• Attachment security, or how safe and supported an infant feels with their caregiver, develops from the way caregivers communicate, both during challenging moments (e.g., separations, reunions) and in low-stress situations (e.g., everyday playtime).
• Mothers who accurately notice and comment on their baby’s feelings during typical, low-stress situations exhibit mind-mindedness, which helps infants feel understood and supports secure attachment.
• Mind-mindedness during everyday play predicts higher levels of infant comfort during times of stress, a key factor in fostering secure attachment.

This piece was written by Ishani Bharadwaj in collaboration with study author Elisabetta Lombardi. It is based on research originally published in Lombardi, E., Di Dio, C., Meins, E., Giovanelli, C., Crippa, F., Traficante, D., Marchetti, A., & Carli, L. L. (2024). Inter-relations between mind-mindedness, maternal communicative style in the context of attachment distress, and infant-mother attachment security. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 49(3), 288-298. 

What is secure attachment?

Babies come into the world completely dependent on their caregivers for survival. They form their first social bonds, or attachment relationships, with their caregivers, who are usually their parents. In these relationships, caregivers take care of their infants, soothe them, and respond to their physical needs (e.g., hunger, safety, comfort).

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Attachment security refers to how safe and secure an infant feels with their caregiver. Beyond meeting basic needs, these attachment bonds also serve as infants’ first blueprint on how relationships work, including what to expect from others and how emotions are shared and responded to. Therefore, attachment experiences early in life can influence how infants relate to others as they grow older.

When infants’ needs are consistently met and caregivers respond with care and comfort during times of distress, infants are more likely to develop a secure and positive view of the world, seeing it as a safe and predictable place, and to believe that they are worthy of care.

Conversely, when their needs are unmet or their caregivers are unresponsive or neglectful, infants may come to view the world as untrustworthy and experience difficulties forming social relationships later in life.

Communicative style: How caregivers respond to their infants in moments of stress

Caregivers’ communicative style, or the way they communicate with and respond to their infants, especially during stressful situations, plays a very important role in the development of secure attachment.

Caregivers reflect their communicative styles during times of stress. When a baby is crying, their caregiver might offer emotional support and comfort or they might deny support or confuse the infant with misleading information about the stressful situation. Children whose caregivers provide warmth and support are more likely to be securely attached than children whose caregivers do not.

Mind-mindedness: Caregivers’ attunement to their infant in low-stress situations

Mind-mindedness refers to the caregiver’s ability to recognize the child’s internal states, such as emotions, desires, and thoughts, attune to them, and respond appropriately, even in everyday low-stress situations.

A caregiver’s comment is considered accurate when it is consistent with the child’s behavior in the context of the interaction. Caregivers infer how their infant is feeling by observing cues such as facial expressions, body movements, where the infant is looking, vocal utterances, and changes in their emotional expression (e.g., crying).

Mind-mindedness captures the caregiver’s ability to stay closely aligned with the child’s experience, even before the child can express it in words.

A mind-minded caregiver does not guess what their child is thinking or feeling, but shows sensitivity to the child’s signals and responds in a way that is consistent with those signals. In this sense, mind-mindedness captures the caregiver’s ability to stay closely aligned with the child’s experience, even before the child can express it in words.

An example of a mind-minded response

Following is an example of a mind-minded interaction between a one-year-old and their mother as they play together.

The infant is sitting on the floor playing with a toy. The toy suddenly slips out of their hand, and the baby’s face scrunches as they start to whimper. The mother moves closer, makes eye contact, and gently says, “Oh, that surprised you! You look frustrated that the toy fell. Let’s get it back so you can keep playing.” The mother hands the toy back and gives the infant a reassuring smile.

The mother’s behavior shows mind-mindedness by accurately interpreting the infant’s distress, commenting on it, and then reassuring the child.

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An example of a non-mind-minded response

In contrast, non-attuned or non-mind-minded comments misinterpret, contradict, or minimize a child’s apparent emotional experience. The caregiver might actively ignore the child’s distress or distract them from it. For example, imagine if the mother in the first example briefly looked at the infant and said in a light, dismissive tone, “Oops! That’s nothing – look over here!” She might immediately offer another toy to distract the infant without acknowledging or commenting on the child’s frustration or distress.

In this example, although the mother may register that their infant is upset, they do not stay with the infant’s emotional experience or reflect it back to them. Instead, the infant’s emotion is deflected rather than named or validated.

Our study: Examining the role of mothers’ mind-mindedness in babies’ secure attachment

It is well established that a mother’s communicative style with their infant in a high-stress situation plays a huge role in the infant’s attachment security. In our research, we focused on the role of mothers’ mind-mindedness during low-stress situations in this relationship between their communicative style and attachment security. We sought to determine whether mothers’ mind-mindedness in low-stress situations was related to more emotional support during high-stress situations and, in turn, to attachment security.

We conducted our study in Milan, Italy, with 88 native-born mothers who were raised in Italy and their infants. All mothers were 26 to 45 years old, and their infants were 12 months old.

Almost all the mothers lived with spouses or partners, and about a quarter had given birth only once (suggesting that many of the infants were likely the only children in the home). The mothers were highly educated, with all having completed high school and three quarters having earned a university degree.

Because the mothers shared many characteristics, our findings may not reflect the experiences of all families. The patterns we observed may differ in families from other cultural backgrounds and with different education levels, or when considering the role of fathers and other caregivers.

The Strange Situation Procedure

We used the well-established Strange Situation Procedure  to measure infant-caregiver attachment security. In this task, researchers observed each child and their mother during a series of brief (3-minute) separations and reunions in an unfamiliar family-friendly laboratory.

At the start of the procedure, the infant and mother entered the new environment together, and then were joined by a stranger from our research team. Then the following occurred:

Stage 1: Mother and Baby – The mother and infant enter the room, and the infant is introduced to the environment.

Stage 2: Mother, Baby and Stranger – A stranger enters the room.

Stage 3: Stranger and Baby – The mother leaves the infant with the stranger (first separation).

Stage 4: Mother Returns – The mother returns and the stranger leaves (first reunion).

Stage 5: Mother and Baby – The infant is once again alone with the mother.

Stage 6: Mother Leaves – The infant is left alone (second separation).

Stage 7: Stranger Returns – The stranger enters and attempts to comfort the infant.

Stage 8: Mother Returns and Stranger Leaves – The mother re-enters and the stranger leaves (second reunion)

Exploring infants’ attachment security and mothers’ communicative style

To examine infants’ attachment security, we looked at how they reacted during the reunions with their mothers (numbers 2 and 5): Did they cry in a way that was difficult to pacify/calm/soothe? Did they seek their mothers for comfort or did they avoid them?

To explore mothers’ communicative style, we also observed mothers’ verbal communication to see how they reacted to their child’s behavior upon reuniting: Did they use denial communication by refusing or disapproving of the child’s behavior? Did they use misleading communication by providing confusing information that was not attuned to the child’s experience and could distort what the child was feeling? Did they provide emotional support by reassuring and comforting the child?

Mind-mindedness in a free-play setting

To measure mothers’ mind-mindedness, we visited the mothers and their infants in their homes for 25 minutes of mother-child playtime. This allowed us to observe mothers and infants in a familiar, low-stress environment.

Specifically, we looked for mothers’ mind-related comments, verbal statements in which mothers referred to what their child might be thinking or feeling. This included mothers’ labeling of infants’ feelings (e.g., “You’re frustrated”) and comments spoken on behalf of the infant (e.g., “I’m scared,” said from the infant’s perspective).

We categorized comments as appropriate when they reflected what the child appeared to be experiencing. We considered both the content of the mothers’ words and other components of their responses (e.g., body language, facial expressions, vocal intonation). We then coded the proportion of maternal responses that were appropriate (i.e., attuned to the infant’s internal state) versus those that were non-attuned.

Goal 1: Confirming links between mothers’ communicative styles and infants’ attachment security

Our first goal in this study was to confirm the association (established in earlier research) between mothers’ communicative styles and infants’ attachment security. Our findings were consistent with research that has established links between mothers’ more supportive communication and infants’ secure attachment.

When mothers showed emotional support by accurately understanding and acknowledging their child’s distress and comforting them instead of redirecting or distracting them, infants showed signs of secure attachment. That is, when infants cried or became mildly distressed during separation, they quickly reestablished contact when their mother returned.

In contrast, when mothers misunderstood what their child was feeling and communicated in misleading ways by confusing the child or distanced the child instead of soothing them, infants were more likely to show insecure attachment during reunions. These infants appeared unsure of how to react when their mother left and returned. During reunions, despite wanting comfort and closeness, they resisted being held or soothed or seemed indifferent to their mother returning.

Goal 2: Mind-mindedness during play was also related to attachment security during reunions

Our second goal was to explore the role of mind-mindedness in the links between mothers’ communicative style and infants’ attachment security.

Mothers who appropriately interpreted and commented on how their child was feeling during casual playtime (i.e., those who showed strong mind-mindedness) also tended to provide comfort and support during the stressful Strange Situation Procedure (i.e., their communicative style emphasized emotional support).

Mothers who embody mind-mindedness tend to raise children who are more securely attached.

Furthermore, mothers’ mind-mindedness directly predicted children’s attachment security. Mothers who embody mind-mindedness tend to raise children who are more securely attached. This means that the way mothers use mind-minded comments during low-stress, daily situations (e.g., while playing with their infants at home) relates to how secure their children feel in more high-stress situations (e.g., when they are separated).

These links between mind-mindedness and both mothers’ communicative style and infants’ attachment security provide new insights about established connections between communicative style and attachment.

Photo by Polesie Toys on Pexels

Mothers’ mind-mindedness strengthens the link between mothers’ emotional support and infants’ secure attachment

Mind-mindedness related most closely to how emotionally supportive mothers were rather than to mothers’ communication overall or to other aspects of their communicative style (i.e., their tendencies to be dismissive or confusing).

This aspect of communicative style – emotional support – contributed to secure attachment not only on its own, but also indirectly through mind-mindedness. Emotional support was linked to mothers’ ability to make appropriate comments about their child’s mental states, which, in turn, strengthened attachment security.

These findings suggest that being emotionally supportive is important for the attachment bond, but it becomes even more effective when mothers can also think about and accurately comment on their child’s thoughts and feelings.

Raising securely attached infants: Practical implications for caregivers

To raise a child who is securely attached to their caregivers, it is important to provide comfort during challenging situations but also to embody mind-mindedness in everyday interactions with the child. In short, infants are more likely to develop secure attachment when their mothers offer emotional comfort and show they have a good understanding of what their baby is thinking or feeling.

To foster secure attachment with their infants, parents and other caregivers can:

• Acknowledge all their child’s emotions: Notice and respond to what the child seems to be feeling, including harder emotions like frustration, sadness, or fear.
• Appropriately name the emotions out loud: Help the child understand their feelings by putting them into words (e.g., “You’re upset because the block fell over”).
• Avoid misleading or dismissive responses: Try not to send confusing or distorted signals (e.g., by providing a cheerful distraction when the child is clearly distressed), which can make it harder for the child to understand and recognize their emotions and to feel emotionally understood.
• Support their child in calming down: Offer comfort, strategies, or guidance to help them regulate their emotions (e.g., taking deep breaths together, offering a hug, helping them solve a problem).

The post Raising securely attached children: Why understanding baby’s mind matters appeared first on Child and Family Blog.

Key takeaways for caregivers

• Supportive reactions to children’s negative emotions include helping them deal with their problems, using strategies like comforting or distracting to help them feel better, and encouraging them to express their negative emotions.
• Non-supportive reactions to children’s negative emotions include using verbal or physical punishment to reduce their negative emotional expression, thinking little of their problems or painful reactions, and becoming distressed when faced with their negative emotions.
• Our research with Chinese families indicates that both mothers’ and fathers’ supportive reactions to their four- to six-year-olds’ negative emotions predict aspects of the children’s adjustment, though in different ways.
• Inhibitory control is the ability to restrain inappropriate behaviors and responses. Children with lower levels of inhibitory control have more difficulty regulating their behaviors and emotions. For those children, the positive effects of parents’ supportive reactions to children’s negative emotions were more pronounced.
• Chinese fathers’ supportive reactions to their four- to six-year-olds’ negative emotions predicted fewer externalizing problems (e.g., hyperactivity, inattention, conduct problems) six months later, but only for children who had more difficulty with self-control.
• Chinese mothers’ supportive reactions predicted more prosocial behaviors (e.g., sharing, helping, showing empathy), but only for children with low levels of inhibitory control. In contrast, Chinese fathers’ supportive reactions predicted more prosocial behaviors for children across levels of inhibitory control abilities.

Imagine a parent preparing for their five-year-old’s birthday party. The balloons are up, the cupcakes are ready, and friends are singing Happy Birthday! But instead of smiling, the child bursts into tears – overwhelmed by the attention and noise. The parent may feel frustrated and confused by this reaction to the fun celebration they planned.

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Moments like these – small, emotional crossroads – happen regularly in parenting. Whether a meltdown over a lost toy, a burst of frustration when a puzzle piece does not fit properly, or a quiet withdrawal during a noisy event, these behaviors are common, daily opportunities for caregivers to guide their children’s emotional growth.

The importance of caregivers’ reactions to children’s negative emotions: Factors to consider

Caregivers’ reactions can leave lasting impressions, especially when a child is upset, frustrated, or overwhelmed. They influence how children learn to manage and regulate their own emotions, relate to others, and handle future challenges. Reactions to children’s negative emotions might matter more than caregivers realize.

Supportive versus non-supportive reactions

Supportive reactions involve parents recognizing, validating, and constructively guiding children through their difficult emotions. For instance, think back to the birthday party scenario. When a child feels overwhelmed and bursts into tears, a supportive reaction might be kneeling down gently and offering comfort, saying, “Do you want to take a quiet moment with me?”

In contrast, non-supportive reactions typically involve dismissing or minimizing the child’s emotional expressions, or even punishing the child for their behavior. In the same scenario, a non-supportive response might be responding impatiently, “Come on, this is supposed to be fun!”

Caregivers’ reactions can leave lasting impressions, especially when a child is upset, frustrated, or overwhelmed.

Research – much of it conducted in Western countries – shows that supportive parental reactions to children’s negative emotions are linked to positive outcomes, such as better emotion regulation, fewer behavior problems, and stronger prosocial behaviors. In contrast, non-supportive reactions are generally associated with negative outcomes, including lower levels of social competence and more emotional and behavioral difficulties.

Findings from studies of Chinese families are more mixed: While supportive reactions predict better emotional regulation, the negative effects of non-supportive reactions, especially minimization, are less consistently observed, suggesting possible cultural differences.

Children’s temperament: Inhibitory control

Children have their own unique temperament – the typical way they respond to their surroundings. One important aspect of children’s temperament that is related to their self-regulation is inhibitory control, or children’s ability to restrain inappropriate behaviors and responses.

Inhibitory control develops gradually over time and with guidance. However, some children have a harder time with this aspect of temperament than others. They may act out more quickly, struggle to follow the rules, or have difficulty calming down after becoming upset.

Imagine a preschool classroom in which the teacher asks children to transition from playing to quietly listening to a story: Some children settle down quickly and calmly, while others continue to play, become restless, or find it difficult to remain seated. These behaviors reflect differences in children’s abilities to self-regulate.

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Children with stronger inhibitory control can manage their impulses more effectively, whereas children with lower levels of inhibitory control often find it harder to regulate their emotions and behaviors. This raises an important question for caregivers: Do parents’ supportive reactions matter more for children who naturally struggle with self-regulation?

Does a child’s ability to control impulses shape how caregivers’ responses to their negative emotions affect their behavior?

In a recent study, we examined to what extent Chinese mothers’ and fathers’ reactions to their young children’s negative emotions predicted children’s adjustment over time, and to what extent these effects depended on children’s inhibitory control. Mothers and fathers of 113 Chinese preschoolers (age range 45 to 73 months) recruited from three preschools in a small city in middle China completed two questionnaires six months apart. On average, both mothers and fathers were in their early 30s (age range 23 to 47 years), and they had an average of about 14.5 years of education. Annual household income varied between 10,000 yuan to 500,000 yuan (about $1,437 to $71,850).

Parents reported their reactions to their children’s negative emotions and their impressions of their children’s inhibitory control and adjustment. The questions about adjustment addressed children’s externalizing problems (hyperactivity-inattention, e.g., “easily distracted, concentration wanders,” and conduct problems, e.g., “often fights with other children or bullies them”), internalizing problems (emotional problems, e.g., “often unhappy, depressed or tearful” and peer problems, e.g., “picked on or bullied by other children”), and prosocial behaviors (cooperative and kind behaviors, e.g., “kind to younger children”).

Fathers’ supportive reactions predicted fewer externalizing problems, but only for children with more difficulty controlling their impulses

Mothers’ supportive reactions did not predict children’s externalizing problems, but for some children, fathers’ supportive reactions did. Traditionally, in Chinese families, fathers are seen as the main authority figures responsible for discipline, while mothers play a more nurturing and caregiving role. Supportive reactions from fathers may be particularly salient and influential when it comes to externalizing behaviors (e.g., hyperactivity, aggression, rule-breaking), which are often the focus of disciplinary efforts.

