Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T05:55:51.623Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Maternal emotion dysregulation is related to heightened mother–infant synchrony of facial affect

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 June 2015

Annett Lotzin ,
Julia Schiborr ,
Claus Barkmann ,
Georg Romer  and
Brigitte Ramsauer
Annett Lotzin*
Affiliation:
University Medical Center Hamburg–Eppendorf
Julia Schiborr
Affiliation:
University Medical Center Hamburg–Eppendorf
Claus Barkmann
Affiliation:
University Medical Center Hamburg–Eppendorf
Georg Romer
Affiliation:
University Medical Center Hamburg–Eppendorf University Medical Center Münster
Brigitte Ramsauer
Affiliation:
University Medical Center Hamburg–Eppendorf
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Annett Lotzin, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Hamburg–Eppendorf, Martinistrasse 52, Hamburg 20246, Germany; E-mail: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A heightened synchrony between the mother's and infant's facial affect predicts adverse infant development. We know that maternal psychopathology is related to mother–infant facial affect synchrony, but it is unclear how maternal psychopathology is transmitted to mother–infant synchrony. One pathway might be maternal emotion dysregulation. We examined (a) whether maternal emotion dysregulation is positively related to facial affect synchrony and (b) whether maternal emotion dysregulation mediates the effect of maternal psychopathology on mother–infant facial affect synchrony. We observed 68 mothers with mood disorders and their 4- to 9-month-old infants in the Still-Face paradigm during two play interactions. The mother's and infant's facial affect were rated from high negative to high positive, and the degree of synchrony between the mother's and infant's facial affect was computed with a time-series analysis. Emotion dysregulation was measured with the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, and psychopathology was assessed with the Symptom Checklist–90–Revised. Higher maternal emotion dysregulation was significantly associated with higher facial affect synchrony; emotion dysregulation fully mediated the effect of maternal psychopathology on facial affect synchrony. Our findings demonstrate that maternal emotion dysregulation rather than maternal psychopathology per se places mothers and infants at risk for heightened facial affect synchrony.

Type
Regular Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , May 2016 , pp. 327 - 339
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aldao, A., Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Schweizer, S. (2010). Emotion-regulation strategies across psychopathology: A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 30, 217–237. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2009.11.004 Google Scholar
Basco, M. R., Bostic, J. Q., Davies, D., Rush, A. J., Witte, B., Hendrickse, W., et al. (2000). Methods to improve diagnostic accuracy in a community mental health setting. American Journal of Psychiatry, 157, 1599–1605. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.157.10.1599 Google Scholar
Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.51.6.1173Google Scholar
Beblo, T., Scheulen, C., Fernando, S. C., Griepenstroh, J., Aschenbrenner, S., & Rodewald, K. (2011). Psychometrische Analyse eines neuen Fragebogens zur Erfassung der Akzeptanz von unangenehmen und angenehmen Gefühlen (FrAGe) [Psychometric analysis of a new questionnaire assessing the acceptance of unpleasant and pleasant emotions (FrAGe)]. Zeitschrift für Psychiatrie, Psychologie und Psychotherapie, 59, 133–144. doi:10.1024/1661-4747/a000063 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beebe, B. (2005). Mother-infant research informs mother-infant treatment. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 60, 7–46.Google Scholar
Beebe, B., Jaffe, J., Buck, K., Chen, H., Cohen, P., Blatt, S., et al. (2007). Six-week postpartum maternal self-criticism and dependency and 4-month mother-infant self- and interactive contingencies. Developmental Psychology, 43, 1360–1376. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.43.6.1360 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beebe, B., Jaffe, J., Buck, K., Chen, H., Cohen, P., Feldstein, S., et al. (2008). Six-week postpartum maternal depressive symptoms and 4-month mother-infant self- and interactive contingency. Infant Mental Health Journal, 29, 442–471. doi:10.1002/imhj.20191 Google Scholar
