L'influence du risque psychosocial, des conflits conjugaux et du stress parental sur la qualité de l'interaction mère-gar?on et mère-fille.

Studied the influence of familial and extrafamilial stressors on mother–son and mother–daughter interactions. Ss were 97 mothers and 99 normal preschool and school-age children (aged 31–70 mo). The mother–child dyads were observed in a laboratory setting in the presence of another unfamiliar mother–child pair. The quality of the mother–child interactions was analyzed in relation to questionnaire data on parental stress, marital adjustment, frequency of social contacts, and SES. Results from mother–daughter dyads and the mother–son dyads were compared. Several French-language instruments, including French versions of the Parental Stress Index (R. R. Abidin, 1983) and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (G. B. Spanier, 1976), were used. (English abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cellular autophagocytosis induced by deprivation of serum and amino acids in HeLa cells

Persons from 148 randomly selected households in an urban community were screened in their homes using a modified British Medical Research Council respiratory disease questionnaire and a portable spirometer. Analysis showed a significant tendency for chronic bronchitis to aggregate within households. Significant aggregation was observed for 1-sec forced expiratory volume, when measured as the per cent of the predicted value or as a score calculated from the data. The 1-sec forced expiratory volume was significantly correlated between siblings, but less clearly so between spouses. Correlation of 1-sec forced expiratory volume between mother and child appeared to be confounded by maternal smoking habits, an effect most notable between mothers and male offspring. The 1-sec forced expiratory volume of fathers was significantly correlated with that of their children, especially female children, an effect that appeared to be independent of smoking habits.     

The mother's psychophysiological reactions to contrasting affective expressions by her own and an unfamiliar infant.

Investigated mothers' autonomic reactions to their own infants' emotional states. 17 mothers of 5-mo-olds viewed 2 landscape scenes and 4 types of videotaped segments depicting their own baby and an unfamiliar baby smiling or crying. Each episode was presented for 3 consecutive 10-sec trials, and order of stimulation was varied systematically. Initial presentations of Ss' own infants evoked cardiac acceleration and large skin conductance responses (SCRs), whereas cardiac deceleration and smaller SCRs were evoked by the unfamiliar infant crying. Episodes displaying the strange infant smiling and landscapes yielded nonsignificant trends toward cardiac deceleration and still smaller SCRs. Results indicate that mothers react with excitement to images of their own child and with patterns characteristic of environmental intake or orientation when viewing unfamiliar infants. Because parent–child relations are considered transactional, physiological indices of maternal responsiveness to infant behaviors are useful as potential predictors of developmental outcome. Hence, it is concluded that the findings that mothers display differential physiological reactions to their own and unfamiliar infants are especially promising. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Grandmothers' responsibility in raising two-year olds facilitates their grandchildren's adaptive behavior: A preliminary intrafamilial investigation of mothers' and maternal grandmothers' effects.

To investigate the extent to which the presence of their maternal grandmother might facilitate independent and adaptive responding, 2-year-old children were observed in a novel environment. Although the two-year-olds' extent of exploration and amount of time spent in a playroom were significantly greater when their mother was present than when an unfamiliar person was present, the grandmother's functional characteristics were on an intermediate level between those of the mother and those of the unfamiliar person. However, the more responsibilities that grandmothers reported customarily assuming for their grandchildren, the more similarly the children in the playroom reacted to their mothers and grandmothers. Extended involvement by a sensitive grandmother may enhance her grandchild's relationship with her. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Synchrony, pseudosynchrony, and dissynchrony: Measuring the entrainment process in mother-infant interactions.

We examined a new method for studying synchrony (i.e., the coordination of movement between individuals in social interactions) in two studies. Raters viewed video clips of interactions and judged the level of synchrony occurring between a mother and a 14-month-old child. Some of the video clips were genuine interactions, but most were pseudointeractions artificially constructed from the genuine interactions via split-screen editing techniques. For mothers interacting with their own children, genuine synchrony was significantly higher than pseudosynchrony, a difference that increased with time. When mothers interacted with an unfamiliar child, however, genuine synchrony was not higher than pseudosynchrony. In fact, mothers with unfamiliar children showed a state of dissynchrony (levels of genuine synchrony significantly lower than levels of pseudosynchrony). Our results suggest that synchrony can be reliably rated, thus allowing future investigations to include such measurements when studying social interaction processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Peer interaction in young deaf children: The effect of partner hearing status and familiarity.

14 deaf 54–83 mo olds were videotaped playing once with each of 4 partners: a familiar deaf playmate, a familiar hearing playmate, an unfamiliar hearing child who was a playmate of another deaf child, and an unfamiliar hearing child who had little experience playing with deaf children. 21 hearing and 7 deaf playmates participated. Deaf Ss rarely used language, and formal language use was not related to measures of interaction or play even when playing with another deaf child. Instead, interaction and pretense seemed to be related to the deaf Ss' nonlinguistic communication abilities. Partner hearing status primarily affected communication, with communication between deaf playmates being more visual (both linguistic and nonlinguistic) and less object-based than communication between deaf and hearing playmates. Familiarity played a larger role than experience in improving interaction between deaf and hearing children. The hearing children were more responsive to and used more visual communication devices with their deaf playmate than an unfamiliar deaf child. But the hearing playmates were no better at playing with an unfamiliar deaf child than were hearing children who had little experience playing with deaf children. Implications for the understanding of young children's communication abilities and for deaf educational programs are discussed. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Home observations of mothers and sibling dyads comprised of Down's syndrome and nonhandicapped children.

Observed interaction in 31 mother–child–child triads in which 1 of the children had Down""s syndrome. Down""s syndrome siblings were all aged 18–117 mo, nonhandicapped siblings were aged 12–132 mo, and mothers were aged 30–46 yrs. Mothers were more positive and directive toward their children with Down""s syndrome but received more positive initiations from their nonhandicapped children. Significant reciprocity between mother and child was found in dyads with a handicapped child but not in dyads with a nonhandicapped child. The handicapped child""s negative behavior toward the sibling was the most important predictor of interaction across the triad. Individual differences in the social behavior of children with Down""s syndrome may have an impact throughout family systems. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mother and child interpretations of threat in ambiguous situations: Relations with child anxiety and autonomic responding.

This study examined maternal and child interpretive bias to threat (IBT) during dyadic conversation, child physiological reactivity and regulation during dyadic conversation, and maternal report of child anxiety in a community sample of 35 mothers and their 8- to 10-year-old children. Mothers and children discussed one neutral and six ambiguous scenarios, which were subsequently coded for frequency of maternal and child initiation, minimization, and expansion of threat-related themes. Child electrocardiogram data were collected during these conversations and maternal reports of child anxiety and internalizing problems were obtained. Across the sample, children initiated threat-related discussion more often than mothers. Maternal threat expansions were significantly positively correlated with child anxiety and internalizing behaviors. Maternal minimizations of threat were significantly associated with augmented child vagal tone throughout the IBT paradigm. Implications for prevention of child anxiety and directions for extending IBT research within the context of the mother–child dyad are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marital conflict and the quality of young children's peer play behavior: The mediating and moderating role of parent–child emotional reciprocity and attachment security.

Parent–child attachment security and dyadic measures of parent–child positive and negative emotional reciprocity were examined as possible mediators and moderators of the connection between marital conflict and children's peer play behavior. Eighty parents were observed in a laboratory play session with their 15- to 18-month-old child. Subsequently, at 36 months children were observed interacting with peers at their child care setting. Connections between marital conflict and children's positive peer interaction were mediated by mother–child attachment security, mother–child positive emotional reciprocity, and father–child negative emotional reciprocity. Connections between marital conflict and children's negative peer interaction were mediated by mother–child positive emotional reciprocity and father–child attachment security. Parent–child attachment security and negative emotional reciprocity emerged as important moderators of the connection between marital conflict and children's peer play behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sensitivity and teaching by dysphoric and nondysphoric women in structured versus unstructured situations.

This study compared the sensitivity and teaching strategies of dysphoric and nondysphoric women working with unfamiliar 5- and 6-year-olds. Interactions of 20 dysphoric and 20 nondysphoric mothers and an unfamiliar child were observed during 2 classification tasks and 3 unstructured activities staged as breaks. Nondysphoric women were more sensitive to children's level of understanding than dysphoric women and were more likely to use a variety of teaching strategies. Dyads with nondysphoric women were also more likely to share decision making than dyads with dysphoric women. These differences between dysphoric and nondysphoric women were significant only in the structured classification tasks. The findings indicate that in some situations dysphoric and nondysphoric women vary in their sensitivity to children's cues and in the teaching strategies they use with children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of visual and auditory aspects of mothers and strangers on the play and exploration of children.

To examine the effects of auditory and visual contact with mothers, 67 preschoolers (mean age 42 mo) were accompanied into an unfamiliar playroom by either their mother, a broadcast of her voice, her televised visual image, or by 1 of 3 corresponding presentations of an unfamiliar woman. Regardless of how the mother was presented, the children approached her more frequently, spent more time near her, spoke to her more, explored more, and played more often with toys than they did with any of the presentations of the stranger. To test whether the effects of the mother's voice were dependent on the particular words she used, audio broadcasts of her reading either reassuring or irrelevant phrases were next presented to some children. The relevancy of the maternal verbalizations was not a significant factor. Findings demonstrate that for 3-yr-olds distal components of the mother possess many properties of the mother herself. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Breastfeeding, smoking and the presence of the child's father in the household

The breastfeeding practice of 312 mothers attending mother and child health centres in Oslo, Norway, was measured using self-administered questionnaires. Having started with supplements at 3 months postpartum was related to having a spouse/cohabitant, smoking, and having only one child (logistic regression with civil state, age, education, smoking, number of children, social support, smoking x civil state, and education x civil state as independent variables). The frequency of having started with supplements increased with increasing maternal cigarette consumption. Among non-smoking, married/cohabiting mothers, the frequency of having started with supplements at 3 months postpartum was 41% if the spouse/cohabitant smoked, compared with 18% if he did not smoke (p < 0.01).     

The relations between temperament and empathy in 2-year-olds.

The role of infant and toddler temperament in the prediction of empathy in 2-year-old children was examined. Assessments of temperament included reactivity and affect observed at 4 months of age, as well as inhibition at Age 2. Empathy was measured in 2-year-old children's responses to simulations of distress performed by their mothers and by an unfamiliar person. Children showed relatively more concern for the mother's distress, but they were also responsive to unfamiliar victims. Infants who were unreactive and showed little affect also showed less empathy toward the unfamiliar adult almost 2 years later. Inhibition toward an unfamiliar adult (but not toward the mother) at 2 years of age was negatively related to empathy. Inhibited temperament may thus have a major impact on young children's empathy in unfamiliar contexts. Findings also highlight the need to consider early underarousal as another dimension of temperament that may dampen expressions of empathic concern. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Genetic liability, environment, and the development of fussiness in toddlers: The roles of maternal depression and parental responsiveness.

Using a longitudinal, prospective adoption design, the authors of this study examined the effects of the environment (adoptive parents' depressive symptoms and responsiveness) and genetic liability of maternal depression (inferred by birth mothers' major depressive disorder [MDD]) on the development of fussiness in adopted children between 9 and 18 months old. The sample included 281 families linked through adoption, with each family including 4 individuals (i.e., adopted child, birth mother, adoptive father and mother). Results showed that adoptive mothers' depressive symptoms when their child was 9 months old were positively associated with child fussiness at 18 months. A significant interaction between birth mothers' MDD and adoptive mothers' responsiveness indicated that children of birth mothers with MDD showed higher levels of fussiness at 18 months when adoptive mothers had been less responsive to the children at 9 months. However, in the context of high levels of adoptive mothers' responsiveness, children of birth mothers with MDD did not show elevated fussiness at 18 months. Findings are discussed in terms of gene–environment interactions in the intergenerational risk transmission of depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Infant-mother recognition in a social rodent (octodon degus).

Octodon degus (degu), a biparental species with precocious offspring is a potential model for the study of social attachment and related affective disorders such as depression. This study investigates the nature of the social bond between young degus and their mothers with a special emphasis on infant-mother recognition. We tested young degus in a potentiation paradigm to determine if social contact, particularly with the mother, can modulate an infant's vocal response to isolation. One week later, animals were presented with a choice between their mother and an unfamiliar female or a sample of familiar and unfamiliar nesting materials. Subsequently, the ability of whole litters to discriminate between their mother and unfamiliar females was tested. We observed that infant degus alter their isolation response after brief social contact. Degu infants readily distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar nesting materials but fail to differentiate between their mother and unfamiliar females in an identical setting. Nevertheless, entire litters show a preference for their mothers when tested similarly in a group, demonstrating a perhaps socially facilitated ability to recognize the biological mother at an early age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mother–child patterns of coping with anticipatory medical stress.

Studied maternal influences on children's fear and coping behaviors during a medical examination in a pediatric outpatient clinic, using a dyadic prestressor interaction scale to measure anticipatory reactions just prior to contact with the physician. Analysis of 50 mother–child dyads, including children aged 4–10 yrs, revealed that the behaviors emitted by mother and child are likely to influence the child's ability to tolerate the medical experience. Maternal use of distraction and low rates of ignoring were associated with lower child distress and increased prosocial behaviors. Children's active exploration of the situation was more likely to occur when mothers provided their children with information, and it was less likely when mothers reassured their children. Maternal reassurance of children and overt maternal agitation were associated with more maladaptive child responses. Age trends were also found in interactive patterns. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Violence conjugale et qualité de la relation mère-enfant: Effet médiateur ou modérateur de la santé des mères ?

Mothers' health and quality of mother–child relationship are often held as factors that predict the adaptation of children exposed to domestic violence, but the connection between these factors has not been analysed yet. This study verifies if mothers' health has a mediator or a moderator effect on the connection between domestic violence and mother–child relationship. The study was conducted with 111 abused women and their children aged 6 to 12 years. An indicator of physical health and a score of psychological distress were used to measure mothers' health. The mother–child relationship was evaluated from both the mother's and the child's perspective. The results show that the 2 indicators of mother's health have no mediator effect, but have a moderator effect when the mother–child relationship was evaluated by children themselves. The discussion underlines the importance of mother's health as a protective factor for mother–child relationship and the incidence of this result for intervention. The interest of having multiple informants is also underlined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Donor insemination: child development and family functioning in lesbian mother families

Findings are presented of a comparative study investigating the family relationships and the emotional and gender development of children raised in lesbian mother families. A total of 30 lesbian mother families with 4-8 year old children created as a result of donor insemination (DI) were compared with 38 heterosexual families with a DI child and with 30 heterosexual families who had a naturally conceived child. A variety of assessment measures, including a standardized interview and questionnaires from the parents and psychological testing of the child were used to collect the data. The quality of the couples' relationships and the quality of the mother-child interaction did not differ between lesbian mother families and either of the heterosexual family groups. The quality of the interaction between the social mother and the child in lesbian families was superior to that between the father and the child in both groups of heterosexual families. Childrens' own perception of their parents was similar in all family types; the social mother in lesbian families was regarded by the child to be as much a 'parent' as the father in both types of heterosexual families. With regard to their emotional/behavioural development, boys and girls raised in lesbian mother families were well adjusted and their gender role development did not differ from that of children raised in heterosexual families. These results indicate that child and family development in lesbian mother families is similar to that of heterosexual families.