Instruments to measure interaction of mothers and newborns: A systematic review.

Interactions between newborns and their parents/primary caregivers are characterized by asymmetric and dependent relationships. This systematic review mapped, identified, and described the psychometric parameters, categories, and items of instruments used to assess mother-newborn interaction. Seven electronic databases were accessed in this study. Furthermore, this research included neonatal interaction studies describing instruments' items, domains, and psychometric properties while excluding studies that focused on maternal interactions and lacked items for assessing newborns. Additionally, studies validated with older infants that did not have a newborn in the sample were used for test validation, which is a criterion used to decrease the risk of bias. Fourteen observational instruments from 1047 identified citations were included that addressed interactions using varying techniques, constructs, and settings. Particularly, we focused on observational settings that assessed interactions with communication-based constructs in the context of proximity or distance as influenced by physical, behavioral, or procedural barriers. These tools are also used to predict risk behaviors in a psychological context, mitigate feeding difficulties, and conduct neurobehavioral assessments of mother-newborn interactions. The elicited imitation was also an observational setting. This study found that the most described properties in the included citations were inter-rater reliability followed by criterion validity. However, only two instruments reported content, construct, and criterion validity, as well as a description of an internal consistency assessment and inter-rater reliability. Finally, the synthesis of the instruments reported in this study can guide clinicians and researchers in selecting the most appropriate one for their own application.

The temporal dimension in the understanding of maternal sensitivity in caregiver-infant interactions: The 'Early Mother-Child Interaction Coding System'.

Caregiver-child interaction is known to play a central role in children's socioemotional development, yet the diversity of measures commonly used to evaluate it call into question the nature of the construct being assessed. Contingency within caregiver-child interactions has been identified as a key dyadic process that requires taking a temporal perspective to evaluating interactions. The Early Mother-Child Interaction Coding System is a psychometrically sound measure that sequentially code the flow of interactive and non-interactive behaviours within a caregiver-infant system. Its use of the framework of nonlinear dynamical systems (NDS) expands our understanding of contingent caregiver-infant dyadic behaviour.

The Temporal Dimension in Maternal Sensitivity Predicting Organized Attachment in Children.

This study analyzed Maternal Sensitivity in the interaction of mother-infant dyads to distinguish different dynamics associated with their attachment group membership - Insecure-Avoidant (A), Secure (B), or Insecure-Resistant (C), with no Disorganized traits - that they developed at 15 months. Participants were 26 eight-month old infants interacting with their mothers in a free-play setting. The analyses used sequential streams of infant actions and maternal responses, and state-space grids to study the temporal organization of the sequences. We examined appropriateness and promptness of the maternal response to infant behavior and a dynamic analysis of the interactive process. In Group B, when the antecedent behavior was infant social approach, the appropriateness of the maternal profile (sensitive vs. intrusive responses) was related to their children's subsequent security. However, how promptly mothers responded was not predictive. Conversely, when the antecedent behavior was infant play, how promptly the mothers responded was associated with securely attached children while mothers' profile of appropriate responses did not distinguish the subsequent quality of attachment. The indices derived from state-space grids were associated with attachment type and distinguished Group C from Groups B and A. However, results from analysis of a specific region of states, 'maternal interfering response to infant social approach,' showed significant discriminant function that correctly classified 78% of Group B, 73% of Group A, and 83% of Group C. Group B infants received less intrusive behavior than their counterparts, and when they did, it involved positive affection or playfulness. Finally, regarding attractors, although more Group B dyads showed multi-stability of coexisting attractors, than Groups A or C, the differences were not statistically significant.

Parental and Infant Gender Factors in Parent-Infant Interaction: State-Space Dynamic Analysis.

This study aimed to investigate the influence of parental gender on their interaction with their infants, considering, as well, the role of the infant's gender. The State Space Grid (SSG) method, a graphical tool based on the non-linear dynamic system (NDS) approach was used to analyze the interaction, in Free-Play setting, of 52 infants, aged 6 to 10 months, divided into two groups: half of the infants interacted with their fathers and half with their mothers. There were 50% boys in each group. MANOVA results showed no differential parenting of boys and girls. Additionally, mothers and fathers showed no differences in the Diversity of behavioral dyadic states nor in Predictability. However, differences associated with parent's gender were found in that the paternal dyads were more "active" than the maternal dyads: they were faster in the rates per second of behavioral events and transitions or change of state. In contrast, maternal dyads were more repetitive because, once they visited a certain dyadic state, they tend to be involved in more events. Results showed a significant discriminant function on the parental groups, fathers and mothers. Specifically, the content analyses carried out for the three NDS variables, that previously showed differences between groups, showed particular dyadic behavioral states associated with the rate of Transitions and the Events per Visit ratio. Thus, the transitions involving 'in-out' of 'Child Social Approach neutral - Sensitive Approach neutral' state and the repetitions of events in the dyadic state 'Child Play-Sensitive Approach neutral' distinguished fathers from mothers. The classification of dyads (with fathers and mothers) based on this discriminant function identified 73.10% (19/26) of the father-infant dyads and 88.5% (23/26) of the mother-infant dyads. The study of father-infant interaction using the SSG approach offers interesting possibilities because it characterizes and quantifies the actual moment-to-moment flow of parent-infant interactive dynamics. Our findings showed how observational methods applied to natural contexts offer new facets in father vs. mother interactive behavior with their infants that can inform further developments in this field.

Mother-Infant Verbal and Nonverbal Interaction as Predictor of Attachment: Nonlinear Dynamic Analyses.

This longitudinal study examined flexibility in early mother-infant interaction at the age of approximately 6 months (N=30) and whether flexibility indices predicted (in) secure child attachment at 15 months. Dyadic flexibility was measured using dynamic systems-based modelling of patterns during mother-child free play in terms of NDS variables derived from SSG: the propensity to change states (dynamic flexibility), number of states visited (diversity) and predictability (dispersion). Results showed significant discriminant functions on the attachment type groups, A, B & C, for the total grid, which included verbal and non-verbal, and for the reciprocal verbal region. Specifically, the prediction outcomes seem to work better in total grid for A-dyads and in the reciprocal verbal region for B and C-dyads. Diversity emerged as the most relevant index in dyadic flexibility: A-dyads showed the least diversity, distinguished them from B-dyads in the verbal regions, (both the reciprocal and non-reciprocal, 'child verbal-mother non-verbal' one), and, from C-dyads in the reciprocal non-verbal region. A-dyads showed remarkably low activity in the regions involving child verbal behavior, showing that children who became avoidant attached at 15 months of age, were mostly silent at approximately 6 months, when they interacted with their mothers. Findings in this study contribute to advancing conceptually informed measurement of dyadic interaction to provide a new perspective on maternal sensitivity and early markers of child insecure/secure attachment.

Dose-effect on the mothers and babies attending the Programa de Apoyo Psicológico P/Materno-Infantil© / Efecto de la dosis de intervención del Programa de Apoyo Psicológico P/Materno Infantil© sobre las madres y sus bebés

Se analizan los efectos de la dosis de intervención del Programa de Apoyo Psicológico P/Materno Infantil© (Cerezo 1992). Es un Programa dirigido a toda la población, que apoya a los padres durante los primeros 18 meses de vida del bebé, cuyo objetivo es promover sistemas adaptativos protectores en los niños. Los efectos de la dosis de intervención se evalúan sobre las madres, en sus niveles de distrés o malestar psicológico informado por ellas, y sobre sus bebés, en el tipo de apego que desarrollan evaluado con la "Situación Extraña" de Ainsworth y colaboradores (1978). La muestra son 342 familias que acuden al Programa entre 2 y 4 visitas antes de la evaluación post-intervención. Los resultados indican que se requieren al menos 3 sesiones de intervención para que se produzcan descensos significativos de las puntuaciones que obtienen las madres en distrés entre la evaluación pre y post. La proporción de niños con apego seguro es mayor cuando la familia acude 3 ó 4 visitas que cuando acude 2. También, se observa que las madres de niños con apego inseguro tienen puntuaciones más altas en distrés, y en otros factores que afectan la parentalidad, que las madres de niños con apego seguro

This paper presents an analysis of the intervention dose-effect of the Parent Child Psychological Support Program© (Cerezo 1990) a program aimed at promoting protective adaptive system in children which is offered to all newborns in a given catchment area. The program offers support to parents during the first 18 months of the baby’s life. The program dose-effect is examined regarding the parents by examining the level of distress reported by them and with babies by examining the development of attachment using the Strange Situation test of Ainsworth et al. (1978). The study is based on 342 families who made between 2 and 4 visits to the Pro-gram before being evaluation post-intervention. The results indicate that at least 3 program sessions are required to produce a significant decrease in the distress scores for mothers, between pre and post evaluation. The pro-portion of children with secure attachment is greater when the family attends 3 or 4 times, compared to those who attend on 2 occasions. It was also noted that mothers of children with insecure attachment had higher scores on the maternal distress and other factors affecting parenting than mothers of children with secure attachment

Mother-infant interaction and quality of child's attachment: a nonlinear dynamical systems approach.

The traditional classification of infant attachment described three distinct types (Ainsworth et al. 1978): Secure (B), Insecure-avoidant (A), and Insecure-resistant (C). Research shows that the quality of infant attachment reflects the child's history of interaction with their primary caregiver and, therefore, maternal sensitivity and appropriateness of maternal responses during the first year of life has been found to predict infant attachment. In this study Nonlinear Dynamic Systems (NDS) approach was applied to broaden the study of maternal sensitivity into the overall temporal organization of mother-infant relationship exchanges. The study focuses on understanding the differences between secure and insecure attached children by applying NDS in two temporal scales: real time and a developmental scale, with the notions of 'flexibility' and 'self-organization', respectively. Infants, classified as securely or insecurely attached at 15 months, had free-play situations with their mothers, at 6 and 12 months of age, videotaped and coded in real time. Results showed that at 6 months dyads from the B group, compared to the non-B group, showed higher flexibility through several NDS indices derived from the State-Space Grid method (SSG). The dyads at 12 months did not show differences in those indices. Moreover, B group showed self-organization by decreasing the number of attractors, from 6 to 12 months of infant's age, in contrast with A and C groups that either showed less self-organization, by increasing the number of attractors, or stayed basically as they were at 6 months. Furthermore, the B group showed an increase in the proportion of attractors with higher values from time 1 to time 2, in contrast to the non-B groups. Findings provide some grounds for using a SSG approach to deepen the construct of maternal sensitivity in dyadic terms.

Mother-infant interaction and children's socio-emotional development with high- and low-risk mothers.

Charting the dynamic character of mother-infant interaction requires using observational systems of sequential coding in real time. A longitudinal study was designed to approach maternal sensitivity in a more complex way using sequential analysis. The study was conducted with 20 high- and 20 low-risk mothers and their infants (aged: 3, 12 and 15 months) to examine the relation among mothers' risk status for physical abuse and their maternal interactive profiles, using micro-social sequential analyses, and the subsequent quality of attachment developed by their children at 15 months of age. Results showed significantly different timings in maternal responses in high- and low-risk groups, that the high-risk mothers were less sensitive: more intrusive and less discriminate regarding their infant's behavior. Significant differences between groups were also found after infant difficult behavior. High-risk mothers' infants were significantly more likely to develop insecure attachment. Sensitivity is proposed as a constellation of timings in early mother-infant interaction.

Interacción temprana madre-hijo y factores que afectan negativamente a la parentalidad / Early mother-infant interaction and factors negatively affecting parenting

El modelo del procesamiento de información social contribuye a identificar los procesos psicológicos subyacentes al constructo de «sensibilidad» en interacción madre-hijo. Los estados emocionales negativos por inadecuada autorregulación materna ante los estresores afectan sus habilidades atencionales y estadios del procesamiento de las señales infantiles llevándola a actuaciones menos sensibles: respuestas inoportunas, asincrónicas, particularmente insatisfactorias cuando el bebé manifiesta quejas/ llanto porque no le proporcionan la autorregulación emocional necesaria. Este estudio microsocial explora perfiles interaccionales secuenciales de reacciones maternas a conductas infantiles positivas/neutras vs. difíciles y los compara en dos grupos de díadas, uno con madres con alto nivel de factores negativos para la parentalidad y otro con bajo nivel. Las circunstancias desfavorables de madres del grupo alto y sus efectos negativos sobre la interacción se observaron en ciertas reacciones que no discriminaban el antecedente infantil y particularmente tras los estados de arousal negativo del bebé cuando el papel regulador materno es más necesario

The social information-processing model contributes to identifying the psychological processes underlying the construct «sensitivity» in early mother-child interaction. Negative emotional states associated with inadequate self-regulation in coping with stressors affect the mother’s attention skills and the processing of the baby’s signals. This leads to less synchronous parental practices, particularly unsatisfactory when the baby is unhappy, or crying because the required self-regulation is not provided. This micro-social research studies the sequential profile of maternal reactions to the baby’s positive/neutral vs. difficult behaviours and compares them in two groups of dyads, one with mothers who reported high levels of distress and other negative factors for parenting and another group with low levels. The unfavourable circumstances of the high stress group and their negative effects on interaction were observed in some indiscriminate maternal responses and particularly as they reacted to their baby’s difficult behaviour, when the mother’s regulatory role is more necessary