integrated into existing perinatal services to promote the quality of parent‐infant bonding for both parents.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Predictors of Parent‐Infant Bonding Among Postpartum Chinese Mothers and Fathers

Ngai

Lam

2022

J Midwife Womens Health

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“…The capacity of intersubjectivity can be compromised in mothers suffering from interpersonal aggression (Dayton et al, 2016) and depressive mood disorders (Bernard et al, 2018), leaving these mothers at risk for excessive parenting stress, as parenting stress is inversely associated with parental intersubjectivity (Shai et al, 2017). Impaired parental intersubjectivity can adversely affect the bonding with the spouse as well (Nakić Radoš, 2021). Fortunately, the impairment of maternal intersubjectivity can be reversed.…”

Section: Intersubjectivity Is a Hallmark Of Quality Dyadic Interactio...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Intersubjectivity as an antidote to stress: Using dyadic active inference model of intersubjectivity to predict the efficacy of parenting interventions in reducing stress—through the lens of dependent origination in Buddhist Madhyamaka philosophy

Nakamura

Gopang

et al. 2022

Front. Psychol.

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Intersubjectivity refers to one person’s awareness in relation to another person’s awareness. It is key to well-being and human development. From infancy to adulthood, human interactions ceaselessly contribute to the flourishing or impairment of intersubjectivity. In this work, we first describe intersubjectivity as a hallmark of quality dyadic processes. Then, using parent-child relationship as an example, we propose a dyadic active inference model to elucidate an inverse relation between stress and intersubjectivity. We postulate that impaired intersubjectivity is a manifestation of underlying problems of deficient relational benevolence, misattributing another person’s intentions (over-mentalizing), and neglecting the effects of one’s own actions on the other person (under-coupling). These problems can exacerbate stress due to excessive variational free energy in a person’s active inference engine when that person feels threatened and holds on to his/her invalid (mis)beliefs. In support of this dyadic model, we briefly describe relevant neuroimaging literature to elucidate brain networks underlying the effects of an intersubjectivity-oriented parenting intervention on parenting stress. Using the active inference dyadic model, we identified critical interventional strategies necessary to rectify these problems and hereby developed a coding system in reference to these strategies. In a theory-guided quantitative review, we used this coding system to code 35 clinical trials of parenting interventions published between 2016 and 2020, based on PubMed database, to predict their efficacy for reducing parenting stress. The results of this theory-guided analysis corroborated our hypothesis that parenting intervention can effectively reduce parenting stress if the intervention is designed to mitigate the problems of deficient relational benevolence, under-coupling, and over-mentalizing. We integrated our work with several dyadic concepts identified in the literature. Finally, inspired by Arya Nagarjuna’s Buddhist Madhyamaka Philosophy, we described abstract expressions of Dependent Origination as a relational worldview to reflect on the normality, impairment, and rehabilitation of intersubjectivity.

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“…A recent study did not find an association between recognition accuracy on CFID and self-reported parental responsiveness. However, it established that mothers with poor recognition of infant facial expression also reported poorer mother-infant bonding regarding lack of enjoyment and affection with the infant (Nakić Radoš, 2021). Nevertheless, there is some evidence that greater maternal sensitivity for positive and negative facial expressions may be associated with more positive maternal affect and behaviour during play (Donovan et al, 2007).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Validation of the City Infant Faces Database in Student and Parent Samples

Radoš

Matijaš

Brekalo

et al. 2021

Psihol. teme (Online)

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The City Infant Faces Database (CIFD; Webb et al., 2018) is a database of 154 infant emotional expressions for use in experimental studies of infant facial communication, facial expression recognition, and parental sensitivity. The CIFD was validated only in a small sample from the general public and student midwives and nurses in the UK. This study, therefore, aimed to validate it in a larger sample of Croatian students and parents of 1-12 months old infants. Three-hundred and fifty students (Study 1), 422 mothers and 106 fathers (Study 2) were presented with images of Caucasian infant faces. The students rated images from the CIFD and Tromsø Infant Faces. They also completed questionnaires measuring empathy, alexithymia, and perceiving and expressing emotions. The parents rated the valence of facial expressions of images from the CIFD. The results were consistent with the initial validation in both the students and parents’ sample, except that agreement for negative images was lower for Croatian parents than in the UK study. Compared to the UK study, students rated images as more intense, clear, genuine, and reported stronger internal emotion. Furthermore, there was no difference in accuracy between mothers and fathers or between first-time parents and experienced parents. The CIFD is, therefore, a promising tool for research and should be further validated in other countries, focusing on its predictive validity.

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Parental Sensitivity and Responsiveness as Mediators Between Postpartum Mental Health and Bonding in Mothers and Fathers

Cited by 22 publications

References 94 publications

Predictors of Parent‐Infant Bonding Among Postpartum Chinese Mothers and Fathers

Predictors of Parent‐Infant Bonding Among Postpartum Chinese Mothers and Fathers

Intersubjectivity as an antidote to stress: Using dyadic active inference model of intersubjectivity to predict the efficacy of parenting interventions in reducing stress—through the lens of dependent origination in Buddhist Madhyamaka philosophy

Validation of the City Infant Faces Database in Student and Parent Samples

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