Links between Maternal Anxiety Symptoms, Maternal Vagal Regulation, and Infant Attachment

• In Event: Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Topic - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Abstract

Infant attachment insecurity is a risk factor for poor outcomes related to social-emotional functioning in children (Groh et al., 2017), as well as anxiety and depression in adolescents (Lee & Hankin, 2009). Thus, it is important to understand predictors of infant attachment insecurity.
Maternal anxiety symptoms are associated with infant attachment insecurity (Scher & Mayseless, 2000; Stevenson-Hinde et al., 2011). One potential explanation for this link is that maternal emotion regulation may be disrupted when mothers experience anxiety. Emotion regulation of self and infant is the primary role for caregivers (Thompson, 1994). In order to attend to their distressed infants, mothers must be able to cope with and regulate their own negative emotions (Mills-Koonce et al., 2007). Maternal emotion regulation can be examined in the context of physiological reactivity, as measured by vagal regulation (Moore et al., 2009) and in fact, there is evidence that vagal regulation (indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA] reactivity) is related to parenting behaviors and infant attachment outcomes (Leerkes et al., 2016; Leerkes et. al, 2014; Joosen et al., 2012; Mills-Koonce et al., 2007). Research has also separately demonstrated a link between anxiety and diminished RSA reactivity in people with generalized anxiety disorder (Kircanski, et al., 2016; Fisher & Newman, 2013; Hoehn-Saric, et al., 2004), suggesting that anxiety symptoms may influence RSA.
Two competing models will be tested. Both a moderated mediation model (Figure 1) and alternative moderational model (Figure 2) will be tested to examine the links between maternal anxiety symptoms, maternal vagal regulation (RSA reactivity in response to a challenging parenting task), and infant attachment. In both models, infant negative affectivity will be included as a moderator, given theory and research suggesting infants with greater temperamental negative affectivity are more susceptible to environmental influences (van IJzendoorn & Bakermans-Kranenburg, 2012).
The proposed mediational model is shown in Figure 1. The proposed alternative moderational model is shown in Figure 2. In the moderational model, the expected inverse link between maternal anxiety and infant attachment security is expected to be stronger if infants are higher in NA and if mothers display higher vagal augmentation (or show lower vagal suppression).
Data have been collected from 228 mothers and their infants. Mother-infant dyads completed a lab visit when infants were 6 months old. Maternal RSA was measured using MindWare ambulatory equipment, and data were cleaned for movement artifacts. Maternal anxiety was assessed using the Brief Symptom Inventory 18 (Derogatis, 2000) and infant negative affectivity was assessed using the Infant Behavior Questionnaire (Rothbart 1981, 1986). Dyads returned to the lab at 12 months to assess infant attachment security, using the Strange Situation (Ainsworth et al., 1978), and coded by reliable coders using the method by Fraley & Spieker (2003), resulting in a continuous score on attachment security. Data analysis will be completed using the PROCESS version 3 macro (Hayes, 2017) to examine both competing models, and analyses will be completed prior to April, 2021.

Authors

• Taryn L Hollander, Lehigh University
  Presenting Author

• Susan Soledad Woodhouse, Lehigh University
  Non-Presenting Author