Perception of Infant Difficulty and Mother-Infant Interaction During Feeding: A Comparison of Well and Depressed Mothers
Susan Borja, Sherryl Goodman, Christine Hall, Erin Tully
Department of Psychology, Emory University

Abstract

Research has revealed that depressed mothers' children have more behavioral and emotional difficulties than well mothers' children, and depressed mothers also have lower quality parenting skills than well mothers (Goodman & Gotlib 1999). Researchers have also found at least small support for an association between maternal depression and mothers' tendency to over-report child behavior problems (Boyle & Pickles, 1997; Fergusson, Lynskey, & Horwood, 1993). Additionally, researchers have shown mothers' negative perception of their infants is an important consideration for predicting such negative outcomes (Broussard 1970). Thus we predicted that depressed mothers would judge their babies' temperament as more difficult than well mothers. We also explored the extent to which trained observers, unaware of the mother's depression status or the infant's temperament ratings, viewed the infants of depressed mothers, relative to infants of well mothers, as less positive, having a lower quality of play, interest, or attentional skills, or as more dysregulated and irritable. Finally, we examined the associations between mothers' perception of the babies temperament and observers ratings of the infants, separately for depressed and well mothers. We studied 34 well (M age = 31.5) and 27 clinically depressed mothers (M age = 28.0) of infants (M age = 3.46 months). Mothers were observed and videotaped for five minutes while feeding their child. Mothers' and infants' behavior were observed and rated according to Clark's Parent-Child Early Relational Assessment (ERA, Clark 1985). Researchers measured mothers' perception of their infants' temperament with the Infant Characteristics Questionnaire (ICQ, Bates 1979). We found support for our hypothesis that depressed mothers perceived their infants as more fussy and difficult than well mothers. The ICQ was significantly correlated with the infant quality paradigm of the ERA scale (r = 0.51, p = 0.003 )as was infant dysregulation (r = -0.36, p = 0.042 ) for nondepressed mothers. However, there was no significant correlation for depressed mothers' ICQ perception and any ERA subscale. At the same time, observers saw no significant difference between the infants of well and depressed mothers.

Introduction

Mothers' negative perception of their infats is an important consideration in predicting later negative outcomes (Broussard, 1996). Researchers have also found at least small support for an association between maternal depression and mothers' tendency to over-report child behavior problems (Boys & Pickles, 1997); Fergussion, Lynskey, & Horwood, 1993). Children of depressed mothers have increased rates of behavioral and emotional problems when compared to children of well mothers (Goodman & Gotlib, 1998). Depressed mothers' negative cognitions and inadequate parenting of their infants may influence the way the child regulates emotions and masters basic tasks such as feeding. Feeding is a required routine tast of the primary caregiver of the child, often the mother. This provides a consistent situation to explore the quality of parenting and the infants' abilities. Difference in quality of depressed and well motehrs in feeding may help to explain the emergence of problems in infants.

Methods and Materials

Well and clinically depressed mothers were videotaped and observed for five minutes during which they fed their infant (M age = 3.46 months). All mothers completed an Infant Characteristic Questionnaire (ICQ, Bates, 1979) to measure maternal perception of infant difficulty. Trained blind observers used the Early Relational Assessment (ERA, Clark, 1985) to rate both mothers' and infants' behavior, dysregulation and irritability.

Results

Depressed mothers perceived their infants as more fussy than well mothers[Table 1, Figure 1]. For both depressed and well mothers, perception of their infants' difficultness was not significantly associated with the observers' ratings of the quality of the mothers' interactions with their infants. For well mothers, but not for depressed mothers, the mothers' perception of the infants' difficultness was significantly associated with the observers' ratings of the infants' abilities and dysregulation during feeding, yet not with infants' positive affect, communicative and social skills [figure 2, figure 3]. Observers ratings of well and depressed mothers' quality of interaction feeding their children did not differ[table 2]. At the same time, observers' ratings of the infants of depressed and well mothers did not differ significantly [figure 5].

Conclusions and Future Studies

A mother's depression may influence her perception of her infant's difficultness. The findings that depressed and well mothers were not observed to interact differently during feeding suggests that there are other mechanisms whereby depressed mothers may contribute to the emergence of problems in development as have been noted in the literature. Many studies rely primarily, or exclusively on maternal reports of their own symptoms of depression and of the infants' level of functioning. Our findings suggest the importance of using blind observers to attain an independant measure of infant functioning.

Acknowledgements and Funding Attributions

This material is based upon work supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute under Grant No. 52003071 and by the Emory University Research Committee.

In Plain English

We looked at how depressed and well moms see their infants verses how a trained observer sees the infant. We measured how fussy and difficult moms think their child is. We found that depressed moms view their infants as more fussy and difficult than well moms. Next we watched videotapes of the moms feeding their infants. We compared these trained observations with the moms' perceptions of their infants. There were no significant differences in the way the depressed and well moms interacted with their infants, nor were there significant differences among the infants of well and depressed moms. We found that well moms' perception of their infants were associated with what the observer saw but depressed moms' perception of their infants were not significantly associated with what the observers saw. This is important because if we are studying depression with moms and infants, we often rely on what the mom says about her infant and do not include an independant person's observations. This study shows the importance of doing so.