Stressed Mothers Receiving Infant Mental Health-Based Early Head Start Increase in Mind-Mindedness

Abstract

Maternal mind-mindedness is a characteristic of supportive parenting and contributes to many positive social–emotional outcomes in early childhood. However, there is limited knowledge of mind-mindedness among parents experiencing parenting stress from low-income settings. This is a critical gap in evidence given the robust role of supportive parenting in children’s development and the capacity of home-based interventions to improve children’s outcomes through enhancing supportive parenting. This study examined: (1) maternal mind-mindedness, operationalized as mothers’ appropriate mind-related comments (MRC), across toddlerhood in mothers of toddlers who participated in infant mental health (IMH) based Early Head Start (EHS) services; and (2) whether parenting stress moderated EHS program effects on appropriate MRC over time. Data from a primarily White midwestern site in the United States were collected at study enrollment and when toddlers were 14-, 24-, and 36-months of age (N = 152; mothers Mage = 22.4 years, SD = 5.1; toddlers Mage = 14.4 months, SD = 1.3; 51% females). Data included parent-completed questionnaires and observed parent–child interactions, which were coded for MRC. Although there were no main effects of EHS programming on mothers’ appropriate MRC over time, multilevel growth curve modeling indicated that parenting stress moderated EHS effects on mothers’ appropriate MRC over time. Among mothers with greater parenting stress, those who received IMH-based EHS services demonstrated greater proportions of MRC over time as compared to mothers with greater stress in the control group. IMH-based parenting interventions that target parenting stress may promote appropriate MRC in low-income populations during toddlerhood.

Longitudinal associations between parental reflective functioning and maternal mind-mindedness.

“…From this perspective, the inclusion of descriptive statistics among our sample, comprised primarily of self-identified Black and White parents, makes some contributions to the literature on mentalization among diverse parents. As we found in another study using a different sample (Brophy-Herb et al, 2022), there were no significant differences in MM by race nor there were differences in PRF between racial groups. It is important to note that both MM and PRF were conceptually and methodologically constructed in primarily majority Whiteness; hence, additional work aimed at understanding the extent to which mentalization constructs are conceptualized and function in similar or different ways according to socialization goals that may vary by race and/or ethnicity is warranted.…”

“…Finally, as noted, our study was not powered to statistically examine mentalization in the context of race. Recent research has highlighted the need to examine mentalization among racially diverse samples (Brophy-Herb et al, 2022; Fishburn et al, 2022; Lee et al, 2021). From this perspective, the inclusion of descriptive statistics among our sample, comprised primarily of self-identified Black and White parents, makes some contributions to the literature on mentalization among diverse parents.…”