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Using a Murine Model of Psychosocial Stress in Pregnancy as a Translationally Relevant Paradigm for Psychiatric Disorders in Mothers and Infants
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Changes in maternal sensitivity across the first three years: are mothers from different attachment dyads

W Roger Mills-Koonce1, Jean-Louis Gariepy, Kelly Sutton

  • 1Center for Developmental Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA. rmk@email.unc.edu

Attachment & Human Development
|September 30, 2008
PubMed

Hierarchical linear modeling was used to describe longitudinal relations between maternal sensitivity and depressive symptomatology for mothers of children with differing attachment classifications at 36 months of child age using data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care. Attachment during toddlerhood was assessed using a modified Strange Situation Paradigm developed by the MacArthur Working Group on Attachment. On average, maternal sensitivity increased longitudinally from 6 to 36 months for groups with children classified as secure or resistant, but not for groups classified as avoidant or disorganized. Higher maternal depressive symptoms were associated with lower levels of sensitivity for all mothers, although this effect was significantly less severe for mothers of securely attached children. In addition, higher maternal depressive symptoms were associated with decreases in sensitivity from 6 to 36 months for mothers of children who at 36 months showed disorganized attachments combined with underlying patterns of avoidant or resistant behavior.

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