The Eye of the Begetter: Predicting Infant Attachment Disorganization From Women's Prenatal Interpretations of Infant Facial Expressions

Abstract

Infant-caregiver attachment disorganization has been linked to many long-term negative psychosocial outcomes. While various prevention programs appear to be effective in preventing disorganized attachment, methods currently used to identify those at risk are unfortunately either overly general or impractical. The current investigation tested whether women's prenatal biases in identifying infant expressions of emotion--tendencies previously shown to relate to some of the maternal variables associated with infant attachment, including maternal traumatization, trauma symptoms, and maternal sensitivity--could predict infant attachment classification at 18 months postpartum. Logistic regression analyses revealed that together with women's adult history of high betrayal traumatization, response concordance with a normative reference sample in labeling infant expressions as negatively valenced, and the number of infant facial expressions that participants classified as "sad" and "angry" predicted subsequent infant attachment security versus disorganization. Implications for screening and prevention are discussed.

Perinatal maternal mental health and disorganised attachment: A critical systematic review

“…Two papers were drawn from the study mentioned earlier in relation to depression (Hughes et al, ; Turton et al, ), with similar limitations regarding the low percentage of participants meeting diagnostic criteria for PTSD (only assessed in relation to prior stillbirth: 23% antenatal and 5.8% postnatal). The level of self‐reported trauma symptomology in the Bernstein et al () sample was also low, with dissociation scores in the Schuengel et al () sample only mildly above the normal range. In contrast, Bosquet Enlow et al () found that elevated maternal self‐reported PTSD symptoms were predictive of an increased likelihood of disorganised attachment, b = 2.58, p = .005, OR = 13.17, 95% CI [2.19, 79.13], in a sample with moderate levels of symptomology.…”

“…Of the remaining eight studies, the authors of only one study reported a significant association with disorganised attachment (Hayes et al, 2013). However, five of the eight studies did not have a primary focus on the impact of maternal depression on attachment (Bernstein et al, 2014;Emery et al, 2008;Hughes et al, 2001;Hughes et al, 2006;Leerkes et al, 2017). The severity of symptoms in these samples were low or unreported, including Hughes et al (2006) which was given a moderate severity rating in relation to trauma symptoms.…”

Cognitive biases in processing infant emotion by women with depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder in pregnancy or after birth: A systematic review

“…The findings with regards to the impact of PTSD in interpreting infant emotion also have important implications. These results suggest that biases for women with PTSD are different to those observed in anxiety and depression, but also may be dependent on the trauma type or characteristics (Bernstein et al, 2014;Kne?eviá & Jovan?evi?, 2004). The results suggest that mother's may be more biased towards perceiving certain emotional expressions which may then play out when a mother is interacting with her infant, again leading to less sensitivity towards her infants needs.…”

The influence of interpersonal aggression on maternal perceptions of infant emotions: Associations with early parenting quality.

“…This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly. (e.g., anxious, angry;van Honk et al, 2001), lack of knowledge about normative infant development (e.g., describing an infant as intentionally devious or seductive; Butterfield, 1993), and negative experiences and expectations within interpersonal relationships based on prior relationship difficulties (e.g., intimate partner aggression; R. E. Bernstein, Tenedios, Laurent, Measelle, & Ablow, 2014;de Castro, 2007). With regard to psychosocial parenting risk, no studies to date have examined the influence of mothers' own histories of child maltreatment and negative intimate partner experiences on their perceptions of infant emotions in relation to their actual parenting behaviors with their infants.…”