Reflective function in first-time mothers and fathers: Association with infant temperament and parenting stress

Depressive symptoms, parenting attitude, and violent discipline among caregivers of left-behind children in rural China: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

The situation of mental health and discipline behaviors of left-behind children's caregivers were not optimistic in rural China. Caregivers' depression might increase the risk of using violent discipline. However, the specific ways in which depressive symptoms impact violent discipline have rarely been explored in rural areas. This study aims to assess the prevalence of violent discipline among left-behind children under 6 years of age in rural China and explore the potential mechanisms of how caregivers' depressive symptoms affect violent discipline.

METHODS

We enrolled a total of 396 pairs of left-behind children and their caregivers in our study, which was conducted in 5 counties of Hebei, Henan, Jiangxi, Guizhou, and Sichuan provinces in China. The depressive symptoms of caregivers were measured by using Zung Self-rating Depression Scale (ZSDS) and violent discipline was assessed by the Child Discipline Module of Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS). A self-designed questionnaire was utilized to measure caregiver's parenting attitude. Based on the cross-sectional data, controlling for potential confounders, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to assess the direct and indirect effects of the mediation models by applying the weighted least squares with mean and variance adjusted (WLSMV) estimate.

RESULTS

The prevalence of violent discipline, psychological aggression, and physical punishment was 72.7%, 59.3%, and 60.4% respectively of left-behind children under 6 years of age. According to the results of SEM, parenting attitude acted as a suppressor, suppressing the association between caregivers' depressive symptoms and physical punishment/psychological aggression/violent discipline. The caregivers' depressive symptoms positively influenced all the outcome variables by affecting parenting attitudes (p = 0.002, p = 0.013, p = 0.002).

CONCLUSIONS

The presence of depressive symptoms in caregivers increases the use of violent discipline through negative parenting attitudes. The mental health status of primary caregivers of left-behind children in rural China needed emphasis and improvement.

Maternal and paternal insightfulness and reaction to the diagnosis in families of preschoolers with Autism spectrum disorder: associations with observed parental sensitivity and inter-parent interaction

Sensitivity among parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is based on parental insightfulness and on resolution regarding the child's diagnosis. This has been supported in studies of mothers, and we examined whether the same is true regarding fathers. Also, we asked whether parents' Insightfulness and Resolution tap general mentalization and therefore also be expressed in parent-parent interactions. Eighty preschooler boys with ASD and both of their parents participated. As expected, fathers who were more insightful and mothers who were more resolved were more sensitive. Contrary to expectations, no associations were found between fathers' resolution and mothers' insightfulness and their sensitivity. Associations were found between parental insightfulness and resolution and positive parent-parent interaction. The findings are the first to demonstrate the insightfulness-sensitivity link among fathers of children with ASD. Also, they suggest that both insightfulness and resolution involve general mentalization that is evident both in parent-child and parent-parent interactions.

The relationship between parental mental health, reflective functioning coparenting and social emotional development in 0-3 year old children

Introduction

The transition to parenthood is a high-risk period for many parents and is an important period for child development. Research has identified that parental mental health, reflective functioning (capacity to consider mental states of oneself and others) and coparenting (capacity to work together well as a parenting team) may be particularly significant predictors of later child outcomes, however these factors have seldom been considered together. The present study therefore aimed to investigate the relationship between these factors and the extent to which they predict child social emotional development.

Methods

Three hundred and fifty parents of infants aged 0 to 3 years 11 months were recruited to complete an online Qualtrics questionnaire.

Results

Results indicate that both positive coparenting and parental reflective functioning (Pre-mentalizing and Certainty subscales) were found to significantly predict child development. General reflective functioning (Uncertainty subscale) predicted parental depression and anxiety, however unexpectedly, parental mental health was not a significant predictor of child development, but did predict coparenting. General reflective functioning (Certainty subscale) was also found to predict coparenting, which in turn was found to predict parental reflective functioning. We found an indirect effect of general reflective functioning (Certainty) on child SE development via parental reflective functioning (Pre-mentalizing). We also found an indirect effect of negative coparenting on child development via parental reflective functioning (Pre-mentalizing).

Discussion

The current results support a growing body of research highlighting the important role reflective functioning plays in child development and wellbeing as well as parental mental health and the interparental relationship.

Perinatal Depression and Anxiety Symptoms, Parental Bonding and Dyadic Sensitivity in Mother-Baby Interactions at Three Months Post-Partum

The quality of the early parent-infant relationship is crucial for the child's optimal development, and parental sensitivity plays a key role in early interactions. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the influence of maternal perinatal depression and anxiety symptoms on dyadic sensitivity at three months post-partum, also considering a large set of maternal and infant variables. At the third trimester of pregnancy (T1) and at three months postpartum (T2), 43 primiparous women filled in a set of questionnaires evaluating symptoms of depression (CES-D) or anxiety (STAI), the woman's parental bonding experiences (PBI), alexithymia (TAS-20), maternal attachment to the baby (PAI, MPAS) and the perceived social support (MSPSS). At T2 mothers also completed a questionnaire on infant temperament and took part in the CARE-Index videotaped procedure. Dyadic sensitivity was predicted by higher maternal trait anxiety scores in pregnancy. In addition, the mother's experience of being cared for by her father in childhood was predictive of her infant's lower compulsivity, while paternal overprotection predicted higher unresponsiveness. The results highlight the influence of perinatal maternal psychological well-being and maternal childhood experiences on the quality of the dyadic relationship. The results may be useful to foster mother-child adjustment during the perinatal period.

The parental reflective functioning questionnaire: Infant version in fathers of infants and association with paternal postpartum mental health

The parents' capacity to reflect upon the psychological processes in their child, termed parental reflective functioning (PRF) can be impaired by parental mental health problems. The present study aimed to investigate the factor structure of an infant version of the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (PRFQ-I) in a low-risk sample of 259 Danish fathers of 1-11-month-old infants to investigate measurement invariance of the PRFQ-I between fathers and mothers; and to examine the association between PRF and paternal depressive symptoms, psychological distress, and parenting stress. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a three-factor model of the PRFQ-I. Multi-group factor analysis indicated partial measurement invariance. Multiple linear regressions showed that paternal depressive symptoms were not associated with PRF. There was an interaction effect of paternal depressive symptoms and general psychological distress on paternal interest and curiosity in their infant's mental state and certainty of infant mental state. Increased parenting stress was associated with impaired PRF on all three subscales of the PRFQ-I. These results provide further evidence for a multidimensional, brief assessment of paternal reflective skills and insight into how variability in paternal psychological functioning relates to impaired PRF in the postpartum period.

Maternal Mood and Perception of Infant Temperament at Three Months Predict Depressive Symptoms Scores in Mothers of Preterm Infants at Six Months

Postpartum depression is more prevalent in mothers and fathers of preterm infants compared to parents of full-term infants and may have long-term detrimental consequences for parental mental health and child development. The temperamental profile of an infant has been postulated as one of the important factors associated with parental depressiveness in the first months postpartum. This study aimed to examine the longitudinal relationship between depressive symptoms and perceived infant temperament at 3 months corrected age, and depressive symptoms at 6 months corrected age among mothers and fathers of infants born preterm. We assessed 59 families with infants born before the 34th gestational week using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EDPS) and the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised. We found that mothers' scores on EPDS and infants' Orienting/regulation at 3 months corrected age predicted mothers' EPDS scores at 6 months corrected age. In particular, higher depressive scores were related to higher depressive symptoms at 6 months corrected age, whereas higher infant Orienting/regulation was related to lower depressive symptoms at 6 months corrected age. Due to the low internal consistency of EPDS at 6 months for fathers, we were unable to conduct similar analyses for fathers. Our results point to the importance of considering both early indices of maternal mood as well as mother-reported measures of preterm infant temperament in the attempts to predict levels of maternal depressiveness in later months of an infant's life. Further studies are urgently needed in order to better understand the associations between depressiveness and infant temperament in fathers, and with more consideration for the severity of the effects of infant prematurity.

Analysis of Parenting Attitude Types and Influencing Factors of Korean Parents by Using Latent Transition Analysis

This study aimed to classify the latent class of parenting attitude for parents with preschool children and school-age children, identify the pattern of transition in the type of parenting attitude over time, and determine the influencing factors associated with the transition. A total of 1462 households were the subjects of this longitudinal study that used latent profile analysis, latent transition analysis, and logistic regression analysis. The parenting attitude in the preschool year was classified into a model of three latent classes of ‘parent uninvolved’, ‘maternal authoritative and paternal authoritarian’, and ‘maternal authoritarian and paternal authoritative’, and the parenting attitude in the school year was classified into a model of four latent classes of ‘parent weak uninvolved’, ‘parent strong uninvolved’, parent authoritative’, and ‘maternal authoritarian and paternal authoritative.’ All latent class subjects with preschool children showed an attitude transition to maternal authoritarian and paternal authoritative when their children were in school years. It was confirmed that a mother’s depression and father’s parenting stress were the most influential factors in the parenting attitude transition. This study lay in identifying the patterns of parenting attitude and the transition in attitude according to the developmental stage of children.