The course of maternal repetitive negative thinking at the transition to motherhood and early mother–infant interactions: Is there a link?

Abstract

Potential long-term associations between repetitive negative thinking and mother-infant interactions have received little attention. The current longitudinal study including N = 62 mother-infant dyads investigated both maternal and infant behavior in face-to-face interactions as a function of pre- and postnatal maternal repetitive negative thinking when infants were aged around 4 months. We hypothesised that mothers with a strong tendency to engage in repetitive negative thinking would react less contingently to their infants’ behavior compared to mothers with a weak tendency to engage in repetitive negative thinking. Furthermore, we hypothesised that infants of mothers high in repetitive negative thinking would differ from infants of mothers low in repetitive negative thinking in their reactions in the still-face task. Contrary to expectations, there was no difference in maternal contingency between mothers high versus low in repetitive negative thinking. However, infant behavior in the still-face task differed as a function of maternal repetitive negative thinking status. Specifically, infants of mothers high in repetitive negative thinking spent more time with object/environment engagement than infants of mothers who were low in repetitive negative thinking, and they also protested less frequently. These findings are discussed in terms of their relevance for the intergenerational transmission of mental disorders.

The Maternal Disintegrative Responses Scale (MDRS): Development and initial validation

“…In addition, primiparous women reported higher intrusive thoughts and dissociative experiences than multiparous women, highlighting the vulnerability of women in the transition to motherhood (Müller et al, 2019 ; Nelson et al, 2014 ). It may be assumed that the stress and difficulties involved in adjusting to their new role may cause first‐time mothers to feel more overwhelmed and anxious, leading to more intrusive thoughts related to infant care (Murray & Finn, 2012 ).…”

Correlates of repetitive negative thinking in postnatal first time mothers

“…More longitudinal investigations of the capacity of RNT to predict later symptom levels, assessed via studies in which RNT and psychological symptoms are sampled multiple times throughout the postnatal period, are needed. For example, Muller et al (2019) sampled RNT at multiple timepoints throughout pregnancy and postpartum, enabling examination of the trajectory of RNT, as well the opportunity to distinguish women who were consistently high versus consistently low in RNT throughout the perinatal period. More studies adopting such a design will enable us to better understand the course and predictive role of postnatal RNT.…”

“…Similarly, Muller et al (2013) reported that antenatal RNT did not predict postpartum depression symptoms; however, the unproductive (but not repetitiveness) facets of antenatal RNT predicted impairments in mother-infant relationship (as reported by mothers) at 5 weeks postpartum. In another study, women with consistently high levels of RNT during both pregnancy and postpartum reported more depression and anxiety symptoms (Muller et al, 2019). In addition, infants with mothers with high levels of RNT spent more time examining their environment, and protested less frequently, relative to infants of low RNT mothers.…”

Evidence for cultural differences in affect during mother–infant interactions

“…Capturing 2-min interactions optimizes the trade-off between the high validity of the data on one hand and minimal intrusion to post-partum women and their infants on the other hand. Accordingly, an experimental setup of 2-min mother-infant interactions is commonly applied 38,[123][124][125][128][129][130][131][132][133][134][135] . While short and thus susceptible to being affected by non-representative events, this data is rich in spontaneous interactive behaviors, providing a multi-dimensional matrix of 120 repeated data points per each behavioral variable for each dyadic partner.…”