Fathers’ supportive reactions predicted externalizing behaviors for children with lower levels of inhibitory control. More specifically, the more likely fathers were to respond to these children’s emotional outbursts with empathy, patience, and guidance, the more likely these children were to show fewer externalizing problems six months later.

Parenting involves more than preventing problem behaviors; it is also about nurturing the emotional and social skills children need to thrive and flourish.

Supportive paternal reactions may help children manage their strong emotions before they escalate into problematic behaviors. In this way, fathers can serve as a supportive emotion socialization agent (i.e., someone whose interactions with children model, teach, or otherwise facilitate children’s understanding and management of emotions), particularly for children who need extra help with self-regulation.

Fathers’ supportive reactions predicted more prosocial behaviors in all children, while mothers’ supportive reactions predicted more prosocial behaviors only for children with low levels of inhibitory control

Parenting involves more than preventing problem behaviors; it is also about nurturing the emotional and social skills children need to thrive and flourish. In our study, one particularly meaningful outcome we examined was prosocial behaviors: actions like helping, sharing, cooperating, and showing empathy toward others. Parental warmth and coaching during emotionally challenging moments may provide children with a model for empathy and caring social interaction.

More supportive reactions from fathers predicted greater prosocial behavior for the children six months later. In other words, the more likely fathers were to respond with warmth, emotional validation, and constructive guidance during tough moments, the more likely their children were to be rated as thoughtful, considerate, and socially engaged. This was true regardless of the children’s inhibitory control abilities.

Maternal supportive reactions also predicted more prosocial behavior, but only for children who struggled more with inhibitory control – those who were impulsive, reactive, or easily frustrated. These children seemed to benefit most from this type of emotional coaching. For them, supportive responses from either parent might help them slow down, reflect, and engage with others more thoughtfully.

Parental reactions to children’s negative emotions did not predict children’s internalizing problems

While supportive parenting was clearly linked to children’s externalizing behaviors, we did not find a strong connection between parents’ reactions and children’s internalizing problems (e.g., anxiety, sadness, social withdrawal). One possible reason is that internalizing problems are much harder to detect, especially in young children.

Unlike external behaviors (e.g., aggression, defiance), internal struggles are often subtle. Young children may have a limited ability to recognize or express their own feelings of fear, worry, or sadness. As a result, even attentive parents may not always accurately perceive when their child is struggling internally.

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Our study relied on parent-report questionnaires, which are a valuable tool but have limitations – particularly in terms of detecting emotional difficulties that children may hide or not yet understand themselves. Researchers may benefit from combining parent reports with more objective measures, such as physiological indicators like levels of cortisol (a hormone related to stress) or measurements of nervous system activity, to better capture young children’s internal emotional experiences.

Parents’ non-supportive reactions did not predict children’s adjustment

Interestingly, we did not find strong evidence that non-supportive parental reactions – such as dismissing or minimizing children’s negative emotions, or punishing children’s for expressing such emotions – predicted children’s behavioral or emotional adjustment six months later. This may seem surprising, especially given earlier research from Western countries in which non-supportive reactions have often been linked to less optimal outcomes like higher levels of aggression, lower levels of social competence, and more internalizing problems.

One possible explanation is that the negative impact of non-supportive reactions may be less pronounced in Chinese cultural contexts. In our study, supportive and non-supportive reactions were related to each other only moderately, suggesting that a parent can be supportive in some moments and still react dismissively or punitively in others.

In many Chinese families, emotional restraint and minimizing emotional expressions are sometimes viewed as promoting resilience and self-discipline rather than as being neglectful or harmful. As a result, Chinese children may be more accustomed to these reactions and affected less negatively by them than are children in Western cultures.

Tips for parents to support a child during emotionally charged moments

When your child is navigating negative emotions, you can:

• Name the emotion: “It looks like you’re feeling frustrated … That puzzle is very tricky, huh?”
• Stay calm and grounded: Children mirror adults’ emotions. Your calmness gives them something to lean on.
• Model coping strategies: “Let’s take a deep breath together. Sometimes that helps me when I’m upset.”
• Validate, then guide: “It’s okay to feel angry. Let’s figure out what we can do instead of crying/yelling.”
• Reconnect after the storm: Let your child know you are still there for them, even after a challenging moment.

The post When children struggle with negative emotions, parents’ supportive reactions can help appeared first on Child and Family Blog.

Key takeaways for caregivers

• Mental health support during pregnancy benefits both parents and children.
• Research shows that pregnant adults’ psychological distress during pregnancy has small but lasting effects on their children’s behavioral development.
• Effects persist independently of post-pregnancy mental health.
• Providing accessible mental health care during pregnancy could help prevent children’s behavior challenges.
• Early screening and support for psychological distress during pregnancy is important.

Pregnancy can be both an exciting and a challenging time. Parents often wonder how their experiences during pregnancy might affect their developing child. New research I conducted with colleagues analyzing data from across five continents provides important insights about the relation between psychological distress during pregnancy and children’s later behavioral development.

Why focus on mental health during pregnancy?

The transition to parenthood often brings increased contact with health care providers, making pregnancy an ideal time to screen for and address mental health concerns. Yet for many pregnant people, experiences of anxiety or depression go undetected and untreated. Understanding how psychological well-being during pregnancy affects children’s development can help make the case for better mental health support during this critical period.

What did the research find?

In our analysis, experiencing psychological distress (e.g., anxiety, depression) at high levels during pregnancy was associated with a small but meaningful increase in children’s behavioral challenges later in life. In the studies we reviewed, pregnant individuals’ psychological distress included current and recent experiences of depression, anxiety, and perceived stress measured by standardized questionnaires during pregnancy. Most studies assessed these experiences during the second or third trimester of pregnancy.

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Children’s behavioral challenges involved difficulties with emotional and behavioral regulation, including more severe or more frequent aggressive behaviors, problems with attention and hyperactivity, and oppositional behaviors. The effects of psychological distress during pregnancy showed up across childhood and into the teenage years, although they appeared slightly more pronounced in early childhood (ages two to five).

Importantly, these effects remained even after accounting for pregnant parents’ mental health after pregnancy. This suggests that the pregnancy period itself may be especially important for supporting parents’ and children’s well-being.

Several biological mechanisms may explain these effects. During pregnancy, high levels of psychological distress can affect maternal stress hormones and inflammatory markers that influence fetal brain development, particularly in regions involved in emotion and behavior regulation. These early changes may shape how children respond to their environment after birth.

Not all countries or cultures in the world were equally represented in these analyses: Specifically, our meta-analysis included studies from across five continents, with most studies coming from Europe (16 studies) and North America (13 studies) or both (1 study), and fewer coming from Australia/Oceania (3 studies), Asia (2 studies), and South America (1 study).

In addition, most studies featured predominantly White (77%) samples, and most participants had relatively high levels of education and income. More research is needed with racially and socioeconomically diverse families to better understand how these patterns differ across cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds.

What does this mean for parents?

The transition to parenthood brings significant physical, emotional, and life changes that can affect mental well-being. The hormonal changes of pregnancy can affect mood and stress levels, and many pregnant individuals experience ups and downs in mood and varying levels of stress during pregnancy.

Research suggests that a significant number of pregnant individuals experience clinical levels of depression or anxiety during pregnancy.

However, for some individuals, psychological distress in pregnancy goes beyond these typical experiences. Clinical levels of depression and anxiety can emerge or worsen at this time – not just after birth as is commonly understood. Research suggests that a significant number of pregnant individuals experience clinical levels of depression or anxiety during pregnancy.

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Individuals experiencing persistent low mood, anxiety, or other psychological distress during pregnancy are not alone. They can talk with their health care providers to learn about the many effective, pregnancy-safe treatments available. Prioritizing mental health during this important transition is valuable for both parents’ and children’s well-being.

Among the signs that may indicate that a pregnant person needs additional support:

• Persistent sadness or anxiety lasting more than two weeks,
• Loss of interest in typically enjoyed activities,
• Significant sleep problems (beyond typical pregnancy-related sleep changes),
• Feelings of worthlessness or hopelessness, and
• Thoughts of self-harm.

Supporting the mental health of expectant parents is a worthy investment that benefits both parents and children.

Although our findings highlight links between prenatal psychological distress and children’s later behavior, the effects were relatively small. Many other factors influence children’s development. Rather than cause worry, these results should encourage:

• Normalizing conversations about mental health during pregnancy,
• Making mental health screening a routine part of prenatal care,
• Ensuring that pregnant individuals have access to mental health support when needed,
• Removing barriers and stigma around seeking help, and
• Supporting policies that make mental health care more accessible during pregnancy.

Looking ahead

As we continue to unravel the complex interplay between prenatal experiences and children’s development, one thing is clear: Supporting the mental health of expectant parents is a worthy investment that benefits both parents and children.

