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PubMed1986

Adolescent mothers' prenatal fantasies and working models of their infants.

Parents' perceptions of their children have long fascinated clinicians. During early infancy, parental perceptions are particularly interesting, largely because of the ambiguity of infant behavior and the possibility that there might be meaningful biases in parental interpretations of their infants' behaviors. In order to explore the early development of parental perceptions, the study described in this paper compared the prenatal and postnatal perceptions of adolescent mothers about specific characteristics and behaviors of their infants. Mothers' internal mental representations or "working models" of their infants are a fruitful area for further research.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Infant temperament measured by multiple observations and mother report.

Observers and mothers rated infant behavior (n = 50) in the home on dimensions of temperament once a week for 8 weeks. Although week-to-week correlations were modest (intraclass correlations of .14-.36), aggregates of the 8 observations had high reliability for both observers and mothers. Mother reports were tied to our observation sessions by having mothers (a) rate their infants' behavior during the period when our observations were made and (b) use a questionnaire that mirrored the scoring system used for scoring the videotaped observation sessions. When direct observations were compared with mother reports (on the aggregated weekly reports and on 4 widely used questionnaires), little evidence of mother-observer correspondence was found. The interpretation of the large literature that has used maternal report is discussed, as well as the importance of direct observation of infant behavior when temperament is assessed.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Responses to interactive stress: infants who are deaf or hearing.

Nineteen infants who were deaf (D/H) and 19 infants who were hearing (H/H) were observed during face-to-face interactions with their hearing mothers. Infant behaviors were coded for repetitive physical activity and gaze aversion during two episodes of normal play which were interrupted by a "still-face" episode. Mothers' assessments of their infants as "difficult" or "easy" were derived from the Parenting Stress Index (Abidin, 1986). "Difficult" deaf infants displayed significantly more repetitive activity during the initial normal interaction and significantly more gaze aversion during the still-face episode, compared to "easy" deaf babies and both "easy" and "difficult" hearing babies. Implications of these findings are discussed in the context of parental perceptions of infant behaviors, and the importance of visual attention and nonverbal signals for the optimal development of infants who are deaf.

Child Development↗
PubMed1989

Feeding and temperament as determinants of early infant crying/fussing behavior.

In the first 3 months of life, crying and fussing in normal infants tend to increase until 6 weeks of age and decrease progressively thereafter. To determine whether feeding choice and early infant temperament are predictors of early crying, 374 healthy, full-term infants were observed prospectively from birth to 6 weeks of age. Feeding choice and sociodemographic characteristics were ascertained in the first few days postpartum. Parents completed a 17-item early infant temperament questionnaire at 2 weeks of age and a 24-hour behavior diary for 8 days at 6 weeks of age. Initially breast-fed infants cried and fussed more frequently throughout 24 hours compared with those who were formula fed, and increased frequency and duration of crying and fussing were predicted by "more difficult" temperament. Furthermore, a different pattern of crying and fussing within the day was found for infants who were changed from breast- to formula feeding. However, according to stepwise multiple regression models, daily duration of crying/fussing was significantly predicted only by the temperament score (but not initial feeding choice), which accounted for 7% of the variance. Frequency of crying/fussing were predicted only by socioeconomic status, temperament, and feeding frequency, which accounted for 12% of the variance. Breast- or formula feeding at 6 weeks of age was independently associated with crying/fussing only during the evening. It was concluded that early infant temperament predisposes to early crying and fussing but is of limited use as a clinical predictor. Later crying/fussing behavior is not predicted by initial feeding.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Bottle Feeding↗
PubMed2002

Caloric intake and eating behavior in infants and toddlers with cystic fibrosis.

