Compared to term infants, it is known that preterm infants have relatively poor regulation and are less able to handle stimulation, which only allows limited time of alertness favorable for productive social interaction. Parents that are less knowledgeable in this would often feel distressed when they try to interact with their babies. Also, non-optimal parent-infant interaction may further stress the preterm infants. So, intervention that seeks to handle this problem is needed. Mother-infant intervention is a strategy that teaches mothers or parents to respond appropriately to infants’ cues and when to stop handling. This intervention helps to achieve optimal parent-infant interaction. Evidence in the current literature has suggested that early mother-infant intervention in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit is effective in promoting maternal mental health after preterm delivery. Therefore, the proposed innovation attempts to use mother-infant intervention to reduce depressive symptoms and parenting stress of these mothers. The implementation potential of the mother-infant intervention was explored. It was found that the intervention is highly transferable and feasible to be applied in the hospital settings of Hong Kong with Chinese women. The benefits of implementing the proposed innovation also far outweigh the cost. An evidence-based practice guideline was then developed. Thorough communication plan, implementation plan and pilot study plan will be launched. The whole program will last for 24 months including stages from obtaining approval, planning, carrying out pilot study, launching the actual implementation, to conducting data collection and program evaluation. / published_or_final_version / Nursing Studies / Master / Master of Nursing

Maternal depression is an important correlate of parental competence and child outcomes. The relationships among maternal depression and both parent and child outcome variables have been empirically validated. However, the mechanisms through which depression exerts its influence on maternal responsiveness have received less scrutiny. 137 mother-toddler dyads from a non-clinical sample were observed during a 20-minute interaction. Results showed that low child emotional expressiveness and behavioral assertiveness both result from and contribute to the unsupportive parenting of mothers high in depressive symptoms. The presence of both child effects and parent effects implies a bidirectional system of mother-child influence in the regulation of supportive interactions. / text

Adolescent pregnancy has been of longstanding societal concern primarily because of the inability of most young mothers to provide adequately for their infants. Depression often results in disengagement from mother-child interaction. Adolescent mothers identified as depressed are at increased risk of future psychopathology, with additional deleterious effects on their infants&rsquo / lives. The purpose of this study was to explore adolescent mothers&rsquo / experiences of motherhood and memories of feeling depressed during or after the birth of their babies. The first aim was to explore the young women&rsquo / s experiences of mothering, by focusing upon the practice of being a mother. The second aim was to explore the young women&rsquo / s experiences of depression, by focusing on their physical behaviour and emotional experiences. The third aim was to explore their perceptions of the causes of their depression. The rationale for this study was that these issues will further enhance the body of knowledge available to practitioners working with adolescent mothers. It will also provide a source of insights and hypotheses for preventive intervention research. The study was located within a feminist standpoint framework that begins from the perspective of women with the aim to explore women&rsquo / s accounts of their experiences in relation to depression as an important source of knowledge. A qualitative research design and methodology was employed in the region of the Western Cape. Eight adolescent mothers between the ages of 16 and 19 were recruited and interviewed. The interviews were semi-structured and consisted out of open-ended questions. Interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim and thematic analysis of data was carried out. The findings of this research yielded some interesting areas for future research and implications for treatment and intervention with first-time adolescent mothers. The adolescent mothers in this study experienced similar depressive symptoms to adult mothers in previous research. All the participants revealed that they feared their parents&rsquo / disappointment in them for being pregnant. This factor contributed to their depression, because they received very little (if any) support from their parents or the father of their baby. The participants discussed that their pregnancy or giving birth was linked to various aspects of themselves that they had lost as an adolescent. Before they received counselling, none of the participants understood why they experienced depressive symptoms or what was happening to them at the time after their pregnancies.