The post Prenatal stress and children’s behavior: What expectant parents should know appeared first on Child and Family Blog.

Based on research originally published as: Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., & Masek, L. R. (2023). Embodied and embedded learning: child, caregiver, and context. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 32(5), 369–378.

Key takeaways for caregivers

• Appreciate busy babies: Through their grabbing, swinging, walking, jumping, babbling, and cooing, babies learn about the world around them and their own place in it. Caregivers should take a moment to watch as their babies gather information and figure it all out. Babies are always learning.
• Join in on babies’ exuberant behaviors: Caregivers should sit with their babies as they play or move with them as the babies explore new spaces. As adults join in, they can find opportunities to support their babies’ learning by talking about what baby is doing, where they are going, and how they got there. When babies talk to their caregivers – or coo or babble or wave – adults should talk right back. Babies may not use words, but they are learning a lot about what it means to communicate.
• Structure an environment for learning: Caregivers should provide babies with a range of objects and spaces to explore while keeping safety in mind. Adults need to keep small objects that could be a choking hazard away from babies and remain vigilant as babies explore high places. They should also try to structure days and spaces around predictable routines to support their babies’ learning.

Babies’ natural curriculum

Babies are busy. From the moment they open their eyes in the morning, most babies are kicking, scooting, crawling, jumping, grabbing, mouthing, banging, crying, laughing, cooing, babbling, and so on. In a single day, babies interact with dozens of objects, take thousands of steps, and produce hundreds of vocalizations.

Caregivers should not misinterpret babies’ actions as misbehavior or inattention, but as part of learning.

In our recent article, we explained that this whirl of activity creates an ideal curriculum for learning how to use objects, walk, and talk. Drawing on our own and colleagues’ published research across cultures and communities, we summarize how babies – children under the age of three – learn about all three topics (i.e., how to use objects, walk, and talk) from three sources: (1) themselves, (2) the people around them, and (3) their environment.

Babies learn from themselves

Babies learn as they interact with objects around them, move through spaces and rooms, and produce sounds.

Exploring how to use objects

When babies bang a rattle on the ground, they learn that the rattle makes noise, that different noises are made when they bang the rattle on tile versus on carpet, and critically, that they control these effects. Each object in their environment offers unique lessons, so babies need a lot of practice interacting with those objects in a variety of ways to learn the objects’ functions: Before babies learn how to use objects as designed – for example, zipping, twisting, stirring – they engage in a lot of exploration in the form of banging, mouthing, and even throwing. Therefore, caregivers should not interpret babies’ actions as misbehavior or inattention, but as part of learning.

Practicing body movements

When babies scoot, then crawl, then cruise, then take steps, they learn how to support and balance their weight by adjusting their ever-changing bodies to accommodate their environment. Babies learn to adapt their movements on different surfaces – such as wood, carpet, grass, and even puddles. They learn to climb up hills and get down from couches. As babies begin to run, jump, skip, and move in other ways, their knowledge about themselves and their environment grows.

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Caregivers need to recognize that endlessly moving babies are practicing the motor skills needed to effectively interact with their environment – in essence, they are engaged in baby workouts! Of course, babies’ never-ending motivation to try new things and use their bodies in new ways means that one- to two-year olds are prone to injuries, so adults need to be sure to create a safe environment. Because new walkers will plunge down steps, gates or vigilant monitoring are essential.

Testing their vocal instruments

When babies babble, they learn how to move their tongue, lips, and mouth to create different sounds. As babies hear their own vocalizations, they refine their mouth movements and practice sounds that eventually will be combined into words.

Each “ba ba ba,” shriek, or playful “raspberry” teaches infants how to make sounds and communicate with others. Therefore, caregivers need to recognize that all these noises pave the way to future conversations and embrace the joy of watching babies figure out how to communicate.

Babies learn from people around them

Babies learn as parents and caregivers respond to their exuberant play, movements, and vocalizations.

Exploring objects together

When caregivers join in on babies’ interactions with objects – by talking, pointing, and engaging with their babies – they support learning. Babies learn words when caregivers talk about what babies are doing. For example, saying “red wagon” as baby pulls a wagon helps babies learn these words.

Joining in on babies’ play with objects also encourages babies to sustain their play for longer amounts of time and to engage in more complex play. A baby who is alone may bang a block on the ground, but with a caregiver, the baby may attempt to stack it or fit it into a shape sorter. As babies explore the objects around them, caregivers should join in by talking about the objects of their babies’ attention and playing along.

Making babies’ movements into a partner dance

When caregivers join in on babies’ big body movements – by talking and repositioning their own bodies – they help their babies learn about actions. Moving their own bodies in coordination with their babies’ creates proximity. Proximity allows for more learning moments because it is easier for caregivers to talk to and interact with their babies when they are nearby.

When caregivers join in on babies’ interactions with objects – by talking, pointing, and engaging with their babies – they support learning.

Describing babies’ behaviour – such as saying “jump jump” as baby jumps – helps babies learn the words for their actions. As babies move around, caregivers should move with them to create proximity and talk about what they are doing. Adults can also support their babies’ safety by supporting their developing motor skills, for example, by teaching baby to back down off the couch.

Building babies’ vocalizations into a duet

When caregivers join in on babies’ babbles and words – by verbally responding – they teach their babies that vocalizations are a way to communicate. Repeating a baby’s babbles may seem silly, but an adult’s babble contains sounds that more closely approximate the sounds that comprise words. As babies hear a more refined version of their own babble repeated back to them, they modify their babbles to become closer to the sounds of real speech.

Responding to babies’ early communications also helps babies understand how communication works: “I say something, then you say something in return.” This may seem rudimentary, but turn-taking is fundamental to effective communication.

As babies go from cooing to babbling to using words, the responses of their caregivers will change from repeating babies’ vocalizations and offering words to building on the words babies say to expand their knowledge. So even before babies use words, adults can start a conversation by responding in turn.

Babies learn from their environment

Babies learn about the objects, spaces, and routines of everyday life as they navigate their environments. Caregivers can help create environments filled with opportunities for learning.

Make a variety of objects available to babies

Balls provide opportunities to throw and bounce. Blocks allow for stacking and building. And dolls give babies the chance to snuggle and change diapers. But babies do not need toys to play. They can shake bottles, fit lids onto pots, pick flowers, and stack rocks.

Photo by Photo By: Kaboompics.com on Pexels

Caregivers should allow their babies to interact with a variety of safe objects  – from pots and pans to books and toys – so they can learn to use the wide variety of objects in their environment. As babies learn to use objects as they were designed (figuring out, for example, that shoes go on feet, a spoon is used for eating, or a box can be opened and closed), caregivers should provide their babies a safe time and space to explore these objects and join in the exploration.

Expose babies to a variety of spaces

The spaces available to babies offer opportunities to learn about how to effectively move around. Couches and stairs allow for climbing, slopes and slides provide opportunities for descending, and walls and trees give space for navigation. Similarly, moving on tile, concrete, grass, and carpet provides babies with opportunities to adapt their movements to different surfaces.

Playgrounds provide rich opportunities for babies to practice moving on a variety of surfaces and in a variety of ways.

Caregivers should allow their babies to explore a variety of safe places, including outdoors. Playgrounds provide rich opportunities for babies to practice moving on a variety of surfaces and in a variety of ways. Of course, adults need to be mindful of babies’ motor abilities and the demands of the play space, and monitor accordingly. Babies are not aware of what their bodies can and cannot do, especially as they learn new motor skills.

Use daily routines to support language learning

The different spaces of home are where babies engage in their everyday routines – such as mealtime in the kitchen and story time in the bedroom. Thus, the routines of daily life provide predictability for babies in ways that support learning words.

As babies eat lunch in the kitchen, they are exposed to the names of foods and utensils. As they get dressed in the bathroom, they are exposed to the names of body parts and clothing. And as they play and read books in their bedroom, they hear the names of animals, vehicles, colors, and more.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels

Caregivers can capitalize on these routines by naming the objects that are a part of daily activities with their babies instead of using too many pronouns. For example, when helping an infant dress, instead of saying “Put it on,” the adult might say, “Put the sock on your foot.” Similarly, at lunchtime, instead of telling a baby to “eat them,” the caregiver might say, “Eat the peas.” Such language-rich responses help babies understand and learn.

Babies learn from their own exuberant activity, so caregivers do not have to be involved every minute. They should allow their babies the freedom to explore and make mistakes while also structuring the environment to facilitate safe exploration.

The post Busy bodies, busy minds appeared first on Child and Family Blog.