Beebe, B., Jaffe, J., Markese, S., Buck, K., Chen, H., Cohen, P., et al. (2010). The origins of 12-month attachment: A microanalysis of 4-month mother-infant interaction. Attachment & Human Development, 12(1–2), 1–135. doi:10.1080/14616730903338985 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beebe, B., Steele, M., Jaffe, J., Buck, K. A., Chen, H., Cohen, P., et al. (2011). Maternal anxiety symptoms and mother-infant self- and interactive contingency. Infant Mental Health Journal, 32, 174–206. doi:10.1002/imhj.20274 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bernieri, F. J., & Rosenthal, R. (1991). Interpersonal coordination: Behavior matching and interactional synchrony. In Feldman, R. S. & Rime, B. (Ed.), Fundamentals of nonverbal behavior (pp. 401–432). Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bornstein, M. H., & Manian, N. (2013). Maternal responsiveness and sensitivity reconsidered: Some is more. Development and Psychopathology, 25, 957–971. doi:10.1017/S0954579413000308 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brophy, C. J., Norvell, N. K., & Kiluk, D. J. (1988). An examination of the factor structure and convergent and discriminant validity of the SCL-90-R in an outpatient clinic population. Journal of Personality Assessment, 52, 334–340. doi:10.1207/s15327752jpa5202_14 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohn, J., & Tronick, E. (1987). Mother-infant face-to-face interaction: The sequence of dyadic states at 3, 6, 9 months. Developmental Psychology, 23, 68–77. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.23.1.68 Google Scholar
Cohn, J. F., & Tronick, E. Z. (1988). Mother-infant face-to-face interaction: Influence is bidirectional and unrelated to periodic cycles in either partner's behavior. Developmental Psychology, 24, 386–392. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.24.3.386 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cole, P. M., Martin, S. E., & Dennis, T. A. (2004). Emotion regulation as a scientific construct: Methodological challenges and directions for child development research. Child Development, 75, 317–333. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00673.x Google Scholar
Dix, T. (1991). The affective organization of parenting: Adaptive and maladaptative processes. Psychological Bulletin, 110, 3–25. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.110.1.3 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ehring, T., Fischer, S., Schnülle, J., Bösterling, A., & Tuschen-Caffier, B. (2008). Characteristics of emotion regulation in recovered depressed versus never depressed individuals. Personality and Individual Differences, 44, 1574–1584. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2008.01.013 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldman, R. (2003). Infant-mother and infant-father synchrony: The coregulation of positive arousal. Infant Mental Health Journal, 24, 1–23. doi:10.1002/imhj.10041 Google Scholar
Feldman, R. (2007). Mother-infant synchrony and the development of moral orientation in childhood and adolescence: Direct and indirect mechanisms of developmental continuity. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 77, 582–597. doi:10.1037/0002-9432.77.4.582 Google Scholar
Feldman, R., Granat, A., & Gilboa-Schechtman, E. (2005, April). Maternal anxiety and depression, mother-infant synchrony, and infant regulation of negative and positive emotions. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Atlanta, GA.Google Scholar
Feldman, R., Greenbaum, C. W., & Yirmiya, N. (1999). Mother-infant affect synchrony as an antecedent of the emergence of self-control. Developmental Psychology, 35, 223–231. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.35.1.223 Google Scholar
Field, T. (2010). Postpartum depression effects on early interactions, parenting, and safety practices: A review. Infant Behavior and Development, 33, 1–6. doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2009.10.005 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Field, T., Healy, B. T., Goldstein, S., & Guthertz, M. (1990). Behavior-state matching and synchrony in mother-infant interactions of nondepressed versus depressed dyads. Developmental Psychology, 26, 7. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.26.1.7 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fonagy, P., Gergely, G., Jurist, E. L., & Target, M. (2002). Affect regulation, mentalization, and the development of the self. New York: Other Press.Google Scholar
