Gaze Synchrony between Mothers with Mood Disorders and Their Infants: Maternal Emotion Dysregulation Matters
نویسندگان
چکیده
A lowered and heightened synchrony between the mother's and infant's nonverbal behavior predicts adverse infant development. We know that maternal depressive symptoms predict lowered and heightened mother-infant gaze synchrony, but it is unclear whether maternal emotion dysregulation is related to mother-infant gaze synchrony. This cross-sectional study examined whether maternal emotion dysregulation in mothers with mood disorders is significantly related to mother-infant gaze synchrony. We also tested whether maternal emotion dysregulation is relatively more important than maternal depressive symptoms in predicting mother-infant gaze synchrony, and whether maternal emotion dysregulation mediates the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and mother-infant gaze synchrony. We observed 68 mothers and their 4- to 9-month-old infants in the Still-Face paradigm during two play interactions, before and after social stress was induced. The mothers' and infants' gaze behaviors were coded using microanalysis with the Maternal Regulatory Scoring System and Infant Regulatory Scoring System, respectively. The degree of mother-infant gaze synchrony was computed using time-series analysis. Maternal emotion dysregulation was measured by the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale; depressive symptoms were assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory. Greater maternal emotion dysregulation was significantly related to heightened mother-infant gaze synchrony. The overall effect of maternal emotion dysregulation on mother-infant gaze synchrony was relatively more important than the effect of maternal depressive symptoms in the five tested models. Maternal emotion dysregulation fully mediated the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and mother-infant gaze synchrony. Our findings suggest that the effect of the mother's depressive symptoms on the mother-infant gaze synchrony may be mediated by the mother's emotion dysregulation.
منابع مشابه
Infants’ Temperament and Mothers’, and Fathers’ Depression Predict Infants’ Attention to Objects Paired with Emotional Faces
Between 10 and 14 months, infants gain the ability to learn about unfamiliar stimuli by observing others' emotional reactions to those stimuli, so called social referencing (SR). Joint processing of emotion and head/gaze direction is essential for SR. This study tested emotion and head/gaze direction effects on infants' attention via pupillometry in the period following the emergence of SR. Pup...
متن کاملMaternal posttraumatic stress symptoms and infant emotional reactivity and emotion regulation.
The current study examined associations between maternal posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and infant emotional reactivity and emotion regulation during the first year of life in a primarily low-income, urban, ethnic/racial minority sample of 52 mother-infant dyads. Mothers completed questionnaires assessing their own trauma exposure history and current PTSD and depressive symptoms ...
متن کاملMaternal anxiety, mother-infant interactions, and infants' response to challenge.
Children of anxious mothers are at risk for social-emotional difficulties and disturbed, early interactions with their mother may account for some of the risk. This study evaluated the association between maternal anxiety, features of mother-infant interactions, and infants' emotion regulation during stressful situations (still-face, play with a stranger). Thirty-four anxiety-disordered mothers...
متن کاملSECTION 4. EMOTIONAL CARE OF THE AT-RISK INFANT Early Interventions for Infants of Depressed Mothers
Infants of mothers who remain depressed for 1 year after birth have a distinct profile of behavioral, physiologic, and biochemical dysregulation. Their mothers also have a distinct profile that can be used to target those in need of intervention. These interventions may include mood induction, massage therapy, interaction coaching, and natural buffers such as nondepressed fathers and caregivers...
متن کاملThe Effect of Maternal Depressed Mood on Infant Emotional Reaction in a Surprise-Eliciting Situation.
The purpose of this study is to examine the claim that an infant's ability to respond appropriately to an emotional situation varies according to the emotional state of the mother. Surprise expressions in mother and child were examined both in terms of paralinguistic aspects of surprise vocalizations as well as facial expressions. Seventy-two infants and their mothers (mean age=8 months, range=...
متن کامل