Work

Maternal responsiveness and sensitivity reconsidered: Some is more

Year: 2013

Type: article

Abstract: Is it always or necessarily the case that common and important parenting practices are better, insofar as they occur more often, or worse, because they occur less often? Perhaps, less is more, or some is more. To address this question, we studied mothers' microcoded contingent responsiveness to their infants (M = 5.4 months, SD = 0.2) in relation to independent global judgments of the same mothers' parenting sensitivity. In a community sample of 335 European American dyads, videorecorded infant and maternal behaviors were timed microanalytically throughout an extended home observation; separately and independently, global maternal sensitivity was rated macroanalytically. Sequential analysis and spline regression showed that, as maternal contingent responsiveness increased, judged maternal sensitivity increased to significance on the contingency continuum, after which mothers who were even more contingent were judged less sensitive. Just significant levels of maternal responsiveness are deemed optimally sensitive. Implications of these findings for typical and atypical parenting, child development, and intervention science are discussed.

Source: Development and Psychopathology

DOI: 10.1017/s0954579413000308

Authors: Marc H. Bornstein, Nanmathi Manian

Institution: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Language: English

Topic: Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development

Subfield: Clinical Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Institutes of Health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Award: Child and Family Development across the First Three Decades