van Huisstede Lauren, Winstone Laura K, Ross Emily K, Crnic Keith A
Arizona State University.
Parent Sci Pract. 2019;19(3):217-243. doi: 10.1080/15295192.2019.1615798. Epub 2019 May 17.
Maternal sensitivity is a commonly used construct to capture the quality of mother-child interactions, but inconsistencies in conceptualizing and defining maternal sensitivity limit understanding of how sensitive caregiving may be associated with child development. The purposes of this study are to (1) examine and compare the developmental trajectories of individual maternal sensitivity behaviors to that of a global index of sensitivity across the first year of infant life and (2) determine whether differences in trajectories of sensitivity are meaningful for infant emotion competence and dyadic reciprocity at 12 months.
A total of 322 low-income, Mexican American mothers and infants were observed during a free play task at 3, 4.5, 6, and 12 months. Observations were coded for 11 distinct behaviors known to compose maternal sensitivity. At 12 months, mother-infant interactions were also coded for dyadic reciprocity, and mothers reported on infant emotion competence.
Latent growth models indicated that individual sensitivity behaviors differed from the global index of sensitivity with respect to initial levels and slopes, with increasing (e.g., vocal appropriateness), decreasing (e.g., touch), and stable (e.g., elaboration) trajectories. The individual and global indices of sensitivity differed in prediction of emotion competence and dyadic reciprocity. Trajectories of global and individual indices of maternal sensitivity operated similarly in predicting dyadic reciprocity, with the exception of consistency of style. In contrast, the global index of sensitivity was unrelated to emotion competence, and only initial levels of positive affect emerged as significant predictors of emotion competence.
The findings offer a more nuanced understanding of maternal sensitivity and suggest that component aspects of maternal sensitivity uniquely contribute to child and family competencies.
母亲敏感性是用于描述母婴互动质量的常用概念，但在概念化和定义母亲敏感性方面存在不一致之处，这限制了我们对敏感性照料与儿童发展之间关联的理解。本研究的目的是：（1）考察并比较个体母亲敏感性行为在婴儿出生后第一年的发展轨迹与整体敏感性指标的发展轨迹；（2）确定敏感性轨迹的差异对于12个月大婴儿的情绪能力和二元互动是否具有意义。
在3个月、4.5个月、6个月和12个月时，对322名低收入墨西哥裔美国母亲和婴儿进行了自由玩耍任务观察。对11种已知构成母亲敏感性的不同行为进行编码。在12个月时，还对母婴互动的二元互动进行编码，母亲报告婴儿的情绪能力。
潜在增长模型表明，个体敏感性行为在初始水平和斜率方面与整体敏感性指标不同，呈现出上升（如声音适宜性）、下降（如触摸）和稳定（如阐述）的轨迹。敏感性的个体指标和整体指标在预测情绪能力和二元互动方面存在差异。母亲敏感性的整体指标和个体指标在预测二元互动方面的运作方式相似，但风格一致性除外。相比之下，整体敏感性指标与情绪能力无关，只有积极情绪的初始水平是情绪能力的显著预测因素。
研究结果为母亲敏感性提供了更细致入微的理解，并表明母亲敏感性的各个组成部分对儿童和家庭能力有独特贡献。
