Maternal Responsiveness (maternal + responsiveness)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Maternal behavior changes after immune challenge of neonates with developmental effects on adult social behavior

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOBIOLOGY, Issue 1 2003
Kathryn E. Hood
Abstract To examine whether maternal responsiveness during interactions with endotoxin-treated pups contributes to long-term effects on social development, neonatal mice were fostered on postnatal day 1 to dams from three selectively bred lines that differ in social behaviors. On day 5, neonates were administered saline or 0.5 mg/kg endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide, i.p.). Observations of undisturbed dams and litters on days 2, 4, 6, and 8 showed modest line differences in maternal behaviors. At the peak intensity of the transient illness induced by endotoxin (3 hr postinjection on day 5), dams increased licking and decreased time off-nest for endotoxin, but not saline-treated pups. As adults, fostered-reared males were observed in brief social interactions. Males exposed to endotoxin early in life showed changes in adult social behaviors that depended on foster dam line as well as individual differences in maternal responsiveness. Maternal responsiveness to stressed neonates can ameliorate the social,developmental effects of early illness. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 42: 17,34, 2003. [source]


Motivational systems and the neural circuitry of maternal behavior in the rat

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOBIOLOGY, Issue 1 2007
Michael Numan
Abstract Jay Rosenblatt's approach-avoidance model of maternal behavior proposes that maternal behavior occurs when the tendency to approach infant stimuli is greater than the tendency to avoid such stimuli. Our research program has uncovered neural circuits which conform to such a model. We present evidence that the medial preoptic area (MPOA: located in the rostral hypothalamus) may regulate maternal responsiveness by depressing antagonistic neural systems which promote withdrawal responses while also activating appetitive neural systems which increase the attractiveness of infant-related stimuli. These MPOA circuits are activated by the hormonal events of late pregnancy. Preoptic efferents may suppress a central aversion system which includes an amygdala to anterior hypothalamic circuit. Preoptic efferents are also shown to interact with components of the mesolimbic dopamine (DA) system to regulate proactive voluntary maternal responses. We make a distinction between specific (MPOA neurons) and nonspecific motivational systems (mesolimbic DA system) in the regulation of maternal responsiveness. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 49: 12,21, 2007. [source]


Maternal behavior changes after immune challenge of neonates with developmental effects on adult social behavior

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOBIOLOGY, Issue 1 2003
Kathryn E. Hood
Abstract To examine whether maternal responsiveness during interactions with endotoxin-treated pups contributes to long-term effects on social development, neonatal mice were fostered on postnatal day 1 to dams from three selectively bred lines that differ in social behaviors. On day 5, neonates were administered saline or 0.5 mg/kg endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide, i.p.). Observations of undisturbed dams and litters on days 2, 4, 6, and 8 showed modest line differences in maternal behaviors. At the peak intensity of the transient illness induced by endotoxin (3 hr postinjection on day 5), dams increased licking and decreased time off-nest for endotoxin, but not saline-treated pups. As adults, fostered-reared males were observed in brief social interactions. Males exposed to endotoxin early in life showed changes in adult social behaviors that depended on foster dam line as well as individual differences in maternal responsiveness. Maternal responsiveness to stressed neonates can ameliorate the social,developmental effects of early illness. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 42: 17,34, 2003. [source]


The role of maternal responsiveness in predicting infant affect during the still face paradigm with infants born very low birth weight

INFANT MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL, Issue 2 2008
Sarah J. Erickson
There is limited empirical literature addressing infants' response to a standardized stressor with infants born very low birth weight (VLBW). The purpose of this study was to assess the relative strength of maternal responsiveness in predicting infant affect in response to the Still Face (SF) paradigm in a cross-sectional cohort of ethnically diverse infants born VLBW and their mothers (N = 50; infants 6,8 months old). Infant affect and maternal responsiveness were coded in 1-s intervals while dyads participated in the SF. In addition, perinatal medical status, developmental status, and infant temperament were assessed. Findings revealed that positive infant affect during and after the SF stressor were strongly associated with baseline infant positive affect and maternal responsiveness at the reunion episode, respectively. In contrast, when predicting negative infant affect during and after the SF stressor, prior infant negative affect was strongly and uniquely significant. Infant positive affect, negative affect, and maternal responsiveness were not significantly associated with gender, infant perinatal medical history, developmental status, or temperament. Future research is warranted to determine how these findings relate to infants' stress reactions in naturalistic settings and if relationship-focused interventions may reverse infant negative emotionality, enhance positive emotionality, and thereby improve self-regulation and longer term social and cognitive developmental outcomes in medically at-risk infants. [source]


Attachment in low-SES rural Appalachian infants: Contextual, infant, and maternal interaction risk and protective factors

INFANT MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL, Issue 6 2001
Margaret Fish
Attachment classifications were obtained for 95 low-socioeconomic-status (SES) rural Appalachian infants in the Strange Situation procedure at 15 months. The distribution of secure (B) and insecure (A, C, D) infants was similar to other low-SES samples and significantly different from low-risk samples. Levels of contextual and infant risk, together with maternal responsiveness to crying and pattern of sensitivity from 4 to 9 months, predicted attachment security. High social support, when examined as a protective factor, related to reduced contextual risk, but not to increased likelihood of security. Exploratory discriminant function analyses showed that infants in secure relationships differed in positive directions on contextual and maternal interactional factors. Insecure-organized (A and C) infants experienced contextual and maternal interaction risks, while insecure-disorganized (D) infants were best distinguished by infant characteristics, including greater likelihood of being male and low use of mother as a secure base at 9 months. ©2001 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health. [source]


Sexual Differentiation of Behaviour in Monkeys: Role of Prenatal Hormones

JOURNAL OF NEUROENDOCRINOLOGY, Issue 4 2009
K. Wallen
The theoretical debate over the relative contributions of nature and nurture to the sexual differentiation of behaviour has increasingly moved towards an interactionist explanation that requires both influences. In practice, however, nature and nurture have often been seen as separable, influencing human clinical sex assignment decisions, sometimes with disastrous consequences. Decisions about the sex assignment of children born with intersex conditions have been based almost exclusively on the appearance of the genitals and how other's reactions to the gender role of the assigned sex affect individual gender socialisation. Effects of the social environment and gender expectations in human cultures are ubiquitous, overshadowing the potential underlying biological contributions in favour of the more observable social influences. Recent work in nonhuman primates showing behavioural sex differences paralleling human sex differences, including toy preferences, suggests that less easily observed biological factors also influence behavioural sexual differentiation in both monkeys and humans. We review research, including Robert W. Goy's pioneering work with rhesus monkeys, which manipulated prenatal hormones at different gestation times and demonstrated that genital anatomy and specific behaviours are independently sexually differentiated. Such studies demonstrate that, for a variety of behaviours, including juvenile mounting and rough play, individuals can have the genitals of one sex but show the behaviour more typical of the other sex. We describe another case, infant distress vocalisations, where maternal responsiveness is best accounted for by the mother's response to the genital appearance of her offspring. Taken together, these studies demonstrate that sexual differentiation arises from complex interactions where anatomical and behavioural biases, produced by hormonal and other biological processes, are shaped by social experience into the behavioural sex differences that distinguish males and females. [source]


Racial Differences in Parenting Dimensions and Adolescent Condom Use at Sexual Debut

PUBLIC HEALTH NURSING, Issue 1 2006
Mary F. Cox
ABSTRACT Objectives: Parenting style may be a determinant in reducing adolescent risk behavior. Previous studies have relied on a typological parenting approach, with classification into four groups: authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and neglectful. In this study, two distinct parenting dimensions, demandingness and responsiveness, were examined as independent predictors of adolescent condom use. Design and Sample: This study used a subsample of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) that included 153 adolescent,mother pairs. Measurement: Maternal demandingness and responsiveness were measured using Wave I mother interviews. Logistic regression analyses were used to predict adolescent condom use at sexual debut at Wave II and to assess moderation by gender and race. Results: (1) Maternal demandingness predicted increased likelihood of condom use in African American adolescents but decreased likelihood of condom use in White adolescents; (2) maternal responsiveness did not predict condom use; and (3) gender moderation was not present. Conclusions: To provide appropriate family counseling, public health nurses need to consider racial differences in contraceptive practices. Education regarding parental supervision practices should be considered as part of nursing interventions intended to increase condom use in African American adolescents. [source]


Parenting and Child Behavioral Adjustment in Early Childhood: A Quantitative Genetic Approach to Studying Family Processes

CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 2 2000
Kirby Deater-Deckard
The aim of this study was to examine environmental and gene , environment processes linking parenting (i.e., affect, control, responsiveness) and preschool children's behavioral adjustment difficulties (e.g., noncompliance, conduct problems) by using bivariate genetic analyses of parents' and observers' ratings. The sample included 120 identical and same-sex fraternal twin pairs (M age = 43 months). Data sources included in-home observations, interviews, and parents' reports. Observers' ratings of children's difficult behaviors included shared and nonshared environmental variance. In contrast, parents' ratings of children's conduct problems showed genetic and nonshared environmental variance. Observer-rated maternal behavior included shared and nonshared environmental variance, although maternal responsiveness also included child genetic variance. Parent self-reported negative and positive affect included shared and nonshared environment as well as child genetic variance. There was no evidence for gene , environment interaction or dominance. Higher levels of difficult behavior and conduct problems covaried with higher levels of maternal negative affect and control and lower levels of maternal positive affect and control. Shared environmental mediation of these correlations was found for observations, whereas genetic and nonshared environmental mediation was found for parents' ratings. In general, estimates of shared environmental variance and mediation were greatest for observational data, and estimates of child genetic variance and mediation were greatest for parent-rated data. The implications of this pattern of findings for genetic research on family processes are discussed. [source]