Maternal sensitivity

A mother and her child in 1912. Mothers who better understand their infant's signals are said to have higher maternal sensitivity.

Maternal sensitivity is a mother's ability to perceive and infer the meaning behind her infant's behavioural signals, and to respond to them promptly and appropriately. Maternal sensitivity affects child development at all stages through life, from infancy, all the way to adulthood. In general, more sensitive mothers have healthier, more socially and cognitively developed children than those who are not as sensitive.[1] Also, maternal sensitivity has been found to affect the person psychologically even as an adult.[2] Adults who experienced high maternal sensitivity during their childhood were found to be more secure than those who experienced less sensitive mothers.[2] Once the adult becomes a parent themselves, their own understanding of maternal sensitivity will affect their own children's development.[2] Some research suggests that adult mothers display more maternal sensitivity than adolescent mothers who may in turn have children with a lower IQ and reading level than children of adult mothers.[3]

There are different ways of assessing maternal sensitivity, such as through the use of naturalistic observation,[4] the Strange Situation,[5] maternal-synchrony,[6] and maternal mind-mindedness.[7] There are also a number of ways of measuring maternal sensitivity in the scientific world, which include Ainsworth's Maternal Sensitivity Scale (AMSS),[8] the Maternal Behaviour Q-sort (MBQS), and the Pederson and