Poster #67 - Predictors of Change in Maternal Sensitivity Across Episodes in the Still Face Task

• In Event: Poster Session 13

Abstract

Maternal sensitivity is the extent to which mothers’ respond to infant cues contingently and appropriately (Ainsworth et al., 1974). Sensitivity in non-distressing and distressing contexts have been differentiated from one another in part because infant distress is a unique and challenging social cue (Leerkes et al., 2012). We examined (a) change in maternal sensitivity from the engagement to re-engagement episode of the Still-Face Task and (b) predictors of change with an emphasis on infant affect and maternal social cognition about crying.
Participants were 224 mothers (40.6% Non-White) and their 2-month-old infants (51.8% male). During their third trimester, women completed questionnaires assessing socioeconomic status (SES) risk (low maternal age, education, and income-to-needs ratio; α = .78), emotional risk (depressive symptoms, anxiety, emotion regulation difficulties, neuroticism, and agreeableness; α = .77), and cognitive and emotional responses to video clips of crying infants. The latter were differentiated into infant-oriented cry processing (i.e., adaptive cry beliefs and causal attributions, empathy, and accuracy identifying emotions) and mother-oriented cry processing (i.e., minimizing and negative causal attributions about crying, negative cry beliefs, anxiety and frustration in response to crying). At 2 months, maternal behaviors were rated separately during the engagement and re-engagement phase of the Still-Face Task using an adaptation of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (1999) 7-point sensitivity scale from 1 (very low) to 7 (very high). Total maternal sensitivity during the engagement phase and during the re-engagement phase reflected high sensitivity to distress and non-distress cues, and low intrusiveness and detachment (α = .85 and α = .84, respectively). Observed infant distress was rated on the same 7-point scale. Observed distress during the still-face engagement was subtracted from observed distress during still-face re-engagement; higher scores indicate increased distress. Consistent with prior research, infants were significantly more distressed during the re-engagement phase that followed the still face than during the engagement phase (Figure 1).
A latent change score model (Figure 2) was tested using Mplus (χ2 (6) = 26.94, p < .01; RMSEA = .11; CFI = .89; SRMR = .09). SES and emotional risk were included as covariates. On average, maternal sensitivity decreased from the engagement to the re-engagement episode ( = -.18, p < .01; see Figure 1). The average decline in maternal sensitivity was greater for mothers whose infants demonstrated higher increases in distress ( = -.44, p < .01) and for mothers who were higher in mother-oriented cry processing ( = -.16, p < .01). Infant-oriented cry processing was not related to change in maternal sensitivity. Neither infant-oriented nor mother-oriented cry processing moderated the association between change in infant distress and change in maternal sensitivity.
Results demonstrate the still face task is a challenge for mothers and that their ability to engage sensitively is especially compromised when their infants are more distressed and when they have negative emotional and cognitive reactions to crying. Interventions focused on reducing negative emotional and cognitive reactions to infant crying may enhance sensitive responding when infants are distressed.

Authors

• Savannah A. Girod, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
  Presenting Author

• Agona Lutolli, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

• Shourya Negi, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

• Cheryl Buehler, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

• Lenka Shriver, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

• Laurie Wideman, UNC Greensboro

• Esther M. Leerkes, UNC Greensboro