Poster #94 - Consistency in Maternal Affect and Infant-directed Speech Over the First Year of Life

• In Event: 3-159 - Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Section - Family Context & Processes

Integrative Statement

Introduction
Positive early parenting qualities, including display of positive affect and infant-directed speech (IDS), have been closely tied to better infant development outcomes across multiple domains including stress regulation, executive function, language and social development (Blair et al., 2008, Jahromi et al., 2004, Saint-Georges et al., 2013). Consistency in parenting has been established as a unique contributor to development in older children (Manczak et. al, 2018), but it may be of particular importance for infants. Caregivers shape various aspects of infant development and infants may benefit from a predictable environment when they are forming attachments and expectations about caregivers’ behaviors. Yet, little is known about individual-order continuity of specific parenting behaviors in the first year of life. Given the potential benefits of consistent parenting, it is important to identify family contextual contributors of consistency. Parenting infants, especially in the first year of life, can be a turbulent time for some mothers who are vulnerable to financial strain or psychological distress. These vulnerabilities may in turn impact consistency of their parenting behaviors. Thus, this study first investigated whether there is consistency in maternal parenting behaviors, such as maternal positive affect and IDS, when infants were 6 and 12 months of age. Then, we examined socioeconomic status (SES) and maternal depressive symptomatology as moderators of consistency in parenting.
Methods
Mothers (N=82, M=33.37years, SD=3.70) engaged in a 6-minute freeplay with their infants at home when their infants were 6 months old (M=6.69months; SD=0.43; 38 Females) and then in the laboratory when their infants were12 months old (M=12.18 months; SD= 0.73). Interactions were micro-coded to extract proportions of maternal positive affect and IDS (Feldman & Eidelman, 2004). SES was computed by standardizing and averaging income-to-needs ratios, parental occupational prestige and parental education levels when the infants were 6 months-old. Additionally, maternal depressive symptomatology was assessed by administering the Center for Epidemiologic Studies - Depression Scale.
Results
There was consistency of use of maternal positive affect (r(80)=0.33, p=.003) and IDS (r(81)=0.50, p<.001) from 6 to 12 months of infant age. We conducted moderation analyses to determine if individual-order continuity varied by SES. There was a significant interaction between maternal positive affect at 6 months and SES in predicting 12-month material positive affect, with the 95% confidence interval excluding zero, CI: 0.0009–1.19. Inclusion of this interaction effect significantly improved the model, R2 change = 0.05, F(1, 75) = 3.98, p < .05, indicating that SES moderated stability of maternal positive affect from 6 months to 12 months such that only mothers who had higher SES showed significant stability in maternal positive affect. Maternal depressive symptomatology did not moderate stability of maternal positive affect nor IDS.
Discussion
Findings confirm that maternal positive affect and IDS are consistent across the first year of life. However, infants with lower SES background are vulnerable to inconsistent parenting, experiencing no stability in maternal positive affect from 6 to 12 months. The fact that SES only moderated maternal affect stability and not IDS stability indicates that factors contributing to consistency of parenting may vary by specific parenting behaviors.

Authors

• Charu Tara Tuladhar, Boston University
  Presenting Author

• Amanda Tarullo, Boston University
  Non-Presenting Author