Hurricane Katrina-Related Maternal Stress, Maternal Mental Health, and Early Infant Temperament

Breastfeeding and maternal sensitivity predict early infant temperament.

AIM Research findings are inconclusive when it comes to whether breastfeeding is associated with the mother-infant relationship or infant temperament. We examined the association between breastfeeding at three months postpartum and infant temperament at 18 months postpartum and whether this link was affected by the mothers' anxiety and mediated by her sensitivity. METHODS We assessed 170 moth...

Maternal depression and infant temperament characteristics.

One hundred-thirty-nine women participated in this longitudinal study from the third trimester of pregnancy through 8-months postpartum. Women completed depression scales at several time points and rated their infant's characteristics and childcare stress at 2- and 6-months postpartum. Mothers' reports of infant temperament were significantly different for depressed and non-depressed mothers, w...

Prenatal maternal anxiety and early childhood temperament.

The consequences of exposure to prenatal maternal anxiety for the development of child temperament were examined in a sample of 120 healthy, 2-year-old children. Prenatal maternal state and pregnancy-specific anxiety (PSA) were measured five times during pregnancy, and maternal state anxiety was measured again at 2 years post partum. Child temperament was measured at 2 years using the Early Chi...

Infant Temperament, Maternal Personality, and Parenting Stress as Contributors to Infant Developmental Outcomes

Domestic violence, maternal parenting, maternal mental health, and infant externalizing behavior.

This study examined whether maternal functioning mediated the relationship between domestic violence (DV) and infant externalizing behavior. Participants were 203 mother-infant dyads. Support was found for a partially mediated model in which maternal functioning mediated the relationship between current DV and infant externalizing behaviors. Past DV was directly associated with infants' externa...