Relations between infant irritability and maternal responsiveness in low-income families

doi:10.1016/S0163-6383(98)90043-1

Infant Behavior and Development

Volume 21, Issue 4, 1998, Pages 761-777

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0163-6383(98)90043-1 Get rights and content

Abstract

Relations between infant irritability and maternal responsiveness at 12 and18 months were investigated in low-income mother-infant dyads. Emphasis was placed on whether results varied according to measurement strategies, infant gender, or level of maternal social support and satisfaction with that support. Irritability was measured separately through observation and maternal report, responsiveness was measured observationally, and maternal social support and satisfaction were self-reported via questionnaire. Concurrent relations between irritability and responsiveness were, in general, negative and were larger when irritability was measured observationally rather than by maternal report. Correlations were similar across gender. No longitudinal relations were found between irritability and responsiveness. Amount of maternal social support was weakly related to responsiveness and to responses to infant irritability, and the nature of these relations was unexpected. Irritability-responsiveness relations varied as a function of measurement strategies, which may in part explain mixed findings in the empirical literature.

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^•: Elizabeth Owens, Clinical Psychology Center, 604 OEH, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260.

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Relations between infant irritability and maternal responsiveness in low-income families

Abstract

Infant Behavior & Development

Infant Behavior & Development

Infant Behavior & Development

Infant Behavior & Development

Infant Behavior & Development

The Journal of Pediatrics

Infant Behavior & Development

Infant Behavior & Development

Maternal social support as a predictor of mother-child stress and stimulation

Child Abuse and Neglect

Attachment and exploratory behavior of one-year-olds in a Strange Situation

The concept of difficult temperament

Merrill-Palmer Quarterly

Measurement of infant difficultness

Child Development

Dimensions of individuality in the mother-infant relationship at six months of age

Child Development

A reinterpretation of the direction of effects in studies of socialization

Psychological Review

Mothering, fathering, and infant negativity as antecedents of boys externalizing problems and inhibition at age 3: Differential susceptibility to rearing experience?

Development and Psychopathology

Toward an experimental ecology of human development

American Psychologist

Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment

Mother-infant interaction as a function of maternal ratings of temperament

Child Psychiatry and Human Development

Temperament and interactive effects: Mothers and infants in a teaching situation

Issues in Comprehensive Pediatric Nursing

Effects of stress and social support on mothers and premature and full-term infants

Child Development

Maternal stress and social support: Effects on the mother-infant relationship from birth to eighteen months

American Journal of Orthopsychiatry

Early stress and social support influences on mothers' and high-risk infants' functioning in late infancy

Infant Mental Health Journal

Infant irritability, mother responsiveness, and social support influences on the security of infant-mother attachment

Child Development

Are temperamental differences in babies associated with predictable differences in care giving?