This dissertation examines associations between unintended pregnancy and future maternal mental health and parenting behaviors. Put simply, I examine whether a mother who self-reports her pregnancy as being unintended at her child’s birth will have longstanding differences in mental health and parenting behaviors as her child ages. Drawing on two separate sources of data, I examine these associations taking into account three different ways of measuring unintended pregnancy. Drawing on the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), unintended pregnancy is measured as such when mothers report, “yes,” to a question asking them whether they considered an abortion prior to their child’s birth. In many respects, consideration of an abortion is the most definitive measure of unintended pregnancy, since it could result in termination of the pregnancy altogether; yet, it is the least utilized in the research literature. More commonly, researchers adopt measures of unintendedness by asking mothers whether or not their pregnancies were “mistimed” or “unwanted.” Drawing on the Building Strong Families (BSF) Project, unintended pregnancy is measured by two questions regarding whether the mother wanted a child with the biological father and whether the pregnancy came sooner, at about the right time, or later than she wanted (mistimed pregnancy). Appreciating the potential influence that the biological father may have on the experience of an unintended pregnancy and later parenting and mental health, all analytic models are conducted separately by family structure at the child’s birth (single mothers and mothers cohabiting with the child’s biological father). Results across the FFCW and BSF Project show that both considering an abortion and having an unwanted pregnancy were associated with considerable longstanding risk for maternal mental health and parenting behaviors, especially for mothers who report cohabiting with their child’s biological father at baseline. Within both sources of data, unintended pregnancy was associated with increased parenting stress, less engagement in parenting activities, and increased likelihood of spanking for cohabiting mothers. Notably, these identified associations remained relatively unchanged when utilizing propensity score pair matching techniques. Results from moderation analyses with the FFCWS reveal that maternal education moderates the association between considering an abortion and maternal mental health and parenting behaviors. Results from moderation analyses with the BSF Project reveal that assignment to a BSF Program altered associations between unwanted pregnancy and engagement in parenting and spanking behaviors. There was no negative link between cohabiting mother’s unwanted pregnancy and engagement in parenting for those mothers assigned to the BSF program, whereas there was a negative link in the control group. Similarly, if single mothers were assigned to the BSF treatment and reported that their pregnancy was unwanted, they were less likely to spank their three-year-old children. These findings suggest the possibility that an organized program could alter longitudinal associations between unintended pregnancy and parenting behaviors, even if the program is not targeting experiences of unintended pregnancy specifically.

Adolescent pregnancy has been of longstanding societal concern primarily because of the inability of most young mothers to provide adequately for their infants. Depression often results in disengagement from mother-child interaction. Adolescent mothers identified as depressed are at increased risk of future psychopathology, with additional deleterious effects on their infants&rsquo / lives. The purpose of this study was to explore adolescent mothers&rsquo / experiences of motherhood and memories of feeling depressed during or after the birth of their babies. The first aim was to explore the young women&rsquo / s experiences of mothering, by focusing upon the practice of being a mother. The second aim was to explore the young women&rsquo / s experiences of depression, by focusing on their physical behaviour and emotional experiences. The third aim was to explore their perceptions of the causes of their depression. The rationale for this study was that these issues will further enhance the body of knowledge available to practitioners working with adolescent mothers. It will also provide a source of insights and hypotheses for preventive intervention research. The study was located within a feminist standpoint framework that begins from the perspective of women with the aim to explore women&rsquo / s accounts of their experiences in relation to depression as an important source of knowledge. A qualitative research design and methodology was employed in the region of the Western Cape. Eight adolescent mothers between the ages of 16 and 19 were recruited and interviewed. The interviews were semi-structured and consisted out of open-ended questions. Interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim and thematic analysis of data was carried out. The findings of this research yielded some interesting areas for future research and implications for treatment and intervention with first-time adolescent mothers. The adolescent mothers in this study experienced similar depressive symptoms to adult mothers in previous research. All the participants revealed that they feared their parents&rsquo / disappointment in them for being pregnant. This factor contributed to their depression, because they received very little (if any) support from their parents or the father of their baby. The participants discussed that their pregnancy or giving birth was linked to various aspects of themselves that they had lost as an adolescent. Before they received counselling, none of the participants understood why they experienced depressive symptoms or what was happening to them at the time after their pregnancies.

The purpose of this study was to look at the impact of early misogynistic treatment of females on subsequent attachment security and the quality of the later caregiving of their own children. A Misogyny Scale was created for use in this study.

by Au Tak Chiu. / Thesis (M.Ph.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1988. / Bibliography: leaves 199-214.

