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Updated: Jun 15, 2026

Assessment and Evaluation of the High Risk Neonate: The NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale
Published on: August 25, 2014
Maternal cognitions, psychopathologic symptoms, and infant temperament as predictors of early infant feeding
Claire Farrow1, Jackie Blissett
1School of Psychology, Dorothy Hodgkin Building, Keele University, Straffordshire, UK. c.v.farrow@psy.keele.ac.uk
Objective:
The current study examined the contribution of prenatal and postnatal maternal core beliefs, self-esteem, psychopathologic symptoms, and postnatal infant temperament to the prediction of infant feeding difficulties.
Method:
Ninety-nine women completed questionnaires assessing their core beliefs, psychopathology, and self-esteem during pregnancy and at 6 months postpartum. At 6 months, mothers also rated their infant's temperament and feeding, and were ob-served feeding their infants.
Results:
Maternal reports of child feeding difficulties were predicted by higher levels of emotional deprivation and entitlement core beliefs and lower levels of self-sacrifice and enmeshment core beliefs during pregnancy. Postnatal social isolation core beliefs, lower maternal self-esteem, and more difficult infant temperament added significantly to the variance explained by prenatal factors. Maternal core beliefs, self-esteem, psychopathology, and infant temperament failed to significantly predict independent observations of child food refusal.
Conclusion:
Maternal cognitions are implicated in the development of maternal reports of feeding difficulty.
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