The Significance of Mothers’ Attachment Representations for Vagal Responding During Interactions with Infants

• In Event: Biobehavioral influences of environmental stress and caregiving behaviors on child outcomes

Abstract

Despite the theorized significance of attachment for shaping neurobiological systems involved in emotional responding within interpersonal interactions (e.g., Coan, 2016; Hane & Fox, 2016), relatively little is known about the significance of mothers’ attachment for their neurobiological responding during interactions with their infants. Indeed, nearly all research conducted to date has examined adults’ physiological responding to unfamiliar infant stimuli among non-parents (e.g., audio-recordings of infant crying; Ablow et al., 2013; Schoenmaker et al., 2015). Thus, little is known about the real-world significance of mothers’ attachment for shaping physiological responding during interactions with offspring that supports caregiving behavior.

To close this gap, we examined links between mothers’ attachment representations and their RSA responding—a physiological indicator of self-regulation—while they interacted with their infant in the Still-Face Procedure (SFP; Tronic et al., 1978) in a sample of 139 mothers and their 6-month-old infants. Mothers completed the Attachment Script Assessment (Waters & Rodrigues-Doolabh, 2004) – a word-prompt procedure in which individuals develop attachment-relevant narratives coded for secure base script knowledge (SBSK), or an understanding that attachment relationships serve secure base and safe haven functions. Mothers’ RSA was assessed during the SFP in which mothers played normally with their infants (i.e., normal play), became emotionally and behaviorally unresponsive to their infants (i.e., still-face), and then re-engaged their infants in normal interaction (i.e., reunion).

Latent growth curve analysis indicated significant variability in mothers’ RSA reactivity over the course of the SFP. We found a significant main effect for SBSK (β = 0.21, p = 0.01) predicting the slope of mothers’ RSA during the SFP (Figure 1). This result indicated that mothers with higher levels of SBSK exhibited greater dynamic change in RSA over the course of the SFP characterized by lower levels of RSA during the normal play episode, higher levels of RSA during the still-face episode, and lower levels of RSA during the reunion; whereas for mothers with lower levels of SBSK, this pattern of RSA reactivity was blunted (Figure 2). Findings indicate that mothers’ higher (vs. lower) on SBSK exhibit RSA responding expected to support active behavioral coping during normal play and reunion (Mills-Koonce et al., 2007; Porges, 2007)—consistent with the need to engage infants in social interaction—and RSA responding during the still-face episode expected to support efforts to calm the body and empathize with infant’s distress (Hastings & Miller, 2013; Miller et al., 2015, 2016)—consistent with the constraint that mothers refrain from interacting with infants during this distressing social disruption.

Findings from this study extend prior work by further suggesting that attachment insecurity is associated with mothers’ poorer autonomic physiological regulation when interacting with infants in an interpersonally challenging context. Such evidence helps elucidate the particular challenges parents face when caring for infants as a function of attachment history that might prove useful in identifying more specific targets for attachment-based interventions aimed at promoting parental responsiveness to infants, and signals the need for further research on the significance of adult attachment for the neurobiology of caregiving.

Authors

• Nanxi Xu, Vanderbilt University
  Presenting Author

• Ashley M. Groh, University of Missouri - Columbia
  Non-Presenting Author