In spite of theoretical models representing a bidirectional pattern of influence between children and mothers (Sameroff & MacKenzie, 2003), few comprehensive longitudinal studies have examined how maternal psychological functioning and child behavior relate to each other over time. This study explored the transactional relationship between child problem behavior (i.e., internalizing and externalizing) and maternal depressive symptoms from toddlerhood to adolescence. The transactional dynamic was conceptualized in two ways—(a) parallel growth and (b) bidirectional effects—in terms of timing, direction, and the magnitude of effects, as well as how effects were moderated by gender and level of maternal depressive symptoms. Data were drawn from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 1,179). Using advanced statistical techniques in the structural equation modeling framework, such as multivariate latent growth curve models, latent class analyses, and fully autoregressive cross-lagged models, these findings demonstrate that in contrast to the traditional unidirectional maternal effects framework, the transactional dynamic more accurately represents the relationship between maternal and child functioning. Specifically, results indicated that the relationship between child internalizing behavior and maternal depressive symptoms was more strongly characterized as a parallel growth dynamic, whereas child externalizing behavior and maternal depressive symptoms more consistently exerted mutual influence. Bidirectional effects were not restricted to periods of heightened psychosocial stress, such as toddlerhood, adolescence, or transitions in school. Gender and level of maternal depressive symptoms moderated this bidirectional association. Maternal depressive symptoms had the largest effect on child internalizing behavior in middle childhood. Children’s externalizing behaviors in toddlerhood and early childhood had a strong effect on maternal depressive symptoms; the magnitude of this effect was greater than any other pathway from children to mothers or mothers to children. Findings suggest that children’s externalizing and internalizing behavior may serve as a potential risk factor for future increases in maternal depressive symptoms.

Purpose: There is evidence that mothers of infants hospitalized in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) experience elevated rates of psychopathology. However, most studies have focused on very preterm infants, with little attention to mothers of moderate- to late-preterm infants. In addition, the majority of previous research has been cross-sectional, which does not allow for the examination of symptoms over time. Method: The current study investigated whether rates of psychopathology are elevated in mothers of moderate- to late-preterm infants during/following infant hospitalization in the NICU, and associated protective and risk factors. Mothers completed self-report questionnaires during the infant’s hospitalization and six months later. Results: Mothers of moderate- to late-preterm infants hospitalized in the NICU showed elevated rates of depression, anxiety, and PTSD compared to mothers of term infants at both baseline and six months post-birth. Importantly, no differences in psychopathology between mothers of moderate-preterm and late-preterm infants were found at either time point. A number of important risk factors were identified, including previous maternal mental illness, more severe infant health problems, and a lack of coping skills. Potential protective factors were also identified, including mother-infant contact, maternal optimism, and expectations about the infants potential for recovery. Limitations: The current study did not include mothers who were unable to visit the NICU or fathers/siblings, and future studies might include these groups to better understand familial adjustment to the NICU hospitalization of an infant. In addition, research in the future should examine a larger sample of NICU mothers in order to conduct more in-depth longitudinal analyses of risk and protective factors. Finally, future studies will need to pilot and test the efficacy of the proposed screening and programmatic components in order to assess feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness with the target population. Conclusions: These results may inform the development of NICU programming aimed at buffering the development of psychopathology in mothers. Identified risk and protective factors could help in effectively targeting intervention programs to mothers most in need while the infant is in the hospital and over time.

There is very little information in the literature on mothers without custody of their children. In an attempt to partially remedy this situation an exploratory study, based on in-depth interviews with mothers who voluntarily chose to live apart from their children, was conducted. The aim was to identify the factors facilitating and hindering adjustment for these women. Using a sample of 17 women who volunteered for the study, the critical incident technique was employed to gather data from the participants. The collected incidents were then grouped into categories and descriptive statements were formulated about each one. There were 212 critical incidents collected from the 17 participants. These incidents were grouped into 3 main categories and 15 sub-categories. The categories provide a concise and easily understood description of the facilitating and hindering factors affecting adjustment for non-custodial mothers. The reliability of the placement of items into the appropriate categories was tested by using four independent raters, using percentage of agreement as an index of reliability. Recommendations for supportive services and programs needed by, these women are offered. Therefore, the findings are useful for planning and implementing future programs for non-custodial mothers. As well, guidelines are presented for individual, family, and divorce mediation counsellors who find themselves working with this group of women. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate