Relationship of three types of parent–child interaction in depressed and non-depressed mothers and their children's mental development at 13 months |
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| Authors: | Lynne A. Foss MN CPNP Taiko Hirose RN P h D Kathryn E. Barnard RN P h D FAAN |
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| Affiliation: | Dover AFB Clinic, Dover, Delaware, USA,; School of Nursing and Social Services, Health Sciences University of Hokkaido, Hokkaido, Japan and; School of Nursing, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA |
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| Abstract: | The purpose of the study was to examine mother–child interactions at 1 year of life within three contexts: feeding, attachment behaviors, and maternal vocal joint attention (play), between groups of depressed or non-depressed mothers, and to examine the relationship between these three contexts and the child’s mental developmental index (MDI). Half of the 36 mother–infant dyads had depressed mothers. There were no significant differences in the feeding interactions, attachment, or joint attention found between the depressed and non-depressed groups. Securely attached children had a higher MDI score than insecurely attached children, however, the correlation between feeding interaction score and MDI was not significant. Maternal vocal joint attention was significantly correlated with the MDI for non-depressed mothers but not for depressed mothers. These results are not consistent with the prior literature, and the discussion focused on possible explanation for these findings. |
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| Keywords: | attachment cognitive development joint attention maternal depression mother–child interaction |
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