Handgrip force of maltreating mothers in reaction to infant signals

doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2014.03.006

Child Abuse & Neglect

Volume 40, February 2015, Pages 124-131

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2014.03.006 Get rights and content

Abstract

Handgrip force responses to infant signals were examined in a sample of 43 maltreating and 40 non-maltreating mothers. During a standardized handgrip paradigm, mothers were asked to squeeze a handgrip dynamometer at maximal and at half of their maximal handgrip strength while listening to infant crying and laughter sounds. Maltreating mothers used excessive force more often while listening to infant crying and laughter than non-maltreating mothers. Of the maltreating mothers, only neglectful mothers (n = 20) tended to use excessive force more often during crying than non-maltreating mothers. Participants did not rate the sounds differently, indicating that maltreating mothers cannot be differentiated from non-maltreating mothers based on their perception of infant signals, but show different behavioral responses to the signals. Results imply that, in response to infant signals (i.e., crying or laughing), maltreating mothers may be insufficiently able to regulate the exertion of physical force.

Section snippets

Sample

A group of 43 maltreating and 40 non-maltreating mothers were recruited at a mental health facility. The maltreating mothers received family treatment either as outpatients or as inpatients, and were informed about the study before the start of their treatment. The non-maltreating mothers were recruited from another unit within the same mental health facility, specialized in child developmental or learning problems. At least one of their children was receiving treatment. Eligible mothers in

Perception of cry and laughter sounds

Independent samples t-tests were conducted to examine group differences on the overall perception scores. No significant differences for perception of laughter or crying were found for current maltreatment status (ps > .37), nor for experienced childhood maltreatment (ps > .81). There was no significant main effect of type of current maltreatment (abuse or neglect) on the overall perception scores (ps > .50). Thus, the two groups of participants did not rate the sounds differently. In general, crying

Discussion

As hypothesized, maltreating mothers used excessive force significantly more often than did non-maltreating mothers. Maltreating mothers did not rate the sounds as more negative than non-maltreating mothers. This indicates that maltreating mothers cannot be differentiated from non-maltreating mothers based on their perception of the child signals. However, they can be differentiated from non-maltreating mothers based on their ability to modulate behavioral responses. Distinguishing between the

