Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Notre Dame, 2007. / Thesis directed by John G. Borkowski for the Department of Psychology. "April 2007." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 43-51).

The early relationship between mother and child is formative of a child’s later wellbeing. Disruptions in the mother-infant bond can result in insecure attachments. There therefore exist certain interventions which endeavour to avoid the development of insecure relationships and instead begin to develop more secure mother-infant bonds. Such interventions include the Ububele Baby Mat project run in Alexandra township, Johannesburg. As this intervention is still developing, the Ububele team requested that research be conducted on this intervention. This research aims to better understand the Ububele Baby Mat’s influence on those caregivers who access the Baby Mat service, and also to record the subjective experiences of the therapists who facilitate the mat service. The current research was therefore aimed at exploring the subjective experiences of both the mothers and therapists involved in the Baby Mat intervention and further to explore any similarities or differences between these two groups’ experiences. Data was obtained through semi-structured interviews with mothers who accessed the Baby Mat service and with both the therapists who facilitated the mother participants’ sessions. Thematic content analysis was used to analyses the data. The findings showed that in general mothers had a positive experience of the Baby Mat service and of the therapists on the mat. Another finding was that there were more similar experiences than different ones between mothers and therapists.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 53-55).

Infant mental health in South Africa has been receiving more attention in recent years. Mothers appear to be the main caregivers of infants but they face many psychosocial, economic and cultural challenges. There exists very little evidence suggesting that mothers living in shelters or institutions have access to the necessary support and education to help them to understand their circumstances and how this may impact on the attachment with their infant. The New Beginnings Programme, as an early intervention model, is aimed at improving attachment between mother and infant so as to reduce the potential risk of mental health problems later in life for the infants, the mothers and future generations. This evidence based intervention focuses on the mother and her capacity for mentalisation, which refers to the mother’s capacity to hold her infant in mind and recognise and respond to the inner states of the infant. The pilot study of the New Beginnings Programme within a South African context took place in two shelters in the Greater Johannesburg area. This particular study formed part of this bigger research effort. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of the mothers who attended the New Beginnings programme. A secondary aim was to explore these mothers’ experiences of the programme within the context of living in a shelter. The adaptation of this programme to a South African context could contribute significantly to bridging the gap in mother-infant attachment which could influence the future mental health of the infant and their ability to foster ongoing healthy attachments later in life. This qualitative study used semi-structured interviews and a narrative analysis from the theoretical perspective of psychoanalytic attachment theory. Thirteen mothers from two shelters participated in this research study.

Jealousy is understood as a system of physiological, behavioral, and emotional responses, yet few studies have examined these aspects of jealousy simultaneously in infants. Further, jealousy paradigms have not been examined as a potential stressor in infancy and thus typical cortisol reactivity and regulation patterns in response to jealousy paradigms have not been observed. In addition, the contribution of attachment security to infant expressions of jealousy has been vastly understudied. The present study seeks to fill the current gaps in the infant jealousy literature by investigating quantitative and qualitative changes in infant jealousy across the first two years of life. Data was collected longitudinally and mother- infant dyads were asked to participate when infants were 12- months and 24-months of age. Associations between behavioral jealousy responses, baseline EEG activity, stress reactivity and attachment security were examined. Differences in approach behaviors and behavioral arousal were found across conditions and were consistent with previous studies (Hart & Carrington, 2002; Mize & Jones, 2012). Findings relating to EEG activity pointed to a relationship between left EEG asymmetry and global approach behaviors across time. Cortisol reactivity was found to be associated with attachment security but reactive cortisol concentrations compared to baseline cortisol concentrations do not indicate that the paradigm was an effective stressor. Attachment security was found to be associated with proximity behaviors in 12- month olds but not 24-month olds. Finally, a linear regression revealed that attachment security, EEG asymmetry, and cortisol reactivity at 12-months are significant predictors of behavioral jealousy responses at 24-months. Changes in behavioral and physiological measures across time indicate that jealousy continues to develop during the second year of life but may have different underlying processes than the processes that contribute to jealousy expression in 12-month-olds. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 70-72).