Fox, H. C., Hong, K. A., & Sinha, R. (2008). Difficulties in emotion regulation and impulse control in recently abstinent alcoholics compared with social drinkers. Addictive Behaviors, 33, 388–394. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2007.10.002 Google Scholar
Franke, G. H. (2002). Symptom-Checkliste von L. R. Derogatis—Deutsche Version (SCL-90-R; 2nd ed.). Göttingen, Germany: Beltz Test.Google Scholar
Gianino, A., & Tronick, E. Z. (1988). The Mutual Regulation Model: The infant's self and interactive regulation coping and defense. In Field, T. M., McCabe, P. M., & Schneiderman, N. (Eds.), Stress and coping (pp. 47–68). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Gottman, J. M., & Ringland, J. T. (1981). The analysis of dominance and bidirectionality in social development. Child Development, 393–412. doi:10.2307/1129157 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gratz, K. L., & Roemer, L. (2004). Multidimensional assessment of emotion regulation and dysregulation: Development, factor structure, and initial validation of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 26, 41–54. doi:10.1023/B:JOBA.0000007455.08539.94 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gratz, K. L., Rosenthal, M. Z., Tull, M. T., Lejuez, C. W., & Gunderson, J. G. (2006). An experimental investigation of emotion dysregulation in borderline personality disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 115, 850–855. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.115.4.850 Google Scholar
Gratz, K. L., & Tull, M. T. (2010). The relationship between emotion dysregulation and deliberate self-harm among inpatients with substance use disorders. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 34, 544–553. doi:10.1007/s10608-009-9268-4 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greenberg, L. S. (2004). Emotion-focused therapy. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 11, 3–16. doi:10.1002/cpp.388 Google Scholar
Gross, J. (1998). The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Review of General Psychology, 2, 271–299. doi:10.1037/1089-2680.2.3.271 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gross, J. J., & John, O. P. (2003). Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 348–362. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.85.2.348 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gross, J. J., & Muñoz, R. F. (1995). Emotion regulation and mental health. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 2, 151–164. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2850.1995.tb00036.x Google Scholar
Haley, D. W. (2011). Relationship disruption stress in human infants: A validation study with experimental and control groups. Stress, 14 , 530–536. doi:10.3109/10253890.2011.560308 Google Scholar
Hardt, J., & Brähler, E. (2007). Symptomchecklisten bei Patienten mit chronischen Schmerzen [Symptom checklists in patients with chronic pain]. Schmerz, 21, 7–10. doi:10.1007/s00482-006–0512–5 Google Scholar
Hautzinger, M., Bailer, M., Worall, H., & Keller, F. (1994). Beck-Depressions-Inventar (BDI). Bearbeitung der deutschen Ausgabe. Testhandbuch. Bern, Switzerland: Huber.Google Scholar
Hintze, J. (2011). Power analysis and sample size software for Windows 11 [Computer software]. Kaysville, UT: NCSS, LLC.Google Scholar
Hopp, H., Troy, A. S., & Mauss, I. B. (2011). The unconscious pursuit of emotion regulation: Implications for psychological health. Cognition and Emotion, 25, 532–545. doi:10.1080/02699931.2010.532606.Google Scholar
Jaffe, J., Beebe, B., Feldstein, S., Crown, C. L., & Jasnow, M. D. (2001). Rhythms of dialogue in infancy: Coordinated timing in development. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 66(2), 1–132.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kaitz, M., Maytal, H. R., Devor, N., Bergman, L., & Mankuta, D. (2010). Maternal anxiety, mother–infant interactions, and infants’ response to challenge. Infant Behavior and Development, 33, 136–148. doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2009.12.003 Google Scholar
Kelly, K., Slade, A., & Grienenberger, J. F. (2005). Maternal reflective functioning, mother–infant affective communication, and infant attachment: Exploring the link between mental states and observed caregiving behavior in the intergenerational transmission of attachment. Attachment & Human Development, 7, 299–311. doi:10.1080/14616730500245963 Google Scholar
Kendon, A., Harris, R. M., & Key, M. R. (1975). Organization of behavior in face-to-face interaction. The Hague: Mouton De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Kring, A. M., & Bachorowski, J.-A. (1999). Emotions and psychopathology. Cognition & Emotion, 13, 575–599. doi:10.1080/026999399379195 Google Scholar
Krueger, R. F., & Markon, K. E. (2006). Reinterpreting comorbidity: A model-based approach to understanding and classifying psychopathology. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 2, 111. doi:10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.2.022305.095213 Google Scholar
Krull, J. L., & MacKinnon, D. P. (2001). Multilevel modeling of individual and group level mediated effects. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 36, 249–277. doi:10.1207/S15327906MBR3602_06 Google Scholar
Lobbestael, J., Leurgans, M., & Arntz, A. (2011). Inter-rater reliability of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID I) and Axis II Disorders (SCID II). Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 18, 75–79. doi:10.1002/cpp.693 Google Scholar
Lovejoy, M. C., Graczyk, P. A., O'Hare, E., & Neuman, G. (2000). Maternal depression and parenting behavior: A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 20, 561–592. doi:10.1016/S0272-7358(98)00100-7 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marquardt, D. W. (1970). Generalized inverses, ridge regression, biased linear estimation, and nonlinear estimation. Technometrics, 12, 591–256. doi:10.1080/00401706.1970.10488699 Google Scholar
Martinez-Torteya, C., Dayton, C. J., Beeghly, M., Seng, J. S., McGinnis, E., Broderick, A., et al. (2014). Maternal parenting predicts infant biobehavioral regulation among women with a history of childhood maltreatment. Development and Psychopathology, 26, 379–392. doi:10.1017/S0954579414000017 Google Scholar
McLaughlin, K. A., Mennin, D. S., & Farach, F. J. (2007). The contributory role of worry in emotion generation and dysregulation in generalized anxiety disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45, 1735–1752. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2006.12.004 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mennin, D. S. (2006). Emotion regulation therapy: An integrative approach to treatment-resistant anxiety disorders. Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 36, 95–105. doi:10.1007/s10879-006-9012-2 Google Scholar
Mesman, J., van IJzendoorn, M. H., & Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J. (2009). The many faces of the still-face paradigm: A review and meta-analysis. Developmental Review, 29, 120–162. doi:10.1016/j.dr.2009.02.001 Google Scholar
Moore, G. A., & Calkins, S. D. (2004). Infants’ vagal regulation in the still-face paradigm is related to dyadic coordination of mother–infant interaction. Developmental Psychology, 40, 1068–1080. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.40.6.1068 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moore, G., Cohn, J., & Campbell, S. (1997). Mother's affective behavior with infant siblings: Stability and change. Developmental Psychology, 33, 856–860. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.33.5.856 Google Scholar
Peveler, R. C., & Fairburn, C. G. (1990). Measurement of neurotic symptoms by self-report questionnaire: Validity of the SCL-90R. Psychological Medicine, 20, 873–879.Google Scholar
Ramsauer, B., Lotzin, A., Mühlhan, C., Romer, G., Nolte, T., Fonagy, P., et al. (2014). A randomized controlled trial comparing Circle of Security Intervention and treatment as usual as interventions to increase attachment security in infants of mentally ill mothers: Study protocol. BMC Psychiatry, 14, 24. doi:10.1186/1471-244X-14-24 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rusconi-Serpa, S., Rossignol, A. S., & McDonough, S. C. (2009). Video feedback in parent-infant treatments. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 18, 735–751. doi:10.1016/j.chc.2009.02.009 Google Scholar
