The Impact of Breastfeeding on Attachment Relationships and Responses to Child Emotions

• In Event: Poster Session 14
  In Poster Session: PS 14 Topic - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Breastfeeding is recommended for the first six months of life by the World Health Organization (WHO; 2013) due to its beneficial effects on health outcomes (Victora et al., 2016). Breastfeeding may also positively impact the mother-child relationship by facilitating maternal warmth and responsiveness to distress (Liu et al., 2013) and its effect on vagal regulation and the social nervous system (Quigley et al., 2017). As such, breastfeeding is considered important for building attachment relationships (Jansen et al. 2008), and stress regulation in children and mothers. Significant associations between breastfeeding duration and child attachment security (Linde et al., 2020), and between maternal attachment style and breastfeeding (Jones et al., 2020) have been shown. However, there is limited information regarding how breastfeeding is associated with both child and maternal attachment as well as how it may affect maternal responses to child distress after infancy. This study examined the associations between feeding method at 1-2 weeks, 3 months, and 12 months and subsequent observed child security, maternal attachment style, and maternal responses to their children’s negative emotions.

METHOD: Families (n=330) with children (51% female, 78% White) enrolled in a birth cohort study of nutrition and child health. In a subsample of families (n = 110, 52% female), child attachment security was assessed after a two-hour home observation using the Attachment Q-Sort (AQS) at 18-24 months. Mothers reported their method of feeding over the first year: Exclusive Breastfeeding (EBF); Exclusive Formula Feeding (EFF); or Mixed Feeding (MF). Maternal attachment-related Anxiety and Avoidance were measured at 18 months using the Relationship Styles Questionnaire (RSQ), and mothers reported on their responses to their children’s distress using the Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale (CNNES; Fabes et al., 1990). Composite scores were calculated by averaging Positive and Negative subscales.

RESULTS: Brown-Forsyth tests revealed differences in CNNES scores by feeding method at 1-2 weeks for Negative F(2,51.47) = 4.21, p = .020 scores. Games-Howell post-hoc analyses indicated that mean Negative Reaction scores were significantly higher for moms who EFF than mothers who MF (p = .042; Table 1). At 3 months, differences were found in Positive Reaction scores F (2, 114.87) = 4.47, p = .013; maternal attachment-related Anxiety F (2,126.98) = 6.42, p < .002; and observed child attachment security F (2, 93) = 3.82, p = .025. Mothers who MF had higher Positive CNNES scores than mothers who EFF (p = .029). Attachment-related Anxiety was higher in EFF moms compared to EBF moms (p =.001). There were no significant findings for child security. At 12 months, t-tests revealed that mothers who were still breastfeeding at all had significantly lower attachment-related Anxiety t (237) = 2.14, p = .033, and lower Negative CNNES scores t (239) = 2.37, p = .019, than mothers who were not BF or MF.

CONCLUSIONS: Breastfeeding has important implications for the parent-child relationship, including how mothers respond to children’s negative emotions. Attachment-related anxiety may also be important to consider in efforts to promote breastfeeding.

Authors

• Kelly K. Bost, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  Presenting Author

• Sharon Donovan, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
  Non-Presenting Author

• Alyssa C Parsons, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  Non-Presenting Author