Maternal Trait Anxiety Predicts Infant Stress Reactivity via Caregiving Behaviors

Download
index.pdf
2015
Aran, Özlü
Show full item record
239
views
96
downloads
Maternal caregiving behaviors are one of the most important factors preparing the infant to life outside. So far quality of maternal sensitivity has been found to shape stress reactivity of infants through biological changes in brain regions related to stress in the rat. That is, an intergenerational transmission of stress reactivity from mother to infants occurs by means of maternal sensitivity. Studies with human mother-infant dyads, although limited, imply a similar relationship. Hence, the current study aims to investigate if the link between maternal anxiety and infant stress reactivity is mediated by maternal sensitivity in infants between the ages of 8 and 13 months. Sixty mother-infant dyads participated in the study. All participants were visited at home setting for approximately 3 hours. Maternal anxiety was measured with the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and infant stress reactivity with soothability and falling reactivity subscales of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ). Maternal sensitivity was assessed with the Maternal Behavior Q-Set (MBQS) following naturalistic observations. The results demonstrated that while maternal trait anxiety predicted infant stress reactivity, maternal sensitivity did not. Rather than global sensitivity, specific caregiving behaviors related to infant soothability and reactivity mediated the relationship between maternal trait anxiety and infant stress reactivity. Therefore, results indicated that an intergenerational transmission of stress reactivity through caregiving behaviors might be present in humans as well. Future studies should further investigate this issue via observational and biological measures of infant stress reactivity.
Motherhood., Mother and child., Parenthood., Parent and child., Child psychology., Psychology M.S. thesis
http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12619390/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/25061
Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis

Suggestions

Infant temperament and maternal well-being: the mediating role of maternal psychological need satisfaction and need frustration
Turunç, Gamze; Selçuk, Emre; Uysal, Ahmet; Department of Psychology (2016)
The current research is one of the first studies focusing on well-being of parents of infants aging between 10-13 months in relation to basic psychological needs in a frame of Self-Determination Theory. In this frame, mother’s psychological need satisfaction and need frustration in different domains (autonomy, competence, and relatedness needs) were examined as explaining mechanisms. This study aimed to examine the relations between infant temperament, maternal basic psychological need satisfaction and frus...
Prediction of parenting styles from child and maternal temperamental characteristics
Gölcük, Merve; Kazak Berument, Sibel; Department of Psychology (2014)
The purpose of the current study is to predict parenting styles from child and maternal temperamental characteristics in the scope of Goodness of Fit Theory. Participants were the mothers and teachers of 3 and 4 year-old children recruited from childcare centres in the low, middle and high class communities in Ankara. Mothers completed the scales assessing child temperament, adult temperament and parenting attitudes. Teachers completed the child temperament questionnaire. Three sets of hierarchical multiple...
The Relationship between mothers’ parenting styles and emotion understanding of children through the mediator role of children’s perceived parenting styles of their mothers
Çalışkan, Arzu; Şahin Acar, Başak; Department of Psychology (2015)
The aim of the current study is to examine the effects of parenting styles of mothers and children’s perceived maternal parenting styles on children’s emotion understanding skills. This relationship is explored via the mediator role of perceived parenting styles of children. We recruited 130 primary school second grade children and their mothers in this study. Data was collected from children in different elementary schools in Ankara, from upper middle SES schools. Kusche Emotion Inventory, EMBU child and p...
Maternal psychological control and child temperament as predictors of preschoolers‟ internalizing problems: mediating role of guiit proneness
Ünal, Gülsün; Kazak Berument, Sibel; Department of Psychology (2015)
Parenting has been found to be an important determinant of child adjustment. Parental use of psychological control has been linked with children‟s internalizing problems during preschool years. The first aim of the present study was to investigate the relation between perceived maternal psychological control and preschoolers‟ internalizing problems. In addition, the mediating role of children‟s guilt proneness on that relation was examined. Moreover, the role of parenting and child temperament interaction i...
Empathy skills in middle childhood: the role of child’s temperament, parenting practices, and mother’s empathy
Yavaşlar, Yeşim; Kazak Berument, Sibel; Department of Psychology (2016)
The main aim of the current study is to investigate the role of children’s temperamental characteristics (inhibitory control and perceptual sensitivity), parenting practices (maternal warmth, inductive reasoning, and positive expressivity), and maternal empathy (affective, cognitive, and behavioral) on children’s affective, cognitive, and behavioral empathy skills. In addition, the moderator role of children’s perceptual sensitivity and gender is examined separately between parenting practices, maternal emp...
Citation Formats
Ö. Aran, “Maternal Trait Anxiety Predicts Infant Stress Reactivity via Caregiving Behaviors,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2015.
METU IIS - Integrated Information Service open@metu.edu.tr