THE EYE OF THE BEGETTER: PREDICTING INFANT ATTACHMENT DISORGANIZATION FROM WOMEN'S PRENATAL INTERPRETATIONS OF INFANT FACIAL EXPRESSIONS

Deliberate control over facial expressions in motherhood. Evidence from a Stroop-like task

The deliberate control of facial expressions is an important ability in human interactions, in particular for mothers with prelinguistic infants. Because research on this topic is still scarce, we investigated the control over facial expressions in a Stroop-like paradigm. Mothers of 2-6 months old infants and nullipara women produced smiles and frowns in response to verbal commands written on distractor faces of adults or infants showing expressions of happiness or anger/distress. Analyses of video recordings with a machine classifier for facial expression revealed pronounced effects of congruency between the expressions required by the participants and those displayed by the face stimuli on the onset latencies of the deliberate facial expressions. With adult distractor faces this Stroop effect was similar whether participants smiled or frowned. With infant distractor faces mothers and non-mothers showed indistinguishable Stroop effects on smile responses; however, for frown responses, the Stroop effect in mothers was smaller than in non-mothers. We suggest that for frown responses in mothers when facing infants, the effect of mimicry or stimulus response compatibility, leading to the Stroop effect, is offset by a caregiving response or empathy.

Fathers, mothers and family violence: Which risk factors contribute to the occurrence of child maltreatment and exposure to intimate partner violence in early childhood? Findings in a German longitudinal in-depth study

BACKGROUND

Family violence, especially child maltreatment and intimate partner violence, in early childhood has a strong impact on negative developmental outcomes. There is evidence of child, parental, and family risk factors. Less is known about paternal than maternal risk factors.

OBJECTIVE

To identify maternal and paternal predictors of family violence and predictive constellations of risk factors.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

According to psychosocial adversity in a larger study, families were stratified into low-, medium- and high-risk groups. Both, mothers and fathers (n = 197/191), were investigated longitudinally across seven months using self-report questionnaires and ratings of the IFEEL Pictures.

METHODS

χ²-tests, logistic regression models, and prediction configural frequency analysis (P-CFA) were employed.

RESULTS

Univariate predictors (p < .05) were anxiety and stress in mothers, and insensitivity in recognizing negative child emotions in fathers. Within high-risk levels, paternal adverse childhood experiences (ACE) were a predictor (z = 2.92, p > .01), proven by P-CFA. Logistic regression models including family violence at baseline, sociodemographic variables, univariate predictors, and ACE of both parents revealed maternal anxiety (OR = 1.22, p < .05) and low paternal recognition of negative IFEEL Pictures (OR = 6.00, p < .05) as predictors. P-CFA identified socioemotional problems in children and low paternal recognition of negative child emotions as a predictive risk constellation (z = 2.58, p > .01).

CONCLUSION

Analysis of both caregivers in small population samples with oversampled at-risk families leads to a systemic perspective of family violence. The identified risk constellation is highly relevant for early childhood intervention.

Mothers With Mild Levels of Intellectual Disability: Emotion-Interpretation, Traumatization, and Child Attachment Representations

Prior research indicates links between parents' experiences of interpersonal trauma and emotion-interpretation difficulties, and between such difficulties and child attachment insecurity and disorganization. Although mothers with mild levels of intellectual disability (ID) are at heightened risk for trauma and emotion-interpretation difficulties, and their children for attachment insecurity, corresponding links in this population have not been examined. We therefore investigated emotional interpretations among mothers with mild levels of ID (n = 23) and matched comparison mothers without ID (n = 25), in relation to mothers' experiences of trauma and their children's attachment representations. Mothers with mild levels of ID were not less accurate than comparison mothers with regard to general positive and negative emotion-interpretation accuracy, but they were significantly more likely to misinterpret shame and anger. Among mothers with mild levels of ID, misinterpretations of shame were positively related to maternal experiences of trauma, and to child attachment insecurity and disorganization.

