No / Abridged version of article Milne E, Johnson SE, Waters GM et al (2018) The mother-infant bond: a systematic review of research that includes mothers’ subjective experience of the relationship. Community Practitioner. Accepted for publication.

The important implications of the attachment relationship have led researchers to consider what the precursors to a secure attachment relationship are. Ainsworth, Bell, and Stayton (1971) proposed that maternal sensitivity was the fundamental trait in developing a secure attachment relationship. However, recent research has identified that mind-mindedness; the tendency of a parent to treat their infant as an individual with a mind (Meins, Fernyhough, Fradley & Tuckey, 2001), is a better predictor of parent infant attachment than maternal sensitivity. This study explored the impact of a new antenatal intervention called Baby World on the subsequent mind-mindedness of participants as well as its impact on the parent infant relationship. Participants who had attended the Baby World class and standard NHS antenatal classes (intervention group, N=21) were compared to those who had only attended standard NHS antenatal classes (control group, N=19). The study also explored whether planned pregnancies led to more mind-mindedness than unplanned pregnancies; whether emotional and physical wellbeing in pregnancy predicted mindmindedness and if there was any concordance between couples mind-mindedness. Results showed that participants in the intervention group used significantly more appropriate mind-minded comments than those in the control group. The intervention group also scored significantly higher than the control group on the Absence of Hostility subscale of the Maternal Postnatal Attachment Scale (MPAS, Condon & Corkindale, 1998). There was a non-significant trend of the intervention group scoring higher than the control group on the overall MPAS score as well as the Pleasure in Interaction subscale of the MPAS. The results also illustrated that emotional and physical wellbeing in pregnancy did not predict mind-mindedness and no concordance between couples mind-mindedness was found. Theoretical explanations of these findings are presented and the clinical implications and future research are discussed.

Mind-Mindedness, a parent’s tendency to attribute thoughts and intentions to his or her child, is related to numerous child outcomes including infant attachment security and child social-cognitive development. Despite established research, the construct is still developing and current research continues to provide clarification. This study sought to contribute to the clarification of mind-mindedness in three main ways. First, the present study examined within-parent consistency with respect to mind-mindedness, parenting stress, and parenting style. Results indicated that parenting stress and parenting style tended to covary for two children in the same family, whereas mind-mindedness did not. Additionally, parents tended to experience different levels of parenting stress or utilize different parenting strategies between their two children. By contrast, significant differences for mind-mindedness were not found. Secondly, the present study examined the relation between mind-mindedness and parenting stress. Results supported an inverse relation between mind-mindedness and parenting stress for the older child. Results also revealed a positive relation between mind-mindedness and parental distress for the younger child; this was specifically relevant for children age 30 months and younger. Multiple interpretations for this finding are explored. Third, this study examined the relations between parenting style, parenting stress, and mind-mindedness. Results indicated two general trends: For the younger children, when parents thought about their child in a more mind-minded manner, they also tended to utilize more authoritative parenting strategies; this parenting style was also related to lower parenting stress. For the older children, when parents thought about their child in a more mind-minded manner, they also tended to utilize less authoritarian parenting strategies as well as experience less parenting stress as related to parent-child dysfunctional interactions. The findings of this study support previous findings regarding mind-mindedness and parenting stress as well as contribute to an improved understanding of the consistency of parenting constructs between two children in the same family and the relation between parenting stress and parenting style. These findings also raise questions for future research with respect to mind-mindedness in very young children. Future research areas and implications are discussed. / Graduate

Parents’ capacity to represent and sensitively respond to their children as individuals, is a particularly pertinent ability during infancy. This thesis contributes to theoretical understanding of the nature of parental sensitivity during infancy. In particular, it examined whether parental mind-mindedness and coherence, dimensions theoretically related to sensitivity, are (i) measurable during pregnancy, (ii) conceptually distinct, and (iii) meaningfully associated with observed sensitivity. Results from two studies are presented. The first, a prospective longitudinal study, involved interviews with and observations of 201 first-time parents during late pregnancy and at 4 and 14 months postpartum. Drawing on this data, I established that both expectant mothers and fathers can construct mind-minded and coherent descriptions of their unborn infants during pregnancy. However, there was no evidence that these prenatal constructs had a direct or indirect effect on parents’ sensitivity during infancy. These results were added to the second meta-analytic study that showed expectant mothers’ (but not fathers’) thoughts and feelings about their unborn infant were related to their observed parenting in the postnatal period. In line with the gendered meta-analytic results, further differences emerged between mothers’ and fathers’ talk and behaviour within the prospective longitudinal study. Specifically, mind-mindedness was more stable than sensitivity for mothers whilst the reverse was evident for fathers. Compared with mothers, fathers’ talk and behaviour was more susceptible to influence from other members of the family system. Couple relationship quality influenced both fathers’ prenatal coherence and gains in their mind-mindedness over time. Infant affective responses were also important for fathers’ mind-mindedness, whilst maternal parental efficacy alongside infants’ receptive vocabulary were associated with fathers’ sensitivity. Unexpectedly, infant gender was an important influence on parents’ behaviour: mothers’ sensitivity at 4 months appeared to stimulate fathers’ sensitivity towards their daughters at 14 months. By following both mothers and fathers and in line with family systems theory, assessing whether partners contribute to the emergence of their co-parents’ sensitivity, this thesis provides a rich portrayal of the transition to parenthood in the 21st century.

Mind-mindedness refers to the mother’s ability to treat her child as an individual with a mental life of his or her own. In the present study, the purpose is to investigate the relationship between the amount of mind-related comments the mother produces when the child is 9 months of age and the child’s development in language and communication at the age of 15 months. The hypothesis is that the amount of mind-related comments the mother produces has a positive affect on the child’s language abilities as well as his or her ability to initiate joint attention. The number of mind-related comments were identified according to the guidelines of Meins and Fernyhough (2006). Language development were measured with the parent questionaire SECDI, Swedish early communication development inventory (Eriksson & Berglund, 1999). The child’s communicative abilities were measured with ESCS, Early social communication skills (Mundy et al. 2003). A positive correlation between the amount of mind-related comments by the mother and the use of communicative gestures by the child, were observed. No further significant relationships were found in support of the hypothesis in the present study. The results are discussed in relation to earlier research concerning mind-mindedness and communicative development. / Mind-mindedness refererar till moderns förmåga att se sitt barn som en individ med ett eget känsloliv som styr hans eller hennes agerande. I föreliggande studie är syftet att undersöka sambandet mellan moderns användning av mentaliseringsyttranden i samspel med barnet vid 9 månader och barnets språkliga och kommunikativa utveckling då barnet är 15 månader. Hypotesen är att antalet mentaliseringsyttranden modern använder positivt påverkar barnets språkliga förmåga samt barnets förmåga att initiera delad uppmärksamhet. Antalet mentaliseringsyttranden hos mamman kodades enligt de kriterier som Meins och Fernyhough (2006) arbetat fram. Barnets språkliga förmåga mättes genom ett föräldrarskattningsformulär, SECDI (Swedish Early Communicative Development Inventories) (Eriksson & Berglund, 1999). Barnets kommunikativa förmåga skattades med formuläret Early social communication scales (Mundy et al. 2003). Ett signifikant positivt samband förelåg mellan antalet mentaliseringsyttranden hos modern och barnets användande av kommunikativa gester. I övrigt framkom inga signifikanta samband till stöd för föreliggande studies hypoteser. Resultaten diskuteras utifrån tidigare forskning med mind-mindedness och kommunikativ utveckling.

Hur föräldrar samspelar med barn kan ha stor påverkan på barnets språkliga och kommunikativa utveckling. Föräldrasensitivitet och mind-mindedness är två mått som mäter föräldrars samspel. Föräldrasensitivitet mäter förälderns förmåga att uppfatta och tolka barnets signaler och mind-mindedness innefattar förälderns användande av ord som handlar om barnets mentala processer. Dessa mentaliseringsyttranden kan vara intonade eller icke-intonade utifrån situationen och barnets sinnesstämning. I vilken grad föräldrars mind-mindedness och föräldrasensitivitet påverkar olika delar av den kommunikativa utvecklingen är till stora delar fortfarande okänt. Syftet med föreliggande studie var att undersöka om föräldrasensitivitet och föräldrars mind-mindedness korrelerar med kommunikativa förmågor, om mind-mindedness och föräldrasensitivitet korrelerar med varandra samt om några könsskillnader förelåg. Materialet bestod av 35 inspelade förälder-barndyader som observerats när barnen var ca 16 månader. För att mäta föräldrasensitivitet användes lyhördhetsskalan ”Lyhördhet eller icke-lyhördhet för barnets signaler”. För att mäta mind-mindedness kodades förälder-barndyaderna samt föräldrabeskrivningar utifrån manualen för mind-mindedness av Meins och Fernyhough (2010). De kommunikativa förmågorna mättes dels genom the Swedish Early Communicative Development Inventories och dels genom the Early Social Communication Scales. Resultatet visade att det förelåg samband mellan föräldrasensitivitet och kommunikativa förmågor. Såväl språkförståelse, kommunikativa gester samt delad uppmärksamhet korrelerade med föräldrasensitivitet. Beträffande föräldrars mind-mindedness, konstaterades ett samband mellan en hög andel icke-intonade mentaliseringsyttranden och bristande förmåga till delad uppmärksamhet. Vidare framkom samband mellan mind-mindedness och föräldrasensitivitet: en förälder med hög föräldrasensitivitet använde fler intonade mentaliseringsyttranden än en förälder med låg föräldrasensitivitet. Ett motsvarande omvänt samband uppstod mellan icke-intonade mentaliseringsyttranden och en låg nivå av föräldrasensitivitet, där en icke-lyhörd förälder använde fler icke-intonade mentaliseringsyttranden. Slutligen upptäcktes en könsskillnad som innebar att föräldrar använder fler icke-intonade mentaliseringsyttranden till pojkar än till flickor. / The way a parent interacts with his or her child can have a great effect on communication and language development of the child. Maternal sensitivity and mind-mindedness are two measures used for parent-child interplay. Maternal sensitivity measures the parent’s ability to accurately perceive and interpret the child’s cues while mind-mindedness involves the parent’s use of words and comments regarding the child’s internal state. These comments can be classified as appropriate or non-attuned regarding the situation and the child’s state of mind. To what extent mind-mindedness and maternal sensitivity affect different parts of the child’s communicative development is still mainly unknown. The purpose of the present study was to investigate if maternal sensitivity and mind-mindedness co-vary with communicative abilities, if mind-mindedness and maternal sensitivity co-vary with each other, and finally, if any gender differences was present. The material of the study consisted of 35 videotaped parent-child interactions, which were observed when the children were 16 months of age. To measure maternal sensitivity, the sensitivity scale were used, “Sensitivity vs. Insensitivity to the Baby's Signals”. To measure mind-mindedness, parent-child interplay and parental interviews were coded. The child’s communicative abilities were assessed with the Swedish Early Communicative Development Inventories and with the Early Social Communication Scales. The result showed a correlation between maternal sensitivity and language comprehension, communicative gestures and joint attention. A relationship was found between mind-mindedness and parents’ using more non-attuned mental comments and children’s decreasing ability to respond to joint attention. The results also demonstrated that a sensitive parent uses more appropriate mental comments than a parent who was insensitive. A reversed relationship was found between non-attuned mental comments and a low level of maternal sensitivity, where the insensitive parent used more non-attuned mental comments. Finally, a difference in gender was found, where parents use more non-attuned comments to boys than to girls. / FAS dnr 2008-0875

The purpose of this study was to provide an intervention to Appalachian Head Start families that provided novel ways of thinking about their children\'s development, while also arming them with effective strategies and tools they could use to build engaging and enriched interactions. The intervention curriculum was developed based on a theory of mentoring in the zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1978; Wiles, 2008). This research effort sought to answer the following research questions: (a) Do adults\' descriptions of their children as mental beings and perceptions about their children as individuals with minds of their own change due to participation in the intervention condition as compared to those in the control condition?; (b) What are the effects of this intervention on adults\' use of scaffolding and guided participation strategies in the shared reading activity over time?; (c) Does participation in the intervention condition affect the child\'s outcomes on standardized tests?; and (d) What qualitative differences in the way adults and children interact in the shared reading activity can occur as a result of the intervention? A randomized controlled trial including 50 parent-child dyads, were videotaped answering a mind-mindedness interview question and reading with their children at three time points over the Head Start school year. A Mixed-methods approach was implemented in the study\'s design, implementation, data collection, and analyses. Quantitative analyses revealed significant differences in both mental descriptions of participants\' children and the type and frequency of scaffolding techniques as a result of participation in the intervention. Triangulation of the qualitative and quantitative analyses indicated the need for a new theoretical construct to explain what occurs in optimally functioning interactions. Mindful-mindedness describes and explains adults\' metastrategic scaffolding technique selection in a mindful and mind-minded style, and then their application of these techniques in a serial process creates a multiplier effect on the efficacy of scaffolding. Implications for policy and practice, limitations of the current study, and directions for future research are also provided. / Ph. D.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

L’étude de l’orientation mentale (OM), soit l’habileté des parents à concevoir et à traiter leur enfant comme un individu disposant d’une vie mentale autonome et active (Meins, 1997), a gagné en intérêt grâce à la démonstration de ses associations avec plusieurs sphères du développement de l’enfant, entre autres avec le style d’acquisition linguistique chez les enfants de 20 mois ainsi que le développement de la théorie de l’esprit chez les enfants d’âge préscolaire (p. ex., Meins & Fernyhough, 1999). En dépit de ces résultats, l’étude du développement du vocabulaire et des stades initiaux de la théorie de l’esprit chez les enfants a été négligée dans cette littérature. La présente thèse est composée de trois articles empiriques et vise à combler certaines lacunes de la littérature actuelle. Le premier article vise à examiner les liens longitudinaux entre l’OM maternelle et le vocabulaire expressif chez les enfants de 2 ans. Les deuxième et troisième articles ont pour but d’évaluer les relations longitudinales entre l’OM maternelle, la sécurité d’attachement des enfants et les toutes premières articulations de la théorie de l’esprit chez les enfants de 2 ans, puis 2 ans plus tard, avec la théorie de l’esprit chez les enfants de 4 ans. Les données des trois articles proviennent de cinq visites effectuées au domicile de 84 dyades mère-enfant. À 12 mois, l’OM maternelle a été mesurée lors de jeux libres mère-enfant à l’aide du système de codification de Meins et al. (2001). À 15 mois, la sécurité d’attachement de l’enfant a été mesurée par un observateur avec le Q-Sort d’attachement (Waters & Deane, 1985). À 2 ans, les mères ont évalué le langage de leur enfant à l’aide des inventaires MacArthur du développement de la communication (Dionne, Tremblay, Boivin, Laplante, & Pérusse, 2003). Finalement, la théorie de l’esprit de l’enfant a été mesurée à 2 et 4 ans à l’aide de diverses tâches expérimentales (Carlson, Mandell, & Williams, 2004). Les résultats du premier article indiquent que l’OM maternelle est associée au développement du vocabulaire expressif des enfants de 2 ans. Les résultats des deuxième et troisième articles indiquent que la compréhension des enfants de 2 et 4 ans aux tâches de théorie de l’esprit est associée à l’OM maternelle. De plus, ces deux articles ont démontré que les garçons, mais pas les filles, présentant des comportements d’attachement davantage sécures ont obtenu de meilleures performances à une tâche demandant la compréhension des perspectives visuelles de leur mère à 2 ans et de celles d’une étrangère à 4 ans. En conclusion, les résultats de la thèse suggèrent que l’utilisation que les mères font de commentaires mentaux à 12 mois semble favoriser l’acquisition de mots dans le vocabulaire expressif de leur enfant à 2 ans ainsi que le développement d’une meilleure compréhension aux tâches de théorie de l’esprit à 2 et 4 ans. / Studies on mind-mindedness (MM), which is an indication of parents’ inclination to conceive and treat their child as an independent individual with an autonomous and active mental life (Meins, 1997), have grown in interest because of the associations found with children’s developmental areas, such as with 20-month-olds’ acquisition of linguistic style and with preschoolers’ theory of mind development (ToM) (e.g., Meins & Fernyhough, 1999). Despite these results, studies on expressive vocabulary and earlier ToM stages were neglected in this literature. This thesis is composed of three empirical articles and aims to fill the gaps in the current literature. The first paper aims to examine the longitudinal links between maternal MM and children’s expressive vocabulary at 2 years of age. The second and third articles aim to evaluate the prospective relations between maternal MM, children’s attachment security and 2-year-olds’ first articulations of ToM understanding, and 2 years later, with 4-year-olds’ ToM understanding. The data of the three articles was collected from five home visits made with 84 mother-infant dyads. At 12 months, maternal MM was measured during mother-child free plays with Meins et al. (2001) coding scheme. At 15 months, children’s attachment security was measured with the Attachment Q-Sort (Waters & Deane, 1985) by a research assistant. At 2 years of age, mothers were asked to complete the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (Dionne, Tremblay, Boivin, Laplante, & Pérusse, 2003) to measure their child’s expressive vocabulary. Finally, children’s ToM was assessed with different experimental tasks at 2 and 4 years of age (Carlson, Mandell, & Williams, 2004). Results of the first paper suggested that maternal MM is related to children’s expressive language at 2 years of age. Results of the second and third papers proposed that 2- and 4-year-olds’ understanding on ToM tasks is associated with maternal MM. Furthermore, results from these two articles showed that more securely attached boys, but not girls, performed better on a task requiring comprehension of their mothers’ visual perspective at 2 years of age and of a stranger’s visual perspective at 4 years of age. In conclusion, results of this thesis suggest that mothers more inclined to use mental comments at 12 months have children that acquire more words in their expressive vocabulary at 2 years of age and who show a better understanding on ToM tasks at 2 and 4 years of age.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal