Continuity and Discontinuity in Maternal Sensitivity

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Maternal sensitivity throughout infancy: Continuity and relation to attachment security

Abstract

Relations among different measures of maternal sensitivity were assessed longitudinally by examining maternal behavior when infants were 4 months, 15 months, and 2.5 years. At each time period, two measures of maternal sensitivity were scored (4 months: maternal vocal and smiling contingency in face-to-face interactions; 15 months: maternal scaffolding and following of infants' play within joint attention; 2.5 years: maternal facilitative and collaborative play within joint attention). When infants were 2.5 years, attachment security was assessed. Mothers' scores on each maternal sensitivity measure within each time period were correlated with their maternal sensitivity scores in another time period, suggesting individual measures of maternal sensitivity were tapping similar aspects across the time periods. Maternal vocal contingency at 4 months was the strongest predictor of infants' attachment security over 2 years later.

Section snippets

Participants

Participants were 42, 4-month-old infants and their mothers (Bigelow, 1998). Four infants were excluded from the data analyses; two due to excessive crying and two due to equipment error. The mean age of the remaining 38 infants (22 males and 16 females) was 140 days (SD  =   20 days). The participants were from a university town and the surrounding area in eastern Canada. They were located through newspaper birth announcements.

Most of the mothers had been to university: 43% had a university degree

Time 1

The mean maternal contingent responsiveness for vocalizations was .395 (SD  =   1.014) and for smiling was 1.794 (SD  =   2.209). The mean frequency of maternal vocalizations was 61.1 (SD  =   19.8); the mean frequency of maternal smiles was 30.6 (SD  =   12.1). Analyses on sex of infant indicated no significant effects for any of the variables (all p  >   .05). The correlation between contingent responsiveness for smiling and for vocalizations was nonsignificant (p  >   .36), indicating that mothers' contingency in one

Discussion

Mothers' sensitivity to their infants, although measured differently as the infants matured, was relatively consistent across the infants' first 2.5 years of life. Mothers' scores on maternal sensitivity measures within each time period were correlated with another of their maternal sensitivity scores in a different time period, suggesting individual measures of maternal sensitivity were tapping similar aspects across the time periods. Mothers' scores on the two maternal sensitivity measures

Acknowledgments

This research was aided by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada grant to Ann E. Bigelow. Gratitude is expressed to the mothers and infants who participated in the studies; to Elyse Boudreau, Laura Walden, Nancy Mcquaid, Cindy DeCoste, Nadia Incardona, and Derek Atwood for their research assistance; and to Bonnie Quinn for her programming assistance.

Jane Proctor now has a private consulting business in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

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Jane Proctor now has a private consulting business in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

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