Depressed Mothers’ and Their Infants’ Interactions with Nondepressed Partners

Twenty depressed adolescent mothers were videotaped interacting with their own infant and with the infant of a nondepressed mother. In addition. nondepressed mothers were videotaped with their own infant as well as with the infant of a depressed mother. Depressed mothers showed less facial expressivity than nondepressed mothers and received less optimal interaction rating scale scores (a summary score for state, physical activity, head orientation, gaze, silence during gaze aversion, facial expressions, vocalizations, infantized behavior, contingent responsivity, and gameplaying). This occurred independent of whether they were interacting with their own infant versus an infant of a nondepressed mother, suggesting that depressed mothers display less optimal behaviors to infants in general. The infants of both depressed and nondepressed mothers received better head orientation and summary ratings when they were interacting with another mother, perhaps because the other mother was more novel. Infants of nondepressed mothers, in particular, had better summary ratings (state, physical activity, head onentation, gaze, facial expressions, fussiness, and vocalizations) than the infants of depressed mothers when interacting with depressed mothers. Thus, it may be thathfants of nondepressed mothers are generally better interaction partners than infants of depressed mothers. Another related possibility is that they persist longer in trying to elicit a response from mothers less responsive than their own, given that they have learned to expect a response to their behavior. RkWMk: Vingt mbres adolescentes diprimCes ont it6 filmtes pendant leur interaction avec leurs propres nourrissons et avec les nourrissons de mbres nondkprimh. De plus, l a meres non-dtprirnh ont CtC film& avec leurs proprcs nourrissons ainsi qu’avec la nom‘ssons d’une mbre dkprimk. Des mhes d6primk ont fait &at d‘une UrpressivitC faaale moindre que les mkres nondiprimks et ont r e p dcs scores moins optimaux sur I’Cchelle d’tvaluation d’interaction. Et cela indkpendamment du fait qu’elles Ctaient avec leur propre nourrisson ou avec le nourrisson d’une mbre non-diprimkc, suggerant ainsi que We wish to thank all the mothers and infants who participated in this study, and the research assistants who helped with the data collection. This research was supported by NIMH Research Scientist Award #MH00331 and NIMH Basic Research Grant #MH46586 awarded to Tiffany Field. Correspondence and requests for reprints should be Sent to Ti5any Field, University of Miami School of Medicine, P.O. Box 016820, Miami, FL 33101. les mbres dCprim&s allichent en gknCral aux noumssons moins de comportements optimaux. Les nour74 @Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health A. Martinez el al. 75 rissons d’i la fois les meres d t p r i m b et les meres non-diprimits recurent une meilleure orientation de la tete et de meilleurs risultats a u scores lorsqu’ils ktaient avec une autre mbre, peutdtre parce que I’autre mere Ctait nouvelle. Les nourrissons de meres non-dkprimees, en particulier, avaient de meilleurs scores gtniraux que les enfants de meres dtiprimks ktant avec les meres diprimks. On peut peutdtre ainsi ttablir que la nourrissons de meres non-dtprimks sont genbralement de mejlleurs partenaires d‘interaction que les nourrissons de meres dbprimk. RESUMEN: Se prepararon dos videos; el primero, de veinte madres depresivas en su trato con sus propios infantes y con infanta de madru no depresivas; el enfoque del segundo video fueron las madres no depresivas en su trato con sus propios infanta, asi como tambiin con 10s infantes de una madre depresiva. Las madres depresivas mostraron menos expresividad en su rostro que las madres no depresivas, y redbieron, por tanto, puntajes menos bptimos en la escala de evaluacibn de la interaccibn. Esto ocurrib independientemente de si ellas estaban en trato con sus infantes o con el infante de una madre no depresiva, lo cud sugiere que las madres depresivas les muestran a 10s infantes menos conductas bptimas en general. Tanto 10s infantes de las madres depresivas, como 10s de las no depresivas recibieron mejor orientacih guia y promedios de evaluaci6n cuando ellos estaban en relacion con otra madre, quids porque la otra madre eratnueva para ellos. Cuando estaban en relaci6n con una madre depresiva, 10s infantes de las madres no depresivas, en particular, tuvieron mejores evaluaciones en tCrminos generales que aqukllos de madres depresivas. Por tanto, pudiera ser que infantes de madres no depresivas actlian por lo general mejor que 10s infantes de madres depresivas en su interaccibn con otros. Infants of depressed mothers often show a “depressed appearance,” which is characterized by flat affect and low activity levels (Cohn, Matias, Tronick, Connell, & Lyons-Ruth, 1986; Field, 1984). Field et al. (1988) demonstrated that the depressed affect noted in infants of depressed mothers was not specific to interactions with the infant’s depressed mother. In that study, infants of depressed mothers displayed depressed affect even when interacting with nondepressed females, who in this case were infant nursery teachers. The infants apparently were not simply mimicking their own depressed mother’s behavior, but instead they seemed to have developed a “depressed” style of behaving. Infants with a “depressed” style of behaving were also evident in studies on simulated maternal depression (Cohn & Tronick, 1983) and on real maternal depression (Field, 1984). The mothers and infants in these studies were videotaped in three different interactions: spontaneous play, mother being asked to look depressed, and reunion (return to spontaneous play). Infants of the nondepressed mothers showed distressed and disorganized behavior when their mothers ‘‘looked depressed.” However, infants of “naturally” depressed mothers did not show distress when their mothers “looked depressed,” suggesting that these infants had become accustomed to a depressed style of interacting. Field (1984) suggested that infants of depressed mothers had developed 76 Infant Mental Health Journal a passive coping, depressed style of interacting in response to the affective and behavioral cues given by their mothers. In addition, depressed mood continued in the infants of nondepressed mothers when the mothers’ depressed behavior simulation ended and the mothers had returned to their normal interaction style. This carryover effect of the “depressed” behavior on the part of the nondepressed infants was interpreted as the temporary establishment of a mood produced by the emotional unavailability of the mother during the simulated depression condition. In the study in which infants of depressed mothers acted depressed with nondepressed adults, the infants “depressed” style of interacting also had a negative effect on the nondepressed adult’s (teacher’s) behavior (Field et al., 1988). Even though the nondepressed teachers were unaware of the group classification of the infants, their behavior was less optimal with infants of depressed mothers. The mechanisms underlying this transfer of depressed mood to nondepressed adults are not clear. One question raised by the Field et al. (1988) study was whether the teachers may have been less sensitive interaction partners because they were not mothers. For that reason, in the current study, other mothers were used as the nondepressed interaction partners rather than teachers. Accordingly, depressed and nondepressed mothers interacted with their own infant as well as with an unfamiliar infant of a depressed or nondepressed mother. The same measures employed in the Field et al. (1988) study were used here. Thus, the present study investigated whether infants of depressed mothers generalized their depressed style of behaving to interactions with mothers who were not depressed. In addition, the design of the study enabled us to examine how infants of nondepressed mothers respond in interactions with depressed mothers.