Sensitivity and parental mental health

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Sensitive parenting is crucial for child development and studies suggest that maternal sensitivity contributes to the child´s cognitive and language development, as well as the
development of socioemotional competence. Sensitivity is understood as the parent´s ability to identify the child´s cues, interpret them correctly, and provide a prompt and appropriate response. It has been consistently claimed that maternal sensitivity is negatively affected by mental health symptoms. Studies assessing mother-infant interactions often describe depressed mothers as disengaged or withdrawn towards their children, and as having less coordinated interactions than non-depressed women. Similarly, women reporting high levels of anxiety are often described as intrusive and controlling when interacting with their infants. Despite this evidence, research with diverse populations does not always support the negative association between maternal sensitivity and mental health, particularly when studying non-clinical samples of mother-infant dyads at psychosocial risk. This symposium will address the inconsistent association between maternal sensitivity and mental health problems, as well as possible explanatory mechanisms for this phenomenon. Contradictory evidence on this topic derived from studies with parents and children of diverse developmental stages will be discussed by three presenters.

Sub Unit

• Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Chair

• Soledad Coo Calcagni, Universidad del Desarrollo (UDD)

Discussant

• Natasha J Cabrera, University of Maryland - College Park

Individual Presentations

• Maternal Mental Health, Maternal sensibility, and cognitive stimulation during infancy: The case of Chile - Presenting Author: Marigen Narea, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

• Fathers and mothers differ in the relation between depression and parenting stress, paternal sensitivity, cognitive stimulation and children´s executive functions. - Presenting Author: Daniela Aldoney, Universidad del Desarrollo (UDD); Fernanda Prieto, Universidad del Desarrollo (UDD)

• Quality of mother-infant interaction, breastfeeding, and perinatal mental health. - Soledad Coo Calcagni, Universidad del Desarrollo (UDD); Maria Ignacia García, Universidad del Desarrollo (UDD); Fernanda Prieto, Universidad del Desarrollo (UDD); Presenting Author: Daniela Aldoney, Universidad del Desarrollo (UDD)