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ARS Home » Plains Area » Houston, Texas » Children's Nutrition Research Center » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #312407
Title: Mothers who are securely attached in pregnancy show more attuned infant mirroring 7 months postpartum

Author
item KIM, SOHYE - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC)
item FONAGY, PETER - Baylor College Of Medicine
item ALLEN, JON - Baylor College Of Medicine
item MARTINEZ, SHEILA - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC)
item IYENGAR, UDITA - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC)
item STRATHEARN, LANE - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC)

Submitted to: Infant Behavior and Development
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/2/2014
Publication Date: 11/1/2014
Citation: Kim, S., Fonagy, P., Allen, J., Martinez, S., Iyengar, U., Strathearn, L. 2014. Mothers who are securely attached in pregnancy show more attuned infant mirroring 7 months postpartum. Infant Behavior and Development. 37(4):491-504.

Interpretive Summary: While the importance of a mother's attuned communication with her infant is well known, little is known about what characterizes such communication. This study shows that a mother's attachment pattern, which is shaped by her own childhood experiences, influences the way she understands and talks to her infant during the postpartum months. While all mothers in our study accurately imitated their infant's outward behavior, such as facial expressions, gestures, and vocalizations, only mothers with secure attachment also responded accurately to their infant's internal state. These mothers were two times more likely than mothers who did not have secure attachment to correctly "read" their infant's feelings and talk to their infant in a manner that reflected that understanding. Infants of secure mothers also looked to their mothers more frequently, as if to learn from her about their own internal state. This form of maternal communication may help the infant to make sense of his or her feelings and may be an important basis for later social and emotional development.

Technical Abstract: This study contrasted two forms of mother–infant mirroring: the mother's imitation of the infant's facial, gestural, or vocal behavior (i.e., "direct mirroring") and the mother's ostensive verbalization of the infant's internal state, marked as distinct from the infant's own experience (i.e., "intention mirroring"). Fifty mothers completed the Adult Attachment Interview (Dynamic Maturational Model) during the third trimester of pregnancy. Mothers returned with their infants 7 months postpartum and completed a modified still-face procedure. While direct mirroring did not distinguish between secure and insecure/dismissing others, secure mothers were observed to engage in intention mirroring more than twice as frequently as did insecure/dismissing mothers. Infants of the two mother groups also demonstrated differences, with infants of secure mothers directing their attention toward their mothers at a higher frequency than did infants of insecure/dismissing mothers. The findings underscore marked and ostensive verbalization as a distinguishing feature of secure mothers' well-attuned, affect-mirroring communication with their infants.