ReviewContextual stress and maternal sensitivity: A meta-analytic review of stress associations with the Maternal Behavior Q-Sort in observational studies
Section snippets
Background
Maternal sensitivity is a critical determinant of healthy infant development (Moran, Forbes, Evans, Tarabulsy, & Madigan, 2008). It predicts infant attachment security (Bailey et al., 2016, Bernier et al., 2014, De Wolff and van IJzendoorn, 1997, Moran et al., 1992, Pederson et al., 1990, Posada et al., 2004, Whipple et al., 2011a), thereby laying foundations for socio-emotional competence across the life-course (Hazan and Shaver, 1994, Waters et al., 2000). Sensitivity is also relevant to a
Measurement of maternal sensitivity
The Maternal Behavior Q Sort (MBQS) is an observational coding instrument based on Q-methodology used to assess maternal sensitivity in dyadic interactions. Versions of the MBQS have been developed for infants (Pederson et al., 1990) and more recently pre-schoolers (Pederson, Moran, & Bento, 2004). The MBQS can be used to code observations from both in-home and lab settings and is often applied to video-taped observational data.
Key behavioral indicators of maternal sensitivity coded by the MBQS
Identified contextual stress factors
We identified a range of effects reported in the eligible literature that represented indicators of the social ecology theoretically relevant to caregiving behavior. These contextual stress factors cohered around three main clusters: indicators of the sociodemographic ecology (specifically maternal education, family income, composite SES, maternal age, and absence of the infant’s father from the home), perceived parenting stress, and maternal internalizing symptoms (specifically unipolar
General findings
This review addresses an identified gap in understanding ecological contributions to maternal sensitivity. We found clear associations between increased levels of contextual stress or adversity and reduced levels of maternal sensitivity across three clusters: the sociodemographic ecology, perceived parenting stress, and maternal internalizing symptoms. Significant mean associations emerged in each of the seven meta-analyses. We report aggregated effects indicating that contextual factors are
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Maternal sensitivity moderates the association between maternal history of childhood maltreatment and child executive function
2022, Child Abuse and NeglectCitation Excerpt :These executive processes are central to neoPiagetian cognitive theory (Case, 1992; Case et al., 1996; Demetriou et al., 1993), and important to EF as it relates to maternal sensitivity (Atkinson et al., 2000). Insofar as caregivers routinely balance resource allocation between infant and other obligations, this episode also emphasizes ecological validity and it may stress both mother and child, undermining maternal sensitivity (Booth, MacDonald, & Youssef, 2018) and amplifying infant needs (Atkinson et al., 2000). The “toy play” episode emphasizes the attachment-exploration balance central to attachment theory (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978), fostering insight into how the parent fosters child exploration through sensitive interaction.
Young children's traumatic stress reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic: The long reach of mothers' adverse childhood experiences
2022, Journal of Affective DisordersCitation Excerpt :Maternal sensitivity reflects both attunement to children's emotions and appropriate responsiveness to children's emotional and behavioral cues (Ainsworth et al., 1978) and is particularly critical for facilitating a child's efforts to seek out and receive comfort and support in the context of stress (Feeney and Woodhouse, 2016). Chronic stressors may impair parents' capacity for engaging in sensitive caregiving behaviors, leading to inaccurate perceptions, neglect of children's signals of distress, and/or inappropriate responses to children's emotional needs (Booth et al., 2018). Although research on the current pandemic has yet to focus specifically upon maternal sensitivity, COVID-19-related stress has been associated with higher levels of harsh parenting practices and lower family cohesion (Brown et al., 2020; Daks et al., 2020).
Early childcare enrollment and the pursuit of higher education: A Canadian longitudinal study
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2024, Journal of Pediatric PsychologyInfant and preschool attachment, continuity and relationship to caregiving sensitivity: findings from a new population-based Australian cohort
2024, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied DisciplinesThe polygenic and reactive nature of observed parenting
2023, Genes, Brain and Behavior