Effects of Caregiver Psychopathology, Term Status, and Socio-environmental Risk Factors on Infant Duration of Orienting

• In Event: Poster Session 05
  In Poster Session: PS 05 Topic - Attention, Learning, Memory

Abstract

Introduction
Infant duration of orienting, the ability to focus and shift attention, is considered a precursor to effortful control and emotion regulation (Bridgett et al., 2010). Caregiver-infant interactions support the development of orienting and caregiver anxiety is linked to lower levels of duration of orienting (Gartstein et al., 2012). There is some evidence indicating higher reported levels of anxiety in caregivers of preterm infants and those living in areas with more socio-environmental risk factors (Holditch-Davis et al., 2009; Fabiyi et al., 2012). However, less is known about how caregiver anxiety and socio-environmental risk effect infant duration of orienting. It was hypothesized that caregiver anxiety would be negatively related to duration of infant orienting at six months, when differences in orienting manifest (Garstein & Rothbart, 2003). Moreover, caregivers of preterm infants and those from more impoverished communities were hypothesized to report higher levels of anxiety and lower duration of orienting.

Methods
As part of a larger, longitudinal, multisite study, 282 caregivers completed PediaTrac, an experimental web-based tool that examines infant and toddler development, the Brief Symptom Inventory and the Infant Behavior Questionnaire to assess parental psychopathology and duration of orienting, respectively, when infants were six months old (preterm = 117; full term = 165). Demographically, caregivers were similar at two of three sites, therefore they were combined into Site 1. Caregivers from Site 1 reported lower household incomes (50% of households below $55,000), less education (31% with a college degree or higher) and were less likely to be married (34%) compared to Site 2 (50% of households above $110,000, college degree = 77%, married 81%).

Results
Caregivers from Site 1 rated their infant higher on duration of orienting (M = 4.99; SD = 1.17) and reported lower anxiety (M = 44.64; SD = 13.5) than caregivers at Site 2 (orienting M = 4.13; SD = 1.18 , t(280) = 6.12, p < .001; anxiety M = 48.50 ; SD = 10.33, t(280) = 2.69, p < .01). Higher caregiver anxiety was correlated with lower levels of duration of orienting (r = -.12, p <.05). Regression analyses indicated that caregiver anxiety, site, term status, and site by term interaction accounted for 15% of the variance in duration of orienting, F(5, 276) = 11.28, p < .001.(Table 1). The site by term interaction was such that caregivers from Site 1 rated both full term and preterm infants higher in duration of orienting compared to Site 2 (Table 2).

Discussion
Our hypothesis that higher caregiver reported anxiety would predict lower reported infant duration of orienting was supported. When we included both site and term status, however, anxiety was no longer a significant predictor. Contrary to our hypothesis, greater infant duration of orienting was reported by caregivers with higher socio-environmental risks for both full-term and preterm infants compared to caregivers with lower socio-environmental risk. These findings suggest socio-environmental factors, more than whether the infant was full-term, may play a role in caregiver perceptions of infant duration of orienting development.

Authors

• Amanda Hicks, Eastern Michigan University
  Presenting Author

• Natalie Bisignano, Eastern Michigan University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Casey Swick, Eastern Michigan University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Angela D Staples, Eastern Michigan University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Renee Lajiness-O'Neill, Eastern Michigan University
  Non-Presenting Author