Within‐ and between‐family transactions of maternal depression and child engagement in the first 2 years of life: Role of prenatal maternal risk and tobacco use

Abstract

Background This study examined transactional associations among maternal depression, maternal sensitivity, and child engagement in the context of a low‐income, diverse sample with maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy (MSDP) as a moderator of these transactions. Methods A random‐intercept cross‐lagged panel model was used to investigate within‐ and between‐family variability from infancy to toddlerhood. The sample included 247 mother–child dyads (47% girls; 51% African‐American; 178 MSDP, 69 non‐MSDP). Assessments were conducted once during each trimester of pregnancy and at 2, 9, 16, and 24 months of child ages. Results Between‐family associations revealed that children exposed to higher levels of sensitive parenting across time had higher behavioral engagement from infancy to toddlerhood. At the within‐family level, increased sensitive parenting at 9 months was predictive of increased child engagement at 16 months which in turn predicted increases in sensitive parenting at 24 months. Increased maternal depression was concurrently associated with lower maternal sensitivity at 2 months and lower child engagement at 16 months. Contrary to hypotheses, changes in maternal depression were not associated to changes in parenting or child engagement. These associations did not vary between prenatally smoking and nonsmoking mothers. However, there was significantly higher stability in maternal depression across time among nonsmoking mothers compared to those in the MSDP group. Additionally, increased maternal depression was related to lower‐than‐expected child engagement at 9 months only for the nonsmoking group. Conclusions Results highlight transactional processes at the within‐family level and the importance of timing for parent and child effects on transactional processes.

Prenatal tobacco, tobacco–cannabis coexposure, and child emotion regulation: The role of child autonomic functioning and sensitive parenting.

“…Consistent with prior research there was continuity in maternal negative emotional functioning from the prenatal to postnatal period (Level et al, 2021) and PTE was associated with postnatal maternal negative emotional functioning (Godleski et al, 2018; Ostlund et al, 2021; Schuetze et al, 2019). Maternal negative emotional functioning may be directly related to poorer child ER through genetic heritability, given that variation in the 5-HTT gene confers susceptibility for ER (see Hariri & Forbes, 2007).…”

“…These ratings were averaged to create a sensitive parenting variable at each time point. Previous work indicates acceptable interrater reliability criterion (range from 0.94 to 0.96 for sensitive parenting scales) for 10%-13% of observations (Level et al, 2021). These ratings have been used extensively in our prior studies of substance-exposed samples (Eiden et al, 2018;Level et al, 2021).…”

“…Previous work indicates acceptable interrater reliability criterion (range from 0.94 to 0.96 for sensitive parenting scales) for 10%-13% of observations (Level et al, 2021). These ratings have been used extensively in our prior studies of substance-exposed samples (Eiden et al, 2018;Level et al, 2021). Parental sensitivity across these two-time points was standardized to get an index of sensitive parenting in toddlerhood.…”