Maternal prenatal depression, PTSD, and problematic parenting: the mediating role of maternal perceptions of infant emotion

Background: Perinatal illness is alarmingly common and has negative effects on maternal and infant well-being. Depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), specifically, are characterised by negative views of the self and others, which may impact a mother's perceptions of herself and her child. Objective: This study examined the relationship between depression and PTSD symptoms, maternal perceptions of infant emotions, and parenting behaviours. Methods: 120 pregnant, mostly low-income women and their infants (after birth) participated in a longitudinal study. Maternal depression and PTSD symptoms were assessed during pregnancy and 1 year postpartum; maternal perceptions of infant emotions and parenting quality were assessed at 1 year. Results: Correlation analyses revealed significant, negative associations between prenatal (but not postnatal) psychiatric symptoms and positive perceptions of infant emotions, as well as between positive perceptions of infant emotions and negative parenting. Results also revealed significant indirect effects of prenatal depressive and PTSD symptoms on negative parenting via perceptions of infant emotion (95% CIs:.0013 -.0200 and.0008 -.0083, respectively). Conclusion: Findings highlight that mothers should be routinely screened for psychiatric symptoms during the perinatal period, and perceptions of infant emotions may be an important target for parent-infant mental health interventions.

The expectant social mind: A systematic review of face processing during pregnancy and the effect of depression and anxiety

Pregnancy carries enormous changes in the psychological and neurophysiological domains. It has been suggested that pregnant women undergo a cognitive reorganization aimed at increasing the salience of social stimuli (i.e., the tendency of social cues to capture observer's attention, so that their processing results prioritized). The goal of the present work was to systematically review the empirical evidence of a change in face processing during pregnancy. Moreover, we explored whether face processing is associated with antenatal depression and anxiety and the extent to which this is part of a potential mechanism to explain detrimental effects of maternal psychopathology on infant outcomes. We identified 19 relevant studies and discussed them based on their methodological qualities. The results of the review suggest that even though it is not possible to draw firm conclusions, pregnancy is likely to be a plasticity window for face processing at the behavioral and neural levels. Evidence confirms the detrimental effect of depression and anxiety on face processing during pregnancy. Clinical implications for parenting interventions are discussed.

Latent profiles of maternal neural response to infant emotional stimuli: Associations with maternal sensitivity

In the current study, we examined how latent profiles reflecting maternal neural response to infant emotional expressions predict observed parenting behavior. Participants included 86 mothers of infants. Maternal sensitivity was coded from video-recorded distress and play interactions; mothers' event-related potentials (ERPs) to child emotional expressions were measured from EEG activity recorded during a categorization task. Latent profile analysis of mothers' P200 and late positive potential (LPP) responses to crying and laughing child expressions identified three latent profiles, characterized by enhanced or attenuated responses to crying and laughing expressions at early and late stages of processing. Mothers' probability of being assigned to the "attenuated to distress" profile, characterized by undifferentiated early and late response to infant emotional expressions, was associated with reduced maternal sensitivity. Probability of being assigned to this profile was also correlated with sociodemographic risk. Profiles of maternal neural response to infant emotional expressions may enhance our understanding of the phenomenology of insensitive caregiving.

Establishing the Measurement Invariance of the Very Short Form of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire Revised for Mothers Who Vary on Race and Poverty Status

We examined the measurement invariance of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire Revised-Very Short Form (IBQR-VSF; Putnam, Helbig, Gartstein, Rothbart, & Leerkes, 2014 ) in a sample of 470 racially (185 White, 285 African American) and socioeconomically diverse mothers (158 below federal poverty threshold, 296 above federal poverty threshold) of infants. Using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis, we demonstrated configural, full metric, and full scalar invariance demonstrating that the 3-factor structure (negative emotionality, positive affectivity/surgency, orienting/regulatory capacity), pattern of item loadings, and item means were comparable for White and African American mothers, and for poor and not poor mothers. In addition, we demonstrated full error invariance across racial groups and partial error variance invariance across poverty status, demonstrating that item reliability was comparable for White and African American mothers, and both those above and below the poverty line (with the exception of a subset of items). Thus, the IBQR-VSF appears appropriate for use in racially and socioeconomically diverse samples.