Correlates of Foster Mother-Infant Bonding

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议的研究的第一个目的是检查寄养母亲的承诺报告的变化，以及寄养母亲与其寄养婴儿关系的前三个月之间的神经生物学，心理生理学和行为相关性。第二个目的是确定预测因素的个别差异之间的联系养母。拟议的研究项目整合了多种技术来实现这些目标。生物测量将包括养母的催产素，一种与债券形成相关的激素的生产，以及养母的“动机注意力”（通过事件相关电位测量）表现出对寄养婴儿的图像的反应。寄养母亲的承诺是通过一个半结构化的采访，其中包括有关寄养母亲的感情，在他们的照顾婴儿的问题。行为测量包括寄养母亲在玩耍中对婴儿表现出的快乐程度。这些因素将在每个寄养母亲在安置的第一周和婴儿与寄养母亲生活三个月后进行评估。从这项研究的结果将扩大了解如何alloparent债券的形式，协助确定寄养母亲可能有困难，形成承诺债券寄养婴儿，并在发展干预计划，旨在促进高质量的寄养母婴债券是有用的。因为这项研究将增加对与寄养父母-婴儿关系形成和寄养婴儿发展有关的保护和风险因素的理解，所以这项研究与在寄养中治疗婴儿或参与寄养婴儿安置决定的各个领域的专业人员高度相关。这项研究对公共卫生领域也有很高的相关性，因为它将有助于努力减少寄养婴儿的发展和社会情感问题的风险，这些问题与药物滥用问题，外在化和内在化障碍有关，后来在童年和青春期。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The first aim of the proposed research study is to examine changes in foster mothers' reports of commitment, and neurobiological, psychophysiological, and behavioral correlates of bond formation among foster mothers across the first three months of the relationship with their foster infants. The second aim is to identify predictors of individual differences in the bonding among foster mothers. The proposed research project integrates multiple techniques to achieve these goals. Biological measurements will include the foster mothers' production of oxytocin, a hormone associated with bond formation, and the foster mothers' "motivated attention" (measured through event related potentials) exhibited in response to images of their foster infant. Foster mothers' commitment is measured through a semi-structured interview that includes questions regarding the foster mothers' feelings toward the infant in their care. Behavioral measures include the amount of delight that the foster mothers exhibit toward their infants in play. These factors will be assessed in each foster mother during the first weeks of placement and after the infant has lived with the foster mother for three months. Results from this study would broaden the understanding of how alloparental bonds form, assist in the identification of foster mothers who may have difficulty forming committed bonds to foster infants, and be useful in the development of intervention programs aimed at promoting high-quality foster mother-infant bonds. Because the research will increase the understanding of protective and risk factors related to foster parentinfant bond formation and foster infant development, such research is highly relevant to professionals in a variety of fields who treat infants in foster care or who are involved in foster infant placement decisions. This research study also has high relevance for the field of public health as it would contribute to efforts to reduce the risk of foster infants' developmental and social-emotional problems, which are associated with substance abuse problems, externalizing, and internalizing disorders later in later childhood and adolescence.