OBJECTIVE: Infants and toddlers with cystic fibrosis (CF) are at risk for poor growth. Controlled behavioral assessment studies have not focused on this population. This study compared calorie intake, percentage of Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) per day and per kilogram, and percentage of calories from fat, protein, and carbohydrates between infants and toddlers with CF and healthy peers. Also, eating behaviors, such as meal duration, bites and sips per minute, percentage of meal spent eating, children's problematic eating behaviors, and parents' perceptions of mealtime behaviors were compared between infants and toddlers with CF and controls. Five hypotheses were tested. 1) Infants and toddlers with CF would be comparable to controls on the number of calories consumed per day and the percentage of calories from fat. 2) Infants and toddlers with CF would not meet the CF dietary guidelines for the percentage of RDA for calories or the percentage of calories from fat. 3) Infants and toddlers with CF would have longer meal durations than healthy peers, but would not differ on the pace of eating, the number of calories consumed during the meal, or the percentage of time spent eating during the meal. 4) Parents of infants and toddlers with CF would perceive more problematic mealtime behavior than controls. 5) Parents' perceptions of children's mealtime behavior would positively correlate with meal duration and negatively correlate with the number of calories consumed during the meal. DESIGN: A 2-group comparison study. SETTING/SAMPLE: A clinical sample of 35 infants and toddlers with CF (M = 18.6; standard deviation = 8.1 months; range = 7-35 months) and a community sample of 34 healthy peers matched for age, gender, socioeconomic status, and number of parents and siblings present during mealtimes. MEASUREMENT AND MAIN RESULTS: Children's calorie intake was measured using 3-day diet diaries. The 2 groups did not differ on the total number of calories consumed per day, the percentage of calories derived from fat, or the percentage of RDA consumed per day. Infants and toddlers with CF were not meeting the CF dietary recommendations of 120% to 150% RDA for energy with 40% of calories coming from fat. Using the Dyadic Interaction Nomenclature for Eating, a behavioral coding system, videotaped recordings of children's dinner meals were scored for meal duration, number of bites and sips per minute, number of calories per bite or sip, and the percentage of 10-second intervals with bites and sips. The CF sample had significantly longer mealtimes (20.2 minutes) than the control group (16.4 minutes), but did not differ on calories consumed at the meal, bites and sips per minute, calories per bite and sip, or time spent eating during the meal. On the Behavioral Pediatrics Feeding Assessment Scale, a measure of parental perceptions of mealtime behavior that was completed by a subset of families (39 families), parents of infants and toddlers with CF endorsed a greater number of mealtime behaviors as problems and a higher occurrence of problems than did parents of controls. Examples of these behaviors for the CF sample included problems with their child's willingness to try new foods (48%), eat vegetables (48%), and observations that their child has a poor appetite (32%) and would rather drink than eat (32%). Parents of children with CF chose a greater number of mealtime strategies and feelings as problems and reported more frequently using problematic strategies at mealtimes than did parents of controls. Examples of problematic strategies and feelings for parents of infants and toddlers with CF included feeling anxious/frustrated when feeding their children (37%), not feeling confident that their child eats enough (32%), and using coaxing to get their child to take a bite (26%). For the entire sample, a positive correlation of 0.29 was found between the number of mealtime behavior problems reported by parents and meal duration, suggesting the co-occurrence of problematic mealtime behavior with longer meal duration. No relationship was found between the number of child mealtime behavior problems reported by parents and the number of calories consumed during the filmed meal. For the CF sample, a correlation of -0.26 between children's weight percentile for age and the filmed meal duration was found, suggesting a tendency for meal duration to increase as children's weight for age decreases. Post-hoc analyses were conducted comparing infants and toddlers with previously reported samples of preschool and school-aged children on meal duration. Results demonstrated that in each group, children with CF had longer meals than age-matched controls. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings reveal significant deficits in achieving dietary recommendations for many families of infants and toddlers with CF. Only 11% of infants and toddlers with CF met the CF dietary recommendation of at least 120% of the RDA/day for energy. In addition, infants and toddlers were found to derive only 34% of their daily calories from fat, compared with the recommended 40% needed for a moderate to high fat diet. These results underscore the need for intervention in families of infants and toddlers with CF, who in addition to being at increased risk for malnutrition, may also experience a hastening in the decline of their pulmonary status because of poor nutritional status. Currently, there is limited programmatic research on nutritional and feeding interventions for toddlers and infants with CF. One study, which used a hospital-based behavioral education program to increase the caloric intake of 3 children (ages 10-20 months) who were below the fifth percentile for weight for length, found at least a 54% increase in calories for each child after treatment. Similarly, preliminary findings of 2 parent-based interventions, a nutrition education curriculum and a nutrition education plus behavior parent-training curriculum, found a 22% and 32% increase in daily calories, respectively, at treatment completion. A large-scale clinical trial is needed to evaluate the efficacy of any nutritional intervention before widespread dissemination. Additional assessment-focused research is also needed to identify patients' who may be at greatest risk for malnutrition and to guide the development of interventions to treat them.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1975

Interactions of black inner-city mothers with their newborn infants.

Interactions of 45 black inner-city mothers with their healthy full-term newborn infants were observed during a bottle-feeding on the third day after birth. An exhaustive catalog of some 100 mother and infant behaviors was used to describe objectively the interactions of mothers and infants. In addition to being observed with their mothers, infants were examined with the Rosenblith scale. The infants' birth weights, birth order, and sex and maternal medication were found to affect the infants' behaviors and/or the patterns of mother-infant interactions.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Temperament of preterm infants at 4 months of age: maternal ratings and perceptions.

The purpose of this study was to compare temperament of preterm infants born at 34 weeks gestation or earlier with that of healthy, term infants at 4 months of age by maternal ratings and maternal perceptions and to examine the role of social support on maternal assessments of infant temperament. The mothers of preterm infants completed the Early Infancy Temperament Questionnaire (EITQ) and the Maternal Social Support Index when the child reached 4 months adjusted age. The EITQ assesses infant temperament by maternal ratings of specific infant behaviors and by mothers' global perceptions of infant temperament. Mothers of healthy term infants completed the same instruments when they brought their 4-month-old infant for a pediatric visit. Mothers rated preterm infants as having more negative mood (p = .01) and being less adaptable (p = .03) than term infants. However, mothers perceived that preterm infants were more difficult overall (p = .00001), had more negative mood (p < .005), were less regular (p = .02), and were less adaptable (p = .03). Mothers perceive preterm infant temperament to be more difficult than that of term infants and to be more difficult than is indicated by ratings of individual infant behaviors.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

Multidimensional sources of infant temperament.

Previous research on infant temperament has implicated a variety of prenatal and perinatal conditions, but most studies have investigated a single source of infant variability. This study examined the impact of several prenatal and perinatal factors on infant outcome according to a conceptual system of hypothetical models of influence. Seventy-five couples expecting their first child were recruited and interveiwed in the last trimester of pregnancy, providing demographic data and measures of the pregnancy experience and expectations of parenting. Childbirth information was obtained from hospital records, and infant behaviors were measured at three days of age by the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale. Results indicate that the antecedent variables are themselves intercorrelated in that older, more highly educated, and financially secure couples are more likely to have a satisfying pregnancy and to be confident about childbirth and parenting than their young, more anxious counterparts. Two statistical methods--partial correlation and path analysis--were used to analyze relative relationships with infant behaviors. Results from both methods indicate that most of the antecedent variables (parental characteristics of age and socioeconomics, parental pregnancy orientation, and use of obstetric anesthesia) must be considered sources of infant behaviors. These findings thus demonstrate the imprecision of inferring a single causal pathway of parental or perinatal influence on infant temperament.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1983

Maternal and child characteristics associated with mothers' perceptions of their high risk/developmentally delayed infants.

Mothers of 46 high risk infants, many of whom were developmentally delayed, were visited in their homes at approximately 9 months post-expected-date-of-delivery. The Perception of Baby Temperament (PBT) scales and the Profile of Mood States were administered and an observation of infant, parent, and parent-infant behavior was made. Infants were most likely to receive higher PBT scores on more than one scale if their mothers were more highly educated and reported lesser degrees of depression and anxiety. Infants who were perceived as more active and approaching by their mothers tended to be rated as more responsive by the observer and to show less developmental delay. Mothers who rated their infants as more active tended to show greater responsiveness to the infant and to participate in reciprocal activities with the infant more frequently during the home visit. These findings demonstrate that mothers' perceptions of high risk/developmentally delayed infant temperament are associated with similar categories of variables found to correlate with maternal perceptions of developmentally normal infant temperament.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2004

The effect of postnatal depression on mother-infant interaction, infant response to the Still-face perturbation, and performance on an Instrumental Learning task.

A representative community sample of primiparous depressed women and a nondepressed control group were assessed while in interaction with their infants at 2 months postpartum. At 3 months, infants were assessed on the Still-face perturbation of face to face interaction, and a subsample completed an Instrumental Learning paradigm. Compared to nondepressed women, depressed mothers' interactions were both less contingent and less affectively attuned to infant behavior. Postnatal depression did not adversely affect the infant's performance in either the Still-face perturbation or the Instrumental Learning assessment. Maternal responsiveness in interactions at 2 months predicted the infant's performance in the Instrumental Learning assessment but not in the Still-face perturbation. The implications of these findings for theories of infant cognitive and emotional development are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The interactive newborn bath.

The interactive newborn bath is an innovative approach to the traditional baby bath. This article uses a Brazelton infant behavior perspective to describe a rationale and methodology for this family-centered nursing intervention. It offers the nurse detailed suggestions for observing and identifying infant states, interpreting infant behavior, calming and orienting newborns, and eliciting selected reflexes. In this approach, the nurse assumes an expanded role as a facilitator of infant-parent interaction. The baby's behavior and the bath experience are used to engage parents with their newborns. The nurse encourages parents to observe, touch, and respond to their infants in order to develop more responsive parenting skills and better enjoy their babies. The interactive approach can enrich nursing practice by transforming the standard newborn bath into an exploratory adventure in which the nurse joins with parents to better understand and respond to the newest member of their family.

Baths↗
PubMed2003

Measuring sensitivity moment-by-moment: microanalytic look at the transmission of attachment.

Meta-analyses have indicated that the mediating power of sensitivity in the transmission of attachment across generations is not nearly as great as would be predicted by attachment theory (van IJzendoorn, 1995; De Wolff & van IJzendoorn, 1997). To make sense of these findings, the author suggests that current measures of sensitivity should be expanded to include the assessment of mother-infant behavior on a micro-behavioral level. This paper reviews evidence for two central propositions: (1) The internal working model of mothers is expressed in subtle, fine-grained interactive behaviors with their infants, and (2) infants perceive and remember these behaviors in the form of interactional expectancies. Following these propositions, hypothesized representational micromodels for each major attachment organization are then offered, based on the Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP) approach to information processing. In closing, this paper presents some of the most pressing unresolved issues for attachment researchers as they seek to empirically identify the mechanisms by which attachment is transmitted across generations.

Child↗