Origins of Maternal Sensitivity to Infant Distress

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究的目的是确定母亲对痛苦的敏感性和母亲对非痛苦的敏感性是否是独特的构念：1)检查它们的因素结构；2)确定它们是否有不同的起源，并强调原生家庭的情绪社会化和由此产生的情绪相关图式；3)确定它们对婴儿社会情绪适应的预测是否存在差异。另一个目的是确定非裔美国人和欧洲裔美国人的结果是否不同。这项工作与儿童的心理健康有关，因为母亲对痛苦的敏感性是儿童积极结果的一个预测因素，但我们对促进对婴儿哭泣的敏感行为的过程知之甚少。确定影响母亲如何对其痛苦婴儿作出反应的过程以及这些过程的起源，将为开发筛查工具提供信息，以确定面临养育困难风险的母亲，并设计量身定制的干预措施，以培养敏感的母亲行为和生命早期积极的社会情感功能。250名初产母亲（150名欧洲裔美国人，100名非洲裔美国人）和她们的婴儿将参与这项研究。在产前期间，母亲将完成关于她们与自己父母关系的问卷调查和访谈，并将接受关于她们对痛苦婴儿录像带的反应的访谈；后者将收集唤醒和情绪控制的生理指标。在产后6个月和12个月，母亲和婴儿将参与录像评估，包括母亲对痛苦和非痛苦的敏感性，婴儿气质和情绪调节，以及依恋安全。在这些母婴互动任务中，收集母亲和婴儿的情绪唤醒和情绪控制的生理指标。在完成这些任务后，母亲将观看她们的视频片段，并接受采访，了解她们在任务期间的想法、情绪、目标和婴儿的行为。结果将扩展我们对在情绪唤起环境中影响母亲敏感性的过程的认识，这是儿童情感发展的关键环境。公共卫生相关性：提出的研究解决了与敏感的母亲行为反应婴儿哭泣相关的情绪和认知因素。先前的研究表明，母亲对痛苦的敏感性有助于在生命早期实现最佳的社会情绪功能；然而，人们对这种教养行为的起源知之甚少。对预测这种产妇敏感性的家庭和个人特征的检查将产生丰富的数据，可以为制定早期干预战略和程序提供信息，以确定需要这种服务的家庭。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of this project is to determine if maternal sensitivity to distress and maternal sensitivity to non- distress are unique constructs by: 1) examining their factor structure, 2) determining if they have different origins with an emphasis on emotion socialization in the family of origin and resulting emotion-related schema; and 3) determining if they differentially predict infant social emotional adjustment. An additional aim is to determine if the results vary between African American and European American dyads. This work is relevant to the mental health of children because maternal sensitivity to distress is a predictor of positive child outcomes, but we know little about the processes that promote sensitive behavior in response to infant crying. Identifying the processes that influence how mothers respond to their distressed infants and the origins of these processes will inform the development of screening tools to identify mothers at risk for parenting difficulties and the design of individually tailored intervention efforts to foster sensitive maternal behavior and positive social emotional functioning early in life. Two hundred and fifty primiparous mothers (150 European American, 100 African American) and their infants will participate in this study. During the prenatal period, mothers will complete questionnaires and an interview about their relationship with their own parents and will be interviewed about their responses to videotapes of distressed infants; physiological indices of arousal and emotional control will be collected during the latter. At 6 and 12 months postpartum, mothers and infants will participate in videotaped assessments of maternal sensitivity to distress and non-distress, infant temperament and emotion regulation, and attachment security. Physiological indices of mothers' and infants' emotional arousal and emotional control will be collected during these mother-infant interaction tasks. Upon completion of these tasks, mothers will watch their video footage and be interviewed about their thoughts, emotions, and goals and their infants' behavior during the tasks. Results will extend our knowledge of the processes that influence maternal sensitivity in emotionally arousing settings, a critical context for children's emotional development. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The proposed research addresses emotional and cognitive factors relevant to sensitive maternal behavior in response to infant crying. Prior research has demonstrated that maternal sensitivity to distress facilitates optimal social-emotional functioning early in life; however, little is known about the origins of this type of parenting behavior. The examination of familial and personal characteristics that predict this type of maternal sensitivity will yield rich data that can inform the development of early intervention strategies and procedures to identify families in need of such services.