A sensitive parent-child relationship is essential in ensuring the healthy mental and physical development of an individual. Parental sensitivity can be affected by parent characteristics, such parental competence and resources as well as child characteristics, such as negative reactivity. The combination of how these parent and infant factors predict parental sensitivity has not been examined with both mothers and fathers. The current study involved 30, 4-month old infants and their mothers and fathers. Parents completed questionnaires measuring infant temperament and parental competence. They also participated in a demographic interview to measure family resources, as well as a dyadic parent-infant face-to-face play task to measure parental sensitivity. Results involving mothers indicated a moderating effect of infant temperament (e.g., negative reactivity) on the associations between parental competence (e.g., self-efficacy) and parental sensitivity. Whereas for fathers, results indicated significant main effects of infant temperament (e.g., orienting) and parental competence (e.g., self-efficacy) on parental sensitivity. The current study gives evidence and support that it is a combination of both parent characteristics and infant characteristics that affects parental sensitivity. However, this combination of characteristics is different for mothers and fathers, indicating that different factors play a part in parenting behaviors for mothers and fathers.

Motherhood is a rewarding, but challenging experience. Mothers are expected to balance parenting with multiple roles including employment. How mothers adjust is influenced by their confidence in their role, their mental health, the social support from their partner, family, and friends, and their perceptions of their infants (Mercer, 1995). Maternal confidence has been identified in the literature as an essential variable in the adaptation to motherhood and to the maternal role (Mercer, 1986; Walker, Crain, & Thompson, 1986). Low maternal confidence delays the transitioning into the maternal role/identity as well as limits the satisfaction in the mothering role (Mercer, 1986). Having infants with difficult temperament further impedes this transition resulting in frustration with new mothers and possibly depression (Andrews, 1990). This study used a descriptive correlational design to explore the relationship between infant temperament and selected maternal factors (education, prior childcare experience, social support, and depression) and maternal confidence. A convenience sample of 94 primiparous mothers with infants 6 weeks to 32 weeks participated in this study. SPSS statistical software version 10.0 was used to analyze data and answer the following research questions: 1) What is the relationship between infant temperament, and selected maternal factors (education, prior childcare experience, social support, and depression), and maternal confidence of first-time mothers during their child’s infancy?; 2) What are the differences in maternal confidence between first-time mothers with infants’ age 6 weeks - 16 weeks and first-time mothers with infants’ age 17 weeks – 32 weeks? Results revealed statistical significant relationships between infant temperament, social support, and depression with maternal confidence. Social support also had statistically significant relationships with education and depression. Infant temperament, social support, and depression predicted 20.6% of the variance with maternal confidence. There was also a significant difference between groups with mothers’ perception of their infants’ temperament. Healthcare providers need to be aware that mothers who suffer from depression, have low social support, and perceive their infants to have difficult temperament are at risk for having low confidence in the care they provide for their infants. Further research is needed to explore intervention methods aimed at increasing maternal confidence with new mothers.

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 51-61). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

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The benefits of breastfeeding and the duration of breastfeeding required to achieve those benefits have long been debated. The American Association of Pediatrics (AAP) has noted benefits to the infant in such areas as increased immunity to infectious disease, improved neurodevelopment, reduced rates of infant mortality, as well possible benefits much later in life included reduced risk of obesity and diabetes. Other studies have suggested cognitive benefits of breastfeeding. As of 2001, the reported rate of the initiation of any breastfeeding at all in the US was 70% (46% breastfeeding exclusively—no formula supplementation), with 33% (17% exclusively) still breastfeeding at 6 months. The purpose of this study was to evaluate temperament differences among children who differed in breastfeeding history. To our knowledge no one to date has investigated the relationship between breastfeeding and dimensions of infant temperament. The data were collected through two studies being conducting by the Program for the Study of Infancy at East Tennessee State University. One is a study in which mother-infant pairs are brought into the lab for a one hour temperament, language, and mother-infant interaction procedure, and the other is an ongoing collection of temperament, language, and child history from a university laboratory school childcare program. The participants in these studies included 94 rural Appalachian children (83% White). When participants are first enrolled in these studies, parents are asked to fill out a Prenatal Birth Stress Inventory which included pregnancy and birth history variables and a temperament measure (Infant Behavior Questionnaire [IBQ], Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire [ECBQ], or Child Behavior Questionnaire [CBQ]). In our study, 71.6% of mothers reported breastfeeding for 3 months or more and 46.1% reported continuing to breastfeed for 6 months or more. We did not ask about exclusive versus supplemented breastfeeding. After statistical analysis, it was found that several dimensions of temperament differed in relation to duration of reported breastfeeding. Focused attention was unexpectedly lower in children who were breastfed for six months or more (n = 31; mean=3.69, SD=.88) than in children that were breastfed six months or less (n = 32; mean=4.56, SD=.85; F(1,61)=6.78, p=.012). Expected differences were found in other temperament dimensions. Frustration (F(1,53)=6.68, p = .013) and sadness (F(1,61) = 8.97, p = .004) were found to be significantly lower in infants that were breastfed six months or more. The ability to be soothed was rated significantly higher (F(1,61) = 5.03, p = .029) for the children who were breastfed six months or more than for children breastfed less than six months. Differences were found for the same variables in the same directions when comparing ratings of children breastfed 3 months or more compared to children breastfed less than three months.