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Parents' ability to appropriately respond to infant crying is essential for parental care and has been found to relate to parents' own childhood experiences. Additionally, childhood experiences can affect endocrine factors, which may subsequently affect behavior. In the current study, preregistered on https://osf.io/hwgtu, we examined in expectant and new fathers (N = 152) associations between experiences of maltreatment in their own childhood, hair cortisol and testosterone concentrations and their ability to modulate handgrip force when exposed to infant crying. Cortisol and testosterone were quantified from the 1 cm of hair most proximal to the scalp using Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Participants were asked to squeeze a handgrip dynamometer at full and half strength while listening to infant cries and control sounds. Results indicated that fathers who experienced more childhood maltreatment used more excessive handgrip force during infant cry sounds. Hair cortisol and testosterone were not related to either experienced childhood maltreatment or handgrip strength modulation. These findings confirm that fathers’ early experiences of maltreatment reduce their ability to modulate their behavioral responses during infant cries, but suggest that hair cortisol and testosterone concentrations do not identify the underlying mechanism of this association.
Childhood maltreatment moderates the relationship between emotion recognition and maternal sensitive behaviors
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It appears that this responsiveness to child distress is particularly apparent among mothers who experienced childhood maltreatment (Buisman et al., 2018) or more coercive discipline (Schoenmaker et al., 2015), and those with an insecure style (Ablow et al., 2013; Riem, Bakermans-Kranenburg, van IJzendoorn, Out, & Rombouts, 2012). Moreover, mothers who show greater behavioral reactions to crying children tend to show less sensitive behaviors during mother-child interactions (Buisman et al., 2018; Compier-de Block et al., 2015). Our results indicate that visual emotional signals are perceived similarly to auditory ones.
Sensitivity is defined as parents ability to perceive, react and respond to children signals. Having a history of childhood maltreatment changes the way adults perceive visual emotions. These perceptual characteristics could have important consequences on how these parents respond to their children.
The current study examines how a history of childhood maltreatment moderates the relationship between maternal emotion recognition in child faces and sensitive behaviors toward their child during free-play and a structured task.
Participants included 58 mothers and their children aged between 2 and 5 years.
Mothers were exposed to a set of photographs of child faces showing morphed images of the six basic emotional expressions. Mother-child interactions were then coded for sensitive behaviors. Mothers’ history of childhood maltreatment was assessed using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire.
Maltreatment severity was related to poorer abilities in emotion recognition. However, the association between emotion recognition and sensitive behavior was moderate by history of childhood maltreatment. For mothers exposed to a severe form of childhood maltreatment, a better emotion recognition was related to less sensitive behaviors toward the child, both during free-play and the structured task.
This relationship is unique to these mothers and is inconsistent with Ainsworth’s definition of sensitivity. These results have important implications as they suggest mothers with a history of severe maltreatment would need tailored interventions which take into account their particular reactions to children’s emotions.
Maternal childhood adversity, OXTR genotype and cognitive load impact on perceptual and behavioral responses to infant crying
2019, Psychoneuroendocrinology
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The sound stimuli were presented through loudspeakers, with the crying infant and the tone sound being presented for two minutes x four times and with half being under a high cognitive load condition and the other half being under a low cognitive load condition. As in previous studies (Buisman et al., 2018; Compier-de Block et al., 2015), the grip strength modulation was calculated by dividing the half-strength squeeze intensity by the full-strength squeeze intensity; therefore, scores over 0.50 indicated excessive force for the half-strength squeeze attempt. The higher the score of handgrip force are, the lesser the participants could regulate their emotion.
The crying of infants elicits aversive feelings and poses a risk for child abuse. Maternal childhood maltreatment can have negative parenting ability consequences and interact with the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) single nucleotide polymorphism (rs53576) to predict maternal response to infant distress stimuli. Recent studies have highlighted the importance of individual vulnerability differences to situational cognitive load in parenting situations. The current study, in which 124 mothers participated in a standardized infant vocalization paradigm, examined three-way interaction on subjective empathy, behavior intention, and handgrip force response to a crying infant. Participants were asked to squeeze a handgrip dynamometer at maximal and half strength while memorizing a meaningless alphabet syllable as the cognitive load manipulation. Significant interactions were also observed between OXTR rs53576, childhood adversity, and cognitive load when predicting excessive force and harsh response intention on hearing a crying infant. These findings suggested that, as the G allele carriers of OXTR rs53576 appear to be susceptible to the effects of severe childhood adversity, inter- and intra-individual approaches are needed when assessing maternal responses to infant stimuli.
Experimental manipulation of emotion regulation changes mothers’ physiological and facial expressive responses to infant crying
2019, Infant Behavior and Development
This study examined whether instructing mothers to apply emotion regulation strategies can change mothers’ perception and reactivity to infant crying in an experimental within-subject design. Perception of crying, skin conductance level (SCL), facial expressivity, and intended caregiving responses to cry sounds were measured in mothers (N = 101, M = 30.88 years) who received suppression, reappraisal, and no emotion regulation instructions. Reappraisal resulted in lower SCL during exposure to crying and a less negative perception of crying compared to the suppression condition. In contrast, suppression resulted in increased facial expressions of sadness compared to the control condition. Thus, simple instructions on how to reframe thoughts about crying can change mothers’ perception of and reactivity to crying.
The past is present: The role of maltreatment history in perceptual, behavioral and autonomic responses to infant emotional signals
2018, Child Abuse and Neglect
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Test–retest reliability for handgrip strength measurement has been shown to be adequate (0.91 for men and 0.94 for women across a 10-week period; Reddon, Stefanyk, Gill, & Renney, 1985). Following previous studies (e.g., Compier-de Block et al., 2015) grip strength modulation was calculated by dividing the half-strength squeeze intensity by the full-strength squeeze intensity, so that scores of over 0.50 indicated excessive force on the half-strength squeeze attempt. Scores were then multiplied by 10 to scale up the variance.
In the current study associations between parents’ experiences of childhood maltreatment and their perceptual, behavioral and autonomic responses to infant emotional signals were examined in a sample of 160 parents. Experienced maltreatment (both physical and emotional abuse and neglect) was reported by the participants and, in approximately half of the cases, also by their parents. During a standardized infant vocalization paradigm, participants were asked to squeeze a handgrip dynamometer at maximal and at half strength while listening to infant crying and laughter sounds and to rate their perception of the sounds. In addition, their heart rate (HR), pre-ejection period (PEP), and vagal tone (RSA) were measured as indicators of underlying sympathetic and parasympathetic reactivity. Results indicated that participants did not differ in their perceptions of the infant vocalizations signals according to their maltreatment experiences. However, maltreatment experiences were associated with the modulation of behavioral responses. Experiences of neglect during childhood were related to more handgrip force during infant crying and to less handgrip force during infant laughter. Moreover, a history of neglect was associated with a higher HR and a shorter PEP during the entire infant vocalization paradigm, which may indicate chronic cardiovascular arousal. The findings imply that a history of childhood neglect negatively influences parents’ capacities to regulate their emotions and behavior, which would be problematic when reacting to children’s emotional expressions.
Approach-avoidance responses to infant facial expressions in nulliparous women: Associations with early experience and mood induction
2017, Infant Behavior and Development
Infant expressions are important signals for eliciting caregiving behaviors in parents. The present study sought to test if infant expressions affect adults’ behavioral response, taking into account the role of a mood induction and childhood caregiving experiences. A modified version of the Approach Avoidance Task (AAT) was employed to study nulliparous female university students’ implicit responses to infant faces with different expressions. Study 1 showed that sad, neutral and sleepy expressions elicit a tendency for avoidance, while no tendency for approach or avoidance was found for happy faces. Notably, differences between approach and avoidance response latencies for sad faces and participants’ negative caregiving experiences were positively correlated (r = 0.30, p = 0.04, Bonferroni corrected), indicating that individuals who experienced insensitive parental care show more bias toward sad infant faces. In Study 2, we manipulated participants' current mood (inducing sad and happy mood by asking to recall a happy or sad event of their recent life) before the AAT. Results showed that sad mood enhanced the bias toward sad faces that is buffered by positive mood induction. In conclusion, these findings indicate that implicit approach avoidance behaviors in females depend on the emotional expression of infant faces and are associated with childhood caregiving experiences and current mood.

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^☆: This study was supported by Yulius Mental Health Clinic and by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (MJBK: VICI; MHvIJ: SPINOZA). We are grateful to Maureen Meekel for her technical assistance.

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Handgrip force of maltreating mothers in reaction to infant signals☆

Abstract

Section snippets

Sample

Perception of cry and laughter sounds

Discussion

Neglected children: Mothers’ report of child behavior problems and observed verbal behavior

Child Development

The effects of postnatal maternal depression and anxiety on the processing of infant faces

Journal of Affective Disorders

Mindfulness training as a clinical intervention: A conceptual and empirical review

Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice

Oxytocin decreases handgrip force in reaction to infant crying in females without harsh parenting experiences

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

Defining child maltreatment: The interface between policy and research

Examining pregnant women's hostile attributions about infants as a predictor of offspring maltreatment

JAMA Pediatrics

Validity of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire in an adolescent psychiatric population

Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Childhood Trauma Questionnaire: A retrospective self-report manual

Initial reliability and validity of a new retrospective measure of child abuse and neglect

American Journal of Psychiatry

Development and validation of a brief screening version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire

Child Abuse & Neglect

Mother-child interactional style in abuse, neglect, and control groups: Naturalistic observations in the home

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

In charge but not in control: The management of teaching relationships by adults with low perceived power

Developmental Psychology

Recognition and posing of emotional expressions by abuse children and their mothers

Developmental Psychology

The differential impacts of early physical and sexual abuse and internalizing problems on daytime cortisol rhythm in school-aged children

Child Development

Maternal maltreatment classification interview. Rochester, NY: Unpublished measure

The Word Game: An innovative strategy for assessing implicit processes in parents at risk for child physical abuse

Child Abuse & Neglect

Parental responses to infant crying: The influence of child physical abuse risk and hostile priming

Child Abuse and Neglect

Attributions, affect, and behavior in abuse-risk mothers: A laboratory study

Child Abuse & Neglect

The interrelatedness of multiple forms of childhood abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction

Child Abuse & Neglect

A conceptual definition of child neglect

Criminal Justice and Behavior

Breaking the cycle of abuse

Child development

The prevalence of child maltreatment in the Netherlands across a 5-year period

Child Abuse & Neglect

Hostility ratings by parents at risk for child abuse: Impact of chronic and temporary schema activation

Child Abuse & Neglect

Child abusers’ responses to infant smiles and cries

Child Development