Research That Matters (January 17 - 20, 2008)

Purpose: Most infant mental health interventions focus on parent cognitions about their infants and/or parent-infant interaction. Yet linkages between the ways in which parents think about their infants and the ways in which parents behave with their infants have not been thoroughly examined empirically.

Methods: 218 young African-American women between the ages of 14 and 21 were recruited through obstetrics clinics at an urban teaching hospital. Most women were unmarried and giving birth for the first time.

At interviews during the second trimester of pregnancy and when their infants were four months old, mothers were asked open-ended questions about their babies, such as “Do you have thoughts about what your baby will be like?” Coders, blind to information about the mothers, read transcribed responses and used 5-point Likert scales to rate the “positivity” and “richness” of mothers' descriptions. Responses were also coded for the presence of the ten most common content themes: (1) easy-to-take-care of characteristics, (2) challenging/difficult-to-care for characteristics, (3) bio-regulatory functioning (eating, sleeping), (4) health, (5) physical appearance, (6) active/busy behavior, (7) intelligence, (8) talking/vocalizing, (9) “spoiled” behavior, (10) bold/stubborn/strong personality.

Mothers and infants were also videotaped on the first day after birth and at four months. Coders used the Parent Child Observation Guide to code maternal sensitivity and maternal encouragement of learning.

Results: When pregnant women spoke more positively about their unborn infants, they were more sensitive in interaction during the postpartum period (r=.22). When mothers' descriptions of their infants were richer during pregnancy, they were more sensitive and encouraging of learning with their newborn infants (r=.21 and r=.25). Mothers who discussed temperamental traits of their babies-to-be--including easy, active, bold, and difficult behavior--were more encouraging of learning with their newborns than were other mothers.

Mothers who showed greater positivity and richness in descriptions of their four-month-old infants were rated as more sensitive and encouraging of learning in interaction at four months (correlations ranged between .19 and .25). Mothers who characterized their four-month-old babies as smart were more encouraging of learning (r=.22). Mothers who discussed negative temperamental traits, such as spoiled or difficult, were less sensitive with their infants (r=-.18).

Implications: Findings document correspondences between how mothers think about their babies and aspects of their behavior with their infants that have known linkages to infant socioemotional and cognitive development. Findings suggest the importance of working with new mothers or high-risk mothers around the representations they hold of their children. In particular early intervention strategies that encourage pregnant women to begin developing rich conceptualizations and imaginings about their babies and to think about their babies as unique individuals may be beneficial. Also helping mothers develop positive ways of framing challenging infant behavior (using words such as bold or strong, rather than bad or spoiled) might in turn be related to more sensitive parenting behavior. Encouraging mothers to frame their infants' attentiveness and curiosity as indicators of intelligence may be related to parenting behavior that is more encouraging of learning.