• Mothers’ tendencies to reflect on their own and their children’s thoughts and feelings are related to positive outcomes in children’s development. For example, mothers who reflect in this way tend to be more attuned to their children’s needs, and their children tend to have stronger understandings of other people.
• This sort of reflection is a thought process that starts in pregnancy, when expectant mothers envision what caring for their future baby will entail.
• We analyzed the caregiving narratives of women in the transition to parenthood and after their babies were born. Specifically, we looked at their references to thoughts and feelings, and the emotional tone they conveyed when imagining future parenthood or reflecting on parenthood so far.
• We found that in pregnancy, women tended to emphasize feelings in their narratives, while in the postpartum period, they talked more about their thoughts about caregiving.
• Imagining thoughts and feelings about parenting was related to having a more positive sentiment about parenting both in pregnancy and in the postpartum period.
• Our findings support the idea that reflecting on thoughts and feelings about future caregiving starts even before birth and relates to positive views of caregiving.
• Combined with past research in the field, these findings suggest that envisioning thoughts and feelings in the transition to parenthood may improve mothers’ relationship with their babies.

Envisioning motherhood

Many people have ideas about what parenting would be like, and expectant parents tend to be especially invested during pregnancy. As parents anticipate their baby’s birth and the months and years that follow, they often imagine themselves caring for their newborn.

Our recent study shows that the way expectant mothers described these imagined visualizations during pregnancy predicted positive aspects of early caregiving after their baby was born.

Photo by Коледа Дмитрий on Pexels.

Insights into one’s own and others’ mental states often relate to better social relationships

In our exploration of expectant mothers’ imagined visualizations, we were especially interested in how the women talked about mental states, which refer to internal experiences such as thoughts, feelings, and emotions. People’s behavior and how they act, whether alone or in social relationships, are related to what they think and feel.

From past research, we know that mentalizing – reflecting on one’s own and others’ mental states – is considered a positive aspect of social relationships. Being attuned to one’s own and others’ thoughts and feelings can help individuals organize their experiences, make sense of other people’s behavior, and predict future behavior.

For example, an employee might expect his boss to react harshly to a small incident at work if he knew that the boss has been stressed about the team’s performance in the last quarter. Or the boss might be more understanding about the same incident if she just came out from a meeting in which her own supervisors were happy with the team’s work.

Young children benefit when their parents consider what they are thinking and feeling

This ability to mentalize may be particularly important in parent-child relationships because young children often cannot explain verbally what they experience, feel, and think. They depend on their caregivers to regulate their experiences and environment.

Imagine a parent playing with her infant. Is the infant fascinated by a toy, frustrated by not being able to manipulate it, or interested in playing with another toy instead? Each interpretation will lead to different parental responses.

The accuracy of parents’ interpretation and the appropriateness of their responses shape how the play session goes and how much the infant (and the parent) enjoys and learns.

Photo by Ivan Samkov on Pexels.

Indeed, parents who tend to think about mental states, or try to read their child’s mind, are also more attuned to their infant’s needs, and tend to develop more positive, secure relationships with their child.

In turn, children of parents who talk about mental states also tend to show better understanding of other people and related social skills than do children whose parents do not tend to discuss mental states.

Exploring expectant mothers’ talk about mental states during imagined visualizations of parenting before and after birth

Given the general connection between talking about mental states and having stronger interpersonal relationships and skills, we explored whether expectant mothers’ mental state talk could predict elements of their future caregiving.

We recruited 91 pregnant women, most of whom were White, from the western United States. The women participated in three assessments: two while they were pregnant and one when their baby was four months old.

During pregnancy, women were asked to visualize themselves with their infant a year in the future and imagine taking care of their baby. In the postpartum period, women read what they wrote when they were pregnant, and were asked to reflect on their current experience as a mother: Was it different than how they had imagined it before their baby’s arrival?

In women’s written narratives, we looked for language referring to mental states and indicators of how positive the mothers’ attitudes were toward caregiving. Our findings revealed three main patterns:

1. Mothers talked about mental states differently before and after giving birth.

Most mothers included some mental state talk in their descriptions of how they envisioned their future interactions with their babies and how those visualizations differed from their postpartum caregiving experiences.

However, we identified differences in the types of mental states mothers tended to emphasize during these periods:

• During pregnancy, most expectant mothers mentioned internal experiences, particularly emotions and feelings. For example, one expectant mother described imagining hiking with her baby and dog, and the happiness the three of them would feel. Another envisioned going to the playground with her infant, describing this as a bonding experience for her and her child.
• In the postpartum period, mothers tended to focus more on cognitive states, reflecting thought processes rather than emotions. For example, one mother described being surprised by how rewarding parenting was. Another said her attitudes toward work and her choices about where to focus her attention had changed since motherhood.

2. More mental state talk was related to more positive sentiments about parenting.

We also wanted to get a sense of the overall emotional tone of women’s narratives, reflecting the extent to which their narratives reflected a positive attitude and whether this sentiment was related to talking about mental states.

We reviewed women’s narratives and documented how positive, negative, or neutral their general sentiment was.

Mothers who reflected more on their thoughts and feelings also tended to have more positive attitudes toward caregiving.

At each assessment (both during pregnancy when imagining future caregiving and in the postpartum period when reflecting on the difference between caregiving expectations and current experiences), mothers who talked more about mental states also tended to show more positive sentiment in their caregiving narratives.

This suggests that mothers who reflected more on their thoughts and feelings also tended to have more positive attitudes toward caregiving.

3. Positive sentiments about caregiving in pregnancy predicted positive attitudes postpartum.

Lastly, envisioning a more positive image of caring for their infant in pregnancy was related to a more positive attitude later, when comparing caregiving reality with expectations at four months postpartum.

Concluding thoughts

Overall, our findings support the idea that thoughts about caregiving start forming before the baby’s arrival, and that thinking about thoughts and feelings when imagining what being a parent would be like is a positive step in the transition to parenthood.

Past studies indicate that parents can improve their mentalizing skills to the benefit of their relationship with their child. Although we did not study this directly, our findings suggest that starting to work on mentalizing skills early in the transition to parenthood may have a positive impact on the future parent-child relationship.

Photo by SHVETS production on Pexels.

We offer several tips for practicing mentalizing abilities to mothers who are expecting a baby, or even individuals parenting a young child:

• Journal by yourself or mentalize with your partner or a close friend to imagine and visualize what caring for your child would be like.
• Reflect on how you might think or feel in various scenarios.
• Consider these questions, among others: What might you and your child be thinking or what emotions might you be feeling during your morning or bedtime routine? What might be your favorite joint activities in which you feel most connected? When might you feel less connected and why?

Thinking about thoughts and feelings when imagining what being a parent would be like is a positive step in the transition to parenthood.

Although we have focused in this blog post on positive images and experiences, it is also important to acknowledge that thinking about the future can sometimes be overwhelming and may bring about worries.

Individuals in the transition to parenthood who find that such exercises raise worries should seek support and talk about their concerns with their health care provider.

The post Beyond imagination: Focusing on thoughts and feelings when envisioning motherhood before and after the baby’s arrival appeared first on Child and Family Blog.

• Social exclusion harms individuals of all ages, leading to feelings of loneliness, decreased self-esteem, and even changes in brain activity.
• Humans’ ability to recognize and react to social exclusion emerges early, suggesting the importance of considering and addressing ostracism even when caring for very young children.
• Babies are sensitive to social clues: In one study, when 13-month-olds were excluded from a ball-tossing game with unfamiliar adults, they became fussy and frustrated, a shift in behavior compared to their happy engagement when they were included in the game.
• By creating inclusive and nurturing environments from the very beginning, caregivers can foster their children’s emotional well-being and social development. This lays the foundation for strong social skills, empathy, and healthy emotional regulation later in life.

Have you ever noticed how young children light up when another child wants to play?

It is amazing to watch them grow, not just physically but also in their social and emotional skills. Parents often wonder when children start understanding complex social situations, like when they are being included in a game or left out.

Two children playing in a shared space. Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels

As researchers, we turned this curiosity into an experiment. Our research suggests that 13-month-olds are sensitive to social exclusion from strangers. What are the implications of this finding for caregivers? In this post, we offer tips to foster inclusive environments for young children.

What is ostracism and why does it matter?

Everyone knows the sting of being left out. In social settings, people sometimes ignore or exclude other people, leaving them out. That’s ostracism.

Think about a child at playtime who is not invited to join a game or a young person who feels isolated during a group conversation. Ostracism, a common experience, can have far-reaching effects, influencing individuals’ psychological well-being and behavior.

Being left out can leave children vulnerable to low self-esteem and academic difficulties

Research has shown that, starting from school age, ostracism can negatively affect fundamental psychological needs, such as feelings of belonging and having a positive sense of self-worth.

For example, it can lead to feelings of loneliness and decreased self-esteem in children. Ostracism can even trigger physiological changes, such as an accelerated heart rate, indicating a physical stress response. It also influences behavior by heightening sensitivity to others’ emotional expressions and leading individuals to adopt either prosocial or antisocial attitudes, depending on the situation.

Ostracism, a common experience, can have far-reaching effects, influencing individuals’ psychological well-being and behavior.

Research also suggests that persistent ostracism by peers from kindergarten through fifth grade can result in   Thus, recognizing that children, even at a very young age, are sensitive to this phenomenon can offer insights into their emotional development.

Exploring infants’ sensitivity to ostracism with a ball-tossing game

In research my colleagues and I conducted at the Child & Baby Lab in Milano (Italy), we investigated the effects of ostracism on 13-month-olds on 84 infants (approximately half boys and half girls), primarily of Caucasian ethnicity.

Infants played a ball-tossing game with two experimenters. At the start of the game, an experimenter tossed the ball to the infant, retrieved it, and then tossed it back to them to establish a pattern of interaction. In the next part of the game, the experimenter either continued to include the infant or switched to ostracizing them.

For infants assigned to experience inclusion, the experimenter continued tossing the ball back and forth between the infant and a second experimenter for the remainder of the game. For infants assigned to experience ostracism, the first experimenter continued tossing the ball, but only to the other experimenter, deliberately ignoring the infant for the rest of the game.

A child plays alone in a ball pit. Photo by Lisa Fotios on Pexels

Do infants behave differently when they are ostracized?

Since infants of this age typically cannot verbalize their feelings, we video-recorded their facial expressions, vocalizations, and body movements during the ball-tossing game to understand their emotional state during the activity – happy, frustrated, or somewhere in between.

Our findings shed light on humans’ early awareness of social dynamics. Infants who were left out of the game showed fewer signs of happiness, like smiling and laughing, than infants who were included. Furthermore, ostracized babies were fussier and showed more signs of frustration, like crying or angry expressions.

Many factors, such as simply not receiving the ball as often, could have contributed to the observed differences in behavior. However, given what we observed during our study and what we know from other research, our findings suggest that, by 13 months, infants can pick up on social exclusion and react to it emotionally.

Ostracized infants showed signs of trying to get back into the game by reaching out more frequently and spending more time looking toward the experimenters rather than focusing on the ball. These behaviors suggest that infants were proactively reaching out for adults’ attention, prioritizing social re-inclusion over simply wanting the ball to play with.

Infants who were left out of the game showed fewer signs of happiness, like smiling and laughing, than infants who were included.

Implications for parents and caregivers

Social interactions are crucial for children’s development because individuals learn constantly when they interact with others. This makes it important to foster inclusivity as well as to teach and model social skills to help children navigate social situations confidently from early in life.

Our study revealed that 13-month-olds are sensitive to exclusion, suggesting that they have an earlier grasp of social dynamics than previously thought. This sensitivity likely forms the basis for more complex social behaviors later in life.

Behaviors in ostracized infants reflect how adults react to exclusion

In addition, the behaviors we observed in ostracized infants (e.g., fussiness, attention seeking) are similar to how older children and adults react to exclusion. This suggests that the mechanisms for detecting and addressing social rejection begin developing very early in life.

The early signs of sensitivity to social exclusion

Understanding early signs of sensitivity to social exclusion is crucial not just for researchers but also for caregivers. As parents interact with their children, they might notice a child:

• Fussing more when they are not included in playtime with other children during playdates;
• Reaching out, crying, or babbling to try and get the caregiver’s attention if they feel ignored during mealtime; or
• Losing interest in activities when consistently sidelined.

These reactions mirror those observed in our experiment, highlighting the need for nurturing environments in which children feel like they belong and are active in social interactions.

Create nurturing environments to promote children’s social-emotional development

Our study’s findings underscore why creating a sense of belonging and emotional security for children is so important. Repeated experiences of exclusion can harm children’s emotional well-being in the long run by affecting their self-esteem, ability to form healthy relationships, and capacity to manage their emotions effectively.

Parents and caregivers can create a more nurturing environment by understanding these early signs of sensitivity to exclusion. This helps children feel safe, secure, and loved, laying the foundation for healthy emotional and social development.

A child shares her toy with another child. Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels

Practical tips for caregivers

To create a more nurturing environment for children, parents should:

• Model inclusive behaviors: From a very young age, children absorb everything we say and do. Demonstrate welcoming behavior by including others in activities and conversations. Show children the importance of kindness and respect toward everyone.
• Encourage social interactions: Create opportunities for shared experiences with peers. Provide toys and activities that encourage interaction, like building blocks or dress-up clothes. Facilitate playdates by offering simple suggestions for how children can play together, like taking turns building a tower. Use positive reinforcement and point out when your child shares a toy or interacts with another child.
• Acknowledge feelings: Promote your child’s understanding of their own feelings, either positive or negative, in different situations by labelling them. Even negative feelings are okay; help your child navigate them.
• Teach empathy: Help your child understand the feelings of others by discussing emotions and perspectives. Encourage them to share their toys, take turns, and listen to their friends’ stories.
• Address ostracism: If you notice exclusionary behaviors in your child’s interactions, address them with empathy. Explain the impact of exclusion on feelings and emphasize the importance of including others.

Because children’s emotional and social skills develop rapidly in these early years, providing supportive and inclusive environments can lay a strong foundation for future interactions and relationships.

By recognizing the importance of social inclusion from an early age, parents and other caregivers can help children become socially confident, empathetic, and emotionally resilient individuals.

The post Do infants feel excluded? Early signs and why it matters appeared first on Child and Family Blog.

1. Parental self-efficacy (i.e., a parent’s confidence in their own ability to care for their infant and respond to the infant’s needs) is the first step to a good parent-child relationship.
2. Research has explored the development of maternal self-efficacy beginning during pregnancy and continuing after childbirth.
3. Mothers who have previous childbirth and parenting experience or who live in a supportive environment have higher levels of self-efficacy in parenting after childbirth than do mothers without experience or support. A supportive environment might include access to professionals for relevant advice or family and friends for emotional support.
4. Attending classes on preparing for birth or childrearing can support the development of parental self-efficacy during pregnancy.

This article will explore the four following topics in becoming a confident parent:

1. Finding self-efficacy in the transition to (re)parenthood
2. What is self-efficacy and why is it important?
3. Social support and sociodemographic factors relate to parental self-efficacy
4. Mothers’ reports of their social support and maternal self-efficacy

1) Finding self-efficacy in the transition to (re)parenthood

In a study we conducted of new mothers, one mother described her early experiences with her baby in these words: “… somehow, he was only crying, and that’s normal, but he was really extreme; well he’s not a baby for beginners, that’s what my midwife said, and uhm, yeah, I don’t know, he was actually only crying and we were really at our limits…”

The challenges of becoming a parent can often be unique to the individual. Photo by Ron Lach on Pexels.

Becoming a parent is often a joyful process, but it also comes with challenges. Apart from the physical changes of childbirth and recovery, the transition to parenthood is characterized by behavioral and psychological challenges, such as acquiring new caretaking skills and adapting to a new role.

Once the infant is born, parents typically experience a lack of sleep and an increased workload; they need to change their daily routines or even their overall lifestyle.

Describing this stage, another mother said, “… the beginning, the first four weeks, they were really hard, because he always woke up at night, cried, didn’t want to sleep for two hours, made me totally exhausted, and I’m such a person, I absolutely need sleep and food, … then one just can’t go anymore, … talk anymore…”

Not all parents experience the transition to parenthood in the same way

But not all parents experience the transition to parenthood in this way. Among the factors that influence a mother’s adaptation to parenthood are prenatal expectations, social support, the quality of her partnership with the baby’s father, previous parenting experiences, characteristics of the infant, mental health, and stress.

During this process, parental role and parental self-efficacy are shaped, and both play a key role in later parenting behaviors and the parent-infant-relationship. In this article, we focus on parental self-efficacy in mothers.

… the beginning, the first four weeks, they were really hard, because he always woke up at night, cried, didn’t want to sleep for two hours, made me totally exhausted, and I’m such a person, I absolutely need sleep and food, … then one just can’t go anymore, … talk anymore…

2) What is parental self-efficacy and why is it important?

Parental self-efficacy refers to a parent’s confidence in their ability to care for their child and meet the child’s needs. Worldwide, higher levels of parental self-efficacy are associated with better home learning environments, stronger parent-child relationships, and healthier child development (e.g., better social skills, fewer internalizing and externalizing behaviors).

Even though the role of fathers in this context is beginning to be recognized in many Anglo-American and European countries, mothers remain the primary focus when considering the months before and after childbirth because they are the primary caregivers most of the time.

Supporting women early in this stage to increase their beliefs of maternal self-efficacy may have long-term positive effects for both mothers and children. Such support appears to be particularly important for children from disadvantaged populations (e.g., children of parents with low levels of education, low incomes, or migrant backgrounds) who may lack the resources and knowledge to create enriching environments.

