Punamäki R-L, Flykt M, Belt R, Lindblom J
Faculty of Social Sciences / Psychology, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland.
Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Heliyon. 2021 Apr 8;7(4):e06728. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e06728. eCollection 2021 Apr.
Maternal prenatal substance use disorder (SUD) represents a dual risk for child wellbeing due to teratogenic impacts and parenting problems often inherent in SUD. One potential mechanism transferring this risk is altered development of children's emotion regulation (ER). The present study examines how mother's prenatal SUD and early mother-infant interaction quality predict children's ER in middle childhood.
The participants were 52 polysubstance using mothers and 50 non-users and their children. First-year mother-infant interaction quality was assessed with the Emotional Availability (EA) Scales and children's ER with the Children's Emotion Management Scales (CEMS), and its parent version (P-CEMS) at 8-12 years.
Mother's prenatal SUD predicted a low level of children's adaptive ER strategies, whereas early mother-infant interaction problems predicted a high level of emotion dysregulation. The dyadic interaction also mediated the effect of SUD on emotion dysregulation. In the SUD group, more severe substance use predicted high emotion inhibition.
Early mother-infant interaction quality is critical in shaping children's ER, also in middle-childhood. Interventions aimed for mothers with prenatal SUD should integrate parenting components to support the optimal development of multiply vulnerable children.
母亲产前物质使用障碍（SUD）对儿童福祉构成双重风险，这是由于SUD往往存在致畸影响和育儿问题。传递这种风险的一种潜在机制是儿童情绪调节（ER）的发育改变。本研究考察母亲的产前SUD和早期母婴互动质量如何预测儿童童年中期的ER。
参与者为52名使用多种物质的母亲及其50名未使用物质的母亲和她们的孩子。使用情感可及性（EA）量表评估第一年母婴互动质量，并在孩子8至12岁时使用儿童情绪管理量表（CEMS）及其家长版（P-CEMS）评估儿童的ER。
母亲的产前SUD预示着儿童适应性ER策略水平较低，而早期母婴互动问题预示着情绪失调水平较高。二元互动也介导了SUD对情绪失调的影响。在SUD组中，更严重的物质使用预示着高度的情绪抑制。
早期母婴互动质量对塑造儿童的ER至关重要，即使在童年中期也是如此。针对产前SUD母亲的干预措施应纳入育儿要素，以支持多重脆弱儿童的最佳发育。
