The Validity of Prenatal Assessments of Mothers’ Emotional, Cognitive, and Physiological Reactions to Infant Cry

Leerkes, Esther M.; Sommers, Savannah A.; Bailes, Lauren G.

doi:10.1080/15295192.2021.1975122

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Also consistent with expectations, mothers’ negative attributions about infant crying during pregnancy were related to lower maternal sensitivity to distress when infants were 6 months old. This is consistent with previous research that found negative attributions to be associated with less supportive parenting and lower maternal sensitivity to distress (Beckerman et al, 2018; Leerkes et al, 2012, 2022). Furthermore, these results are consistent with prior research demonstrating that the hostile attributions women made while pregnant were predictive of maternal parenting behaviors up to 2 years later (Berlin et al, 2011).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…It is possible that a history of childhood maltreatment does not interfere with the ability to (a) understand that infants cry for emotional reasons or (b) recognize that situations external to the infant can cause infant distress, an adaptive attribution, but rather maltreatment primarily affects how individuals develop negative views of themselves and others (Bowlby, 1982;Crick & Dodge, 1994). Recent research has shown that situational attributions were unrelated to maternal sensitivity during infancy (E. Leerkes et al, 2022) but operate as part of a broader latent construct of infant-oriented cry processing (Leerkes et al, 2015;Leerkes et al, 2016). Future research should continue to consider possible latent factors and if there are moderators that explain the conditions under which minimizing and situational attributions may serve as mediating mechanisms.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Relatedly, results from a home-based intervention have demonstrated that the inclusion of a cognitive appraisal component (e.g., focus on parents' causal analysis of caregiver challenges) is effective in reducing harsh and abusive parenting (Bugental et al, 2002). Less attention has been focused on how maternal causal attributions about infant cry cues, an alternative aversive child behavior, are related to parenting, but the existing studies have demonstrated that mothers' causal attributions about infant crying are related to maternal sensitivity from 6 months to 2 years postpartum (Leerkes et al, 2015(Leerkes et al, , 2022. Three distinct types of causal attributions about infant crying have emerged in prior research (Leerkes & Siepak, 2006).…”

Section: Causal Attributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Childhood maltreatment predicts maternal sensitivity to distress: Negative attributions during the transition to parenthood.

Girod¹,

Leerkes²,

Zvara³

2023

Journal of Family Psychology

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Childhood maltreatment is a predictor of subsequent parenting behaviors; however, the mechanisms explaining this association have been understudied. The present study examined the indirect effect of childhood maltreatment on maternal sensitivity to distress via (a) emotion regulation difficulties, (b) negative attributions about infant crying, (c) minimizing attributions about infant crying, and (d) situational attributions about infant crying. The sample included 259 primiparous mothers (131 Black and 128 White) and their 6-month-old infants (52% female). Mothers retrospectively reported on their childhood history of maltreatment when their infants were about 2 years old. Emotion regulation difficulties and causal attributions about infant crying were assessed prenatally. Maternal sensitivity to distress was rated during three distress-eliciting tasks when children were 6 months old. Results from the structural equation model demonstrated that maternal childhood maltreatment was significantly positively associated with negative attributions about infant crying but not with emotion regulation difficulties, minimizing attributions, or situational attributions about crying. Furthermore, negative attributions about crying were associated with lower sensitivity to distress, and there was an indirect effect of childhood maltreatment on sensitivity to distress via negative attributions about infant distress. These effects were significant above and beyond the effects of coherence of mind, concurrent depressive symptoms, infant affect, maternal age, race, education, marital status, and income-to-needs ratio. The results suggest that altering negative attributions about infant crying may be an important area to intervene during the prenatal period to reduce continuity in maladaptive parenting across generations.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Causal Attributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Childhood maltreatment predicts maternal sensitivity to distress: Negative attributions during the transition to parenthood.

Girod¹,

Leerkes²,

Zvara³

2023

Journal of Family Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Interactive effects of maternal physiological arousal and regulation on maternal sensitivity: Replication and extension in an independent sample

Leerkes

Girod

Buehler

et al. 2023

Developmental Psychobiology

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This study examined the extent to which mothers' physiological arousal (i.e., skin conductance level [SCL] augmentation) and regulation (i.e., respiratory sinus arrhythmia[RSA] withdrawal) interacted to predict subsequent maternal sensitivity. Mothers' (N = 176) SCL and RSA were measured prenatally during a resting baseline and while watching videos of crying infants. Maternal sensitivity was observed during a freeplay task and the still-face paradigm when their infants were 2 months old. The results demonstrated that higher SCL augmentation but not RSA withdrawal predicted more sensitive maternal behaviors as a main effect. Additionally, SCL augmentation and RSA withdrawal interacted, such that well-regulated maternal arousal was associated with greater maternal sensitivity at 2 months. Further, the interaction between SCL and RSA was only significant for the negative dimensions of maternal behavior used to derive the measure of maternal sensitivity (i.e., detachment and negative regard) suggesting that well-regulated arousal is particularly important for inhibiting the tendency to engage in negative maternal behaviors. The results replicate findings from mothers in previous studies and demonstrate that the interactive effects of SCL and RSA in relation to parenting outcomes are not sample specific. Considering joint effects of physiological responding across multiple biological systems may enhance understanding of the antecedents of sensitive maternal behavior.

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Mothers’ Attachment Style Predicts Response to Child Distress: The Role of Maternal Emotions and Attributions

et al. 2022

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The Validity of Prenatal Assessments of Mothers’ Emotional, Cognitive, and Physiological Reactions to Infant Cry

Cited by 5 publications

References 47 publications

Childhood maltreatment predicts maternal sensitivity to distress: Negative attributions during the transition to parenthood.

Childhood maltreatment predicts maternal sensitivity to distress: Negative attributions during the transition to parenthood.

Interactive effects of maternal physiological arousal and regulation on maternal sensitivity: Replication and extension in an independent sample

Mothers’ Attachment Style Predicts Response to Child Distress: The Role of Maternal Emotions and Attributions

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