3) Social support and sociodemographic factors relate to parental self-efficacy

Multiple studies show that a lack of social support during the prenatal period increases the risk of not adapting well to parenthood. However, several sociodemographic factors make pregnant women less likely to receive such support, and therefore also make those women more likely to struggle with low levels of parental self-efficacy.

For example, pregnant mothers who do not live in their country of origin often have smaller social networks and are more likely than native residents to experience social isolation during pregnancy. That social isolation, in turn, can contribute to mothers’ lack of confidence in their new role.

For first-time mothers, especially, this new role is a substantial change. Many feel less competent as parents than do mothers who have children and therefore have had experience with childbirth and parenting. As a result, many first-time mothers find it more difficult to adapt to the maternal role, according to a study in Portugal. 

Finding confidence as a mother can be as challenging as it can be rewarding. Photo by William Fortunato on Pexels.

4) Mothers’ reports of their social support and maternal self-efficacy

Together with our collaborators, we conducted a study to explore sociodemographic factors and relations between mothers’ social support and maternal self-efficacy during the transition from pregnancy to (re-)motherhood.

Even though parental efficacy/confidence develops during pregnancy through the child-related preparations, expectations, and experiences, most studies focus on the postnatal period, neglecting the period when self-efficacy in parenting develops. In addition, studies have tended to be conducted with participants of high socioeconomic backgrounds in Western societies.

In this study, we interviewed 292 mothers (between 18 and 47 years old) living in disadvantaged neighborhoods in a medium-sized city in Germany.

The status of “disadvantaged” was based on at least one parent meeting one or more of these requirements: low levels of education (no formal schooling beyond secondary school or no vocational school), low family income (unemployed or low-wage earner), or being an immigrant or child of an immigrant.

We spoke to them both before and after delivery, asking about their demographic information (e.g., education level, migration background, previous childbirth experience), how well they felt supported by their social environment, and whether they participated in professional social support programs (e.g., birth preparation or parenting classes).

We measured their sense of parental self-efficacy using an established questionnaire, with questions targeting mothers’ beliefs about their own parenting knowledge and associated feelings.

Our findings

Although the regions where the mothers in our study lived offered free support programs for all pregnant women and women with young children, only about half took advantage of these services.

These were mostly first-time mothers and mothers without a migration background. Not only were these mothers more likely to seek formal support, but they also benefited the most from participating in such programs, showing the greatest increases in maternal self-efficacy/confidence between pregnancy and the early months after childbirth.

Our suggestions

Based on our findings, communities should make sure that expectant mothers are informed about the social support programs and classes that are available and we should encourage them to participate.

For instance, in Germany, many municipalities offer prenatal and postnatal support programs for mothers free of charge. In these programs, mothers can get to know each other, share experiences and engage in peer mentoring, and receive information from a professional (e.g., midwife).

These types of programs are promising ways to increase maternal self-efficacy, which can then have long-term positive effects on both parenting practices and children’s behavior.

Support programs that demonstrate success in improving parenting confidence are becoming increasingly popular. Photo by RDNE Stock project on Pexels.

Municipalities should increase efforts to ensure that all mothers can access these kinds of services. Making the programs free is one step; however, communicating about the programs and making them accessible to a diverse network of women and families involves further steps.

For example, some foreign-born mothers, especially those who have recently immigrated, do not know about these services, and many are hesitant to participate because of language barriers. However, although the first step may be difficult, many mothers who participate report that these programs can be both enjoyable and helpful in terms of gaining parenting knowledge and confidence.

By connecting women to accessible support programs, communities can pave the way for a healthy parent-child relationship and help give each child the best possible start in life.

The post Becoming Confident in Parenting Abilities appeared first on Child and Family Blog.

Key takeaways for caregivers

• Co-sleeping, typically defined as infants sharing a room or a bed with parents, is common worldwide but varies in acceptability across cultures. It is practiced less in U.S. culture and parents vary widely in how they view it.
• Pediatric organizations (e.g., the American Academy of Pediatrics ) do not endorse bedsharing, and although the AAP does not appear averse to roomsharing per se, research in Western cultures has linked persistent co-sleeping (i.e.., bedsharing, roomsharing, or a combination of both) beyond six months to parent and infant issues.
• Our research found a link between co-sleeping and more sleep disturbances among parents, especially mothers, which may occur in any culture where co-sleeping occurs.
• Co-sleeping was also associated with greater co-parenting distress and poorer quality of bedtime parenting, which may be more likely in cultures where co-sleeping is less accepted.
• Infants’ sleep did not appear to be affected by co-sleeping.
• Decisions about co-sleeping with one’s infant are ultimately personal choices. If practiced, co-sleeping should be done safely, following AAP guidelines, and co-sleeping parents should take steps to nurture their relationship as a couple.

Article contents:

1. Questions about parent-infant sleep arrangements are complex
2. Do infant sleep arrangements relate to infant and parent sleep quality or parenting behaviors?
3. Parent-infant co-sleeping was linked to poorer maternal sleep and parenting issues
4. Effects of parent-infant co-sleeping are likely to be culturally specific
5. Promoting co-parenting and safe and healthy sleep may be most critical

1. Questions about parent-infant sleep arrangements are complex

How parents should structure their infants’ sleep and whether infants should sleep by themselves (in a separate room) or co-sleep with their parent(s) (i.e., in the same room or the same bed as the parent(s)) is a controversial, sensitive, and personal topic. At the heart of the matter are arguments about what is best for babies and beliefs about that vary widely.

These beliefs are informed by cultural prescriptions, recommendations from medical professionals who argue against bedsharing for safety reasons, evolutionary biologists who argue for bedsharing because it protects infants, individual parental beliefs, availability of sleep spaces and other practical considerations (e.g., convenience), and infants’ age.

Adding to the confusion and controversy, in Western cultures, infant sleep arrangements are fluid during the first year, with parents more likely to co-sleep soon after birth than later. This makes it more challenging to identify whether a family co-sleeps.

Photo: Sarah Chai. Pexels.

Choices about where infants should sleep and for how long may not be just about what is best for the baby, but also about what is best for the family.

Some studies suggest that parents who co-sleep with their infants may be at risk for marital and co-parenting distress. Parents, particularly mothers, who co-sleep with their infants also awaken more at night and have more sleep problems than do parents and infants who sleep in separate rooms.

2. Do infant sleep arrangements relate to infant and parent sleep quality or parenting behaviors?

Choices about infant sleep arrangements can be confusing and may be influenced by competing needs and demands. To better understand how parenting and infant and parent sleep affect family life, in our recent study, we examined sleep arrangement patterns across infants’ first six months of life.

We assessed 124 U.S. families when infants were one, three, and six months old. Most mothers and fathers were White (8%), married or living with a partner (95%), and in their 30s; 57% of the infants were girls.

Ninety-nine percent of parents had completed high school and about two-thirds had a bachelor’s degree or higher. Most fathers (89%) and mothers (61%) mothers worked full or part time when their babies were one month old; median yearly family income was $65,000.

To measure participants’ nighttime sleep, we used activity monitors (actigraphs) that parents wore on their wrists and put on infants’ calves at bedtime for seven consecutive days.

We also measured mothers’ emotional availability with their infants (e.g., warmth, sensitivity) during infants’ bedtimes (from video recordings made by parents).

Mothers also completed questionnaires to assess the quality of positive co-parenting (e.g., support and endorsement of one’s partner) and negative co-parenting (e.g., amount of conflict with and undermining by one’s partner). Infant sleep arrangements were determined from the video recordings of the infants at night.

It is parents’ sleep, and particularly mothers’ sleep, that may be affected most by co-sleeping.

3. Parent-infant co-sleeping was linked to poorer maternal sleep and parenting issues

From the video recordings when babies were three and six months old, we identified three patterns of sleep arrangement:

• Solitary sleeping (infants slept in a room separate from their parents at both ages),
• Co-sleeping (infants slept in the same room or the same bed as their parents at both ages)
• Co-sleeping to solitary sleeping (infants roomed with or shared a bed with a parent at three months and were moved to a room of their own by six months).

Babies who slept in the same room as their parents rarely spent all their time on a sleeping surface separate from their parents, even with a crib in the room. Videos showed that mothers frequently brought their babies to the parents’ bed in response to infants’ distress, with infants falling asleep in the parents’ bed without being immediately returned to the crib.

Consistent with other research, co-sleeping families were more likely than the other two groups to have lower socioeconomic status, be non-White and unemployed, and have fewer years of education.

We also saw patterns relating to duration of breastfeeding and parents’ symptoms of depression and anxiety. We used statistical techniques to consider those patterns and explore specific relations between co-sleeping and both sleep quality and co-parenting, finding that:

1. Mothers had poorer sleep quality if they co-slept. Fathers who co-slept with their infants experienced more varied sleep quality across the week than fathers whose infants slept alone.
2. Infants’ sleep quality was not related to sleeping arrangement at all.
3. Mothers reported less positive and more negative co-parenting, and were observed to be less emotionally available to their infants at bedtime.

Our results are consistent with other work showing that compared to non-co-sleeping, persistent co-sleeping is linked to poorer parental sleep, particularly mothers’ sleep, and with more co-parenting distress and less emotionally available parenting.

Photo: RDNE Stock project. Pexels.

Our finding that infants’ sleep was unrelated to sleep arrangement indicates that it is parents’ sleep, particularly mothers’ sleep, that may be affected most by co-sleeping. This does not bode well for long-term maternal well-being: Chronic sleep problems can increase individuals’ risk for depression, which can affect relationships with other family members.

4. Effects of parent-infant co-sleeping are likely to be culturally specific

Our study was done in the United States, a culture that, by and large, does not support persistent co-sleeping. Parents who engage in persistent co-sleeping in a culture that does not support it may be criticized for engaging in a practice some consider harmful to babies – despite that fact that our study did not find any negative associations between co-sleeping and infant sleep.

Such criticism is based solely on the tendency of members of a culture to accept a cultural prescription as “the right thing to do” without supporting evidence. Researchers should replicate our study in a culture in which co-sleeping is more accepted to determine whether findings are similar or different.

When co-sleeping is culturally embraced, parents who co-sleep are less likely to be criticized by family members and friends.

We suspect that the link that we found between co-sleeping and heightened sleep disturbances among parents, especially mothers, would be culturally ubiquitous, but the links among co-sleeping, co-parenting distress, and reduced maternal emotional availability with infants at bedtime would not.

This is because sleeping near one’s infant is likely to affect parents’ sleep, regardless of the cultural backdrop. In contrast, the association of co-sleeping with heightened family stress should be less likely when co-sleeping is culturally accepted.

For example, when co-sleeping is culturally embraced, parents who co-sleep are less likely to be criticized by family members and friends.

Photo: Kevin Liang. Unsplash.

5. Promoting co-parenting and safe and healthy sleep may be most critical

Do these findings lead us to recommend that parents not co-sleep with their infants?

Assuming parents follow medical recommendations for safe sleep (e.g., the AAP guidelines; i.e., avoiding bedsharing, eliminating loose bedding and clothing, and placing infants in a supine position on the sleeping surface), we do not make such a broad recommendation.

Although our study’s co-sleeping parents as a group appeared to be at higher risk for family distress than were parents who slept without their babies, even when they said they preferred to co-sleep, some parents who co-sleep did not experience heightened co-parenting distress, nor were they less emotionally available to their infants at bedtime than parents of infants who slept alone.

It appeared that these parents were on board with their choice of sleep arrangement. The parents’ relationship with each other was not compromised, which suggests that they took time to nurture their relationship as a couple (e.g., not just in terms of co-parenting but by making time for themselves and each other) and that co-sleeping with their infants did not interfere.

Thus, to the extent that parents are aware that co-sleeping can interfere with their sleep and their relationship as a couple, and take steps to promote each other’s sleep and their relationship with each other, the choice to co-sleep may not be at all problematic. We did not conduct interviews or collect information about this idea and believe it would be an important question to explore.

The post Infant-parent co-sleeping: What do sleep arrangements mean for families? appeared first on Child and Family Blog.

Key takeaways for caregivers

• Babies’ intake of new information that is emotionally relevant might vary depending on when they last slept.
• After being awake for an extended period, babies become attuned to negative emotional information.
• Supporting babies in their sleep requirements, such as by maintaining consistent bedtime rituals, can support their well-being.

Sleep helps babies grow and develop

Have you ever planned to take your baby to playgroup but decided not to because it was nearly naptime? Many parents assume that their baby’s readiness to engage with others is connected to how wide awake or sleepy they are. But does all their learning happen only when they are wide awake?

Babies were actually better at recognizing angry and sad faces after they had been awake for a longer time.

Babies spend most of their time sleeping. Rather than being a waste of time, sleep helps their growing bodies and brains: Sleep plays an important role in babies’ physical growth and cognitive development, including their learning and memory.

Babies who nap soon after learning new information remember more of the newly acquired information and can use it more effectively to solve new problems than can infants who do not nap soon after learning.

Compared to these insights into the benefits of sleep when it occurs after learning, we know little about the relevance of infant sleep that occurs prior to a learning opportunity.

In everyday life, parents might observe their baby getting cranky when naptime or bedtime approaches. However, researchers have not extensively studied whether babies process information differently depending on whether they have recently slept.

Does sleep enhance babies’ learning of emotional information?

Surprisingly little research has been conducted on whether infants’ learning of emotional information is affected by their sleep patterns. To start addressing this gap in knowledge, we asked: What are the effects of sleep timing on six-month-olds’ recognition of emotional faces?

Photo: Tim Dennell. Creative Commons.

We focused on recognizing emotional faces because faces are frequently encountered and are important visual stimuli for babies. Babies learn about faces quickly.

From birth, babies prefer to look at faces over other visual patterns. They quickly begin to recognize the face of their caregiver, and prefer to look at faces more like the ones in their environment (e.g., preferring faces of people of their race over faces of people of other races).

Beyond the value of recognizing familiar faces, faces are also important because they display social and emotional cues that mirror a person’s mood. Keeping in mind who looked friendly and who looked angry might be particularly important for babies, who depend on the care of others for their survival and comfort.

Studying infant sleep and recognition of emotional faces

We were interested in discovering how easily babies recognized human faces showing different emotional expressions based on whether the babies had recently slept or been awake for an extended period.

Because research has shown that sleep benefits babies’ learning and memory, we predicted that babies would find it easier to keep emotional faces in mind when they were well rested than to do so when they were sleepy.

We visited 17 six-month-olds and their caregivers in their homes over two days. One day, we visited after the babies had awakened from a recent and long nap. The other day, we visited toward the end of the babies’ longest period of wakefulness (which averaged 140 minutes).

The babies in our study may have been better at recognizing sad and angry faces when they were sleepy because the negative information matched their own current emotional state.

On both occasions, we had each baby sit on their caregiver’s lap and tested infants’ visual memory through a procedure commonly used in research.

Babies were shown pictures of female adult faces displaying neutral, sad, or angry expressions.

We filmed babies’ looking times to each face using a hidden camera, arranging the presentation in the same way each time: First, babies saw a picture of a person (for example, looking angry). Next, they saw the same picture next to a picture of a new person with the same emotional expression as the first one.

When babies are shown a picture for a longer time, they grow tired of it (just as adults do) and pay less attention. When they see a new picture alongside the old picture, they pay more attention to the new one, but only if they remember the old one. If they do not remember the old picture, they might look at both the old and the new pictures for the same amount of time.

Photo: Hessam Nabavi. Unsplash.

Babies had better memory for angry and sad faces after being awake

Using this logic, we found some surprising results. In contrast to our predictions that recent napping would strengthen memory, babies were actually better at recognizing angry and sad faces after they had been awake for a longer time.

They failed to recognize these kinds of faces when they had recently slept. In other words, it appeared that the babies were particularly receptive to emotionally negative information after they had been awake for a long time.

How might babies see their social world at different stages in their sleep-wake patterns?

The babies in our study may have been better at recognizing sad and angry faces when they were sleepy because the negative information matched their own current emotional state.

As babies get tired, they can become grumpy which, in turn, might lead them to process information that matches this state. Researchers call this mood-congruent learning. While we did not test this explanation in our study, it should be an avenue for further research.

Photo: Jerald Jackson. Creative Commons.

Although our study was small, the results suggest one mechanism that might link early sleep problems and later impairments in mental well-being. Assuming that sleep problems regularly lead to fatigue and delayed sleep onset, affected babies might be susceptible to taking in emotionally negative information efficiently and storing it in their memory.

As a consequence, the developing knowledge base of infants with sleep problems versus infants without sleep problems could be quite different, leading to different, perhaps more pessimistic, views on the (social) world.

These speculative ideas clearly require more research. Our results suggest that timing of sleep could influence which type of information babies focus on and process.

What does this mean for parents?

Due to the small size of our study, our findings about processing emotional information must be considered preliminary. However, it is clear from previous research that sleep plays an important role in early development.

Having a calm and consistent bedtime routine helps babies make the most of their learning and the fun interactions they have had during the day. Learning to read babies’ early signs of tiredness, and adjust to changing sleep schedules as they grow, can help babies enjoy the benefits of good sleep.

The post Tired and cranky: Babies who have been awake for a while are more sensitive to sad and angry faces appeared first on Child and Family Blog.