Prospective Prenatal Predictors of Maternal Sensitivity

• In Event: 3-129 - Examining Novel Predictors of Maternal Sensitivity during Infancy within the context of Risk

Integrative Statement

Past research has emphasized the importance of maternal sensitivity for the development of infants’ social, emotional, cognitive, and language development (Leerkes et al., 2015). However, there is a paucity of prospective, longitudinal research beginning during the prenatal period that examines the biobehavioral predictors of maternal sensitivity. Such research is important for determining which prenatal factors could be targeted with preventative interventions for pregnant women at risk due to high prenatal psychosocial stress. We examined the significance of a variety of novel biobehavioral prenatal factors thought to be predictive of maternal sensitivity. We hypothesized that women with more prenatal stress exposure, those who were more physiologically reactive to hearing an infant cry, and those who had difficulty accepting their emotions prenatally would be more likely to show insensitive caregiving behaviors in response to their infant’s distress.
Pregnant mothers participated in a prospective, longitudinal, federally funded study examining the intergenerational transmission of emotion dysregulation. Sixty-six mother-infant dyads (38 males) participated in lab visits prenatally and 7 months after birth. The total sample size is expected to be 150 by December, 2018. Modal household income was $40,000-$49,999, and 82.5% of mothers were non-Hispanic Caucasian.
When mothers were in their 3rd trimester, measures of autonomic stress responding (heart rate and respiratory sinus arrhythmia) were collected while mothers watched a videotape of an infant crying. Mothers also reported the extent to which they had difficulty accepting their own emotions, a marker of emotion dysregulation, from the difficulties with emotion regulation scale (DERS; Gratz & Roemer, 2004). At the prenatal visit, mothers responded to questions about chronic life stress from the UCLA life stress interview (Hammen, Marks, Mayol, & DeMayo, 1985). During the lab visit when infants were 7-months-old, trained research assistants coded mothers’ accepting and non-demanding behaviors observed during the recovery episode of the still-face paradigm. In this study we focused on maternal acceptance and non-demanding behaviors during the recovery phase of the still-face paradigm because sensitive behaviors in response to infant distress are a stronger predictor of social and emotional outcomes relative to sensitive behaviors during non-distress (Leerkes, Blankson, & O’Brien, 2009).
Mothers with high heart rate responses to hearing an infant cry prenatally showed less acceptance of their infant’s behaviors following the stress of the still-face at 7 months (r = -.43, p <.05). Mothers who also reported, prenatally, that they had more difficulties accepting their own emotions were in turn less accepting of the baby’s behaviors at 7 months ( r = -.43, p <.05). Finally, mothers who, prenatally, reported having a poor-quality relationship with their partner were more likely to be demanding when interacting with their infants at 7 months (r = -.43, p <.05). These results point to novel, prospective, biobehavioral prenatal indicators of maternal sensitivity that could be amendable to preventative intervention in pregnancy.

Authors

• Nila Shakiba, University of Utah
  Presenting Author

• Mindy Brown, University of Utah
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sarah Terrell, University of Utah
  Non-Presenting Author

• Brendan Ostlund, University of Utah
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sheila Crowell, University of Utah
  Non-Presenting Author

• Elisabeth Conradt, University of Utah
  Non-Presenting Author