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3-224 - Maternal distress: Associations with mother-infant emotional availability and implications for child development
Sat, April 8, 4:30 to 6:00pm, Austin Convention Center, Meeting Room 18CSession Type: Paper Symposium
Integrative Statement
Maternal distress during pregnancy, and early parenting stress, is related to deficiencies in children’s social competence and regulative skills (Anthony et al., 2005; Neece and Baker, 2008; Mathis and Bierman, 2015), and can disrupt infant neurocognitive development (Monk et al., 2013), though recent evidence suggests that this effect may be moderated by mother-infant attachment (Bergman et al., 2010).
Guided by the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHAD) hypothesis, which posits that early experiences (including prenatal experiences) shape the future child’s developmental and health trajectory, papers in this symposium explore different forms of prenatal and postnatal distress and subsequent social, emotional and cognitive outcomes for children. In particular, papers are unified in their focus on Emotional Availability (EA) as the primary outcome of interest, or as a mediator between effects of exposure to prenatal maternal distress and subsequent developmental outcomes. EA is defined as a quality of parent-child dyads, measured by observer ratings of interactions, taking into account both adult and child contributions to a relationship (Biringen et al., 2000).
This symposium brings together research from diverse samples representing Finland, Germany and Australia. Taken together, findings highlight the ways in which factors such as maternal depression, anxiety, stress, obesity, are associated with later mother-infant emotional availability. Further, emotional availability of the dyad was related to developmental outcomes for children in some contexts, but not others. These four papers offer a broad overview of the role of EA in child development, with notable commonalities as well as differences across contexts.
Sub Unit
Chairs
Individual Presentations
Mother-infant emotional availability in two risk groups: children of prenatally distressed mothers and children born very preterm - Presenting Author: Riika Korja, University of Turku, Finland; Liisa Lehtonen, Department of Pediatrics, Turku University Hospital and University of Turku, Finland; Linnea Karlsson, University of Turku, Finland; Suvi Stolt, University of Helsinki, Faculty of Behavioural Sciences, Speech and Language Pathology; Hetti Lahtela, University of Turku, Finland; Eija Sinerva, University of Turku, Finland; Hasse Karlsson, University of Turku, Finland
Prenatal maternal distress, mother-infant emotional availability, and infant cognitive outcomes - Presenting Author: Clare McCormack, Columbia University; Catherine Monk, Columbia University; Delyse Hutchinson, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW, Sydney, Australia and Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development, Department of Psychology, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia; Larissa Rossen, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW, Sydney, Australia; Lucy Burns, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW, Sydney, Australia; Elizabeth Elliott, 5Paediatrics and Child Health, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia; Craig Olsson, Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development, Department of Psychology, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia; Steve Allsop, National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University, Perth, Australia; Sue Jacobs, Department of Obstetrics, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, Australia; Richard Mattick, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW, Sydney, Australia
Prediction of children's social competence by maternal EA and parenting stress in a sample of German mothers with elevated BMI - Presenting Author: Sarah Bergmann, Leipzig University Medical Center, IFB Adiposity Diseases and Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, University of Leipzig, Germany; Kai von Klitzing, University of Leipzig; Annette M Klein, University of Leipzig
Emotional availability, Reflective functioning and Adult Attachment among prenatally depressed mothers predict child well-being - Presenting Author: Saara Salo, Helsinki University Central Hospital (HUCH), Psychiatric Center for under school-aged childer; Marjo Flykt, University of Tampere, Finland; Marjukka Pajulo, Department of Child Psychiatry, University of Turku, Finland, Academy of Finland; Raija-Leena Punamäki, School of Social Sciences and Humanities/Psychology, University of Tampere, Finland; Esa Palosaari, School of Management, University of Tampere, Finland; School of Bussiness, Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland; Zeynep Biringen, Department of Human Development & Family Studies, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA