Mind-mindedness, parenting stress, and emotional availability in mothers of preschoolers

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Abstract

Negative perceptions about the child and child behavior are implicit in parenting stress, a construct associated with suboptimal parenting and child outcomes. We examined the extent to which individual differences in mothers’ mental representations of their children (mind-mindedness) were related to parenting stress and observed parenting behavior. Participants were 86 Australian mothers and their 4-year-olds who were enrolled in a prospective study. Mind-mindedness was coded from mothers’ descriptions of their child, mothers completed a self-report measure of parenting stress, and maternal behavior during free-play was videotaped and coded using the Emotional Availability (EA) Scales, Version 3. Mothers who used more mental state words when describing their child reported lower parenting stress and showed less hostility when interacting with their children. Mothers who used more positive mental state descriptors were rated as more sensitive during interaction. The relation between mind-mindedness and negative maternal behavior was indirect, and mediated through parenting stress. Clinical implications of the findings for families and childcare settings are discussed.

Highlights

► Mothers who used more mental state words when describing their preschoolers reported lower parenting stress and demonstrated more optimal emotional availability, specifically lower hostility. ► Higher parenting stress was associated with less optimal emotional availability. ► Relations between mind-mindedness and parenting stress were indirect, and not significant when parenting stress was taken account of.

Section snippets

Participants

Participants were 86 mothers and their 4-year-old children (43 boys; 43 girls). Mothers’ mean age was 35 years (SD = 4.11, range 23–48 years) and child mean age was 48 months (SD = 3.7 months, range 48–63 months). Participants were a sub-sample of 127 families originally recruited into a longitudinal study of parenting and child development outcomes for children admitted to a publicly funded parentcraft centre which provided support with infant sleeping, settling, or feeding (McMahon, Barnett,

Preliminary analyses

Mind-mindedness (overall) scores were normally distributed (M = 3.6, SD = .20, range 0–1.0), and were comparable with those reported in British community samples (Meins et al., 1998, Meins et al., 2003). While positive and neutral mental descriptors were normally distributed, the frequency of negative descriptors was low, and the distribution was positively skewed; 71 mothers (83%) used no negative mental descriptors. Consequently, hypotheses were tested only for positive mind-minded descriptors

Discussion

This study shows that a mother's proclivity to ascribe thoughts, feelings, and intentions to her pre-school aged child (mind-mindedness) is related to both parenting stress and negative (hostile) behaviors toward the child during interaction in the home. Mothers who used more mental state words when describing their children reported lower parenting stress and showed less hostility when interacting with them. In addition, using a modified index of mind-mindedness (mind-minded descriptors with a

Conclusions, implications and directions for future research

A large body of work confirms the importance of the early attachment relationship with caregivers in establishing emotional resilience in young children. Both mind-mindedness and emotional availability derive from an attachment theory framework, and the current results suggest various attachment-based interventions in both home and childcare settings. Although both maternal sensitivity and emotional availability have been conceptualized as relatively stable behavioral traits, several

Funding

This research was partly funded through a grant from the Financial Markets Foundation for Children. The funding source had no role in study design, collection, analysis or interpreting the data, writing the report or the decision to submit for publication.

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the mothers and children who gave their time to participate in this research; Tresillian Family Care Centres for their contribution in the recruitment phase of this prospective study and Dr Alan Taylor for statistical advice.

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