In the present study, linkages were examined between parental behaviors (maternal practices) at bedtime, emotional availability of mothering at bedtime, and infant sleep quality in a cross-sectional sample of families with infants between 1 and 24 months of age. Observations of maternal behaviors and maternal emotional availability were conducted independently by 2 sets of trained observers who...

There are many aspects of "mothering" that may provide information to the mammalian infant about environmental conditions during critical periods of development. One essential element of mothering involves the quantity and quality of milk that mothers provide for their infants, but little is known about the consequences of variation in milk production. Mother's milk may affect infant behavior b...

The usefulness of genetic progress for litter size in pig breeding is limited by mothering ability and piglets survival. It is a critical aspect for breeds used as dam lines, in which litter weight (LW) at weaning could be an alternative selection goal. Our objective was to investigate the genetic basis of LW at 21days for the six first parities in 1,449 Iberian sows with available records from...

Despite impaired mother-child interactions noted in youth with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), there is no such information for their siblings. This study aimed to test whether the affected and unaffected siblings, like youth with ADHD, also encountered impaired mothering and mother-child relationships as compared to typically developing youth (TD). The sample consisted of 122 ...

Investigations were made into the genetics of temperament in Merino ewes, with emphasis on those aspects which might have associations with maternal behaviour and postnatal survival of lambs. A data set of over 2000 animals and more than 20,000 records was analysed for estimation of genetic parameters. The heritability of ewe mothering temperament was 0.39 ± 0.02, indicating a moderate genetic ...

The maternal representations as described by Stern (1995:171-190) are used in an extreme case to illustrate the link between depression and pathogenic maternal representations. The “motherhood constellation” focuses on the woman’s representation of her mother as mother-of-herself-as-child, herself-as-a-mother and her representations of her child. Depression impacts seriously and negatively on t...

Abstract Mothering a child who lives with disability, or congenital facial condition can impact quality of life. This appertains to relationships, isolation, and feelings exclusion, result in ongoing vigilance, grief, may be addressed via faith future hope. In this IPA study we explore the lived experience non-facially disfigured mother mothering her Living Facial Eye Disfigurement (LwFED). Sem...

Abstract Maternal gift-giving sustains life and creates positive human relations. Addressing important issues in the theory of language communication, Genevieve Vaughan associates mothering to free gift economy. A fundamental hypothesis is that maternal gift-giving, mothering/being-mothered forms a non-essentialist, but core process material verbal communication has been neglected by Western vi...