Schmidt, R. C., & Richardson, M. J. (2008). Dynamics of interpersonal coordination. In Fuchs, A. & Jirsa, V. (Eds.), Coordination: Neural, behavioural and social dynamics (pp. 281–308) Heidelberg, Germany: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmitz, N., Hartkamp, N., Kiuse, J., Franke, G. H., Reister, G., & Tress, W. (2000). The Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R): A German validation study. Quality of Life Research, 9, 185–193. doi:10.1023/a:1008931926181 Google Scholar
Skre, I., Onstad, S., Torgersen, S., & Kringlen, E. (1991). High interrater reliability for the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R Axis I (SCID-I). Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 84, 167–173. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0447.1991.tb03123.x Google Scholar
Striano, T., & Rochat, P. (1999). Developmental link between dyadic and triadic social competence in infancy. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 17, 551–562. doi:10.1348/026151099165474 Google Scholar
Sroufe, L. A. (2013). The promise of developmental psychopathology: Past and present. Development and Psychopathology, 25, 1215–1224. doi:10.1017/S0954579413000576 Google Scholar
Thompson, R. A. (1994). Emotion regulation: A theme in research of definition. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 59(2–3), 25–52. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5834.1994.tb01276.x Google Scholar
Tronick, E., Als, H., Adamson, L., Wise, S., & Brazelton, T. B. (1978). The infant's response to entrapment between contradictory messages in face-to-face interaction. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 17, 1–13. doi:10.1016/S0002–7138(09)62273-1 Google Scholar
Tronick, E. Z., & Cohn, J. F. (1989). Infant–mother face-to-face interaction: Age and gender differences in coordination and the occurrence of miscoordination. Child Development, 85–92. doi:10.2307/1131074Google Scholar
Tull, M. T., Barrett, H. M., McMillan, E. S., & Roemer, L. (2007). A preliminary investigation of the relationship between emotion regulation difficulties and posttraumatic stress symptoms. Behavior Therapy, 38, 303–313. doi:10.1016/j.beth.2006.10.001 Google Scholar
Tull, M. T., & Roemer, L. (2007). Emotion regulation difficulties associated with the experience of uncued panic attacks: Evidence of experiential avoidance, emotional nonacceptance, and decreased emotional clarity. Behavior Therapy, 38, 378–391. doi:10.1016/j.beth.2006.10.006 Google Scholar
Vallacher, R. R., & Nowak, A. (2009). The dynamics of human experience: Fundamentals of dynamical social psychology. In Guastello, S. J., Koopmans, M., & Pincus, D. (Eds.), Chaos and complexity in psychology: The theory of nonlinear dynamical systems (pp. 370–401). New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Vasilev, C. A., Crowell, S. E., Beauchaine, T. P., Mead, H. K., & Gatzke-Kopp, L. M. (2009). Correspondence between physiological and self-report measures of emotion dysregulation: A longitudinal investigation of youth with and without psychopathology. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 50, 1357–1364. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2009.02172.x CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weinberg, M. K., Tronick, E. Z., Cohn, J. F., & Olson, K. L. (1999). Gender differences in emotional expressivity and self-regulation during early infancy. Developmental Psychology, 35, 175–188. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.35.1.175 Google Scholar
Werner, K., & Gross, J. J. (2010). Emotion regulation and psychopathology. A conceptual framework. In Kring, A. M. & Sloan, D. M. (Eds.), Emotion regulation and psychopathology: A transdiagnostic approach to etiology and treatment (pp. 13–37). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Whiteside, U., Chen, E., Neighbors, C., Hunter, D., Lo, T., & Larimer, M. (2007). Difficulties regulating emotions: Do binge eaters have fewer strategies to modulate and tolerate negative affect? Eating Behaviors, 8, 162–169. doi:10.1016/j.eatbeh.2006.04.001 Google Scholar
Wittchen, H.-U., & First, M. B. (1997). Strukturiertes Klinisches Interview für DSM-IV: Achse I und II. Göttingen, Germany: Hogrefe.Google Scholar
Zanarini, M. C., & Frankenburg, F. R. (2001). Attainment and maintenance of reliability of axis I and II disorders over the course of a longitudinal study. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 42, 369–374. doi:10.1053/comp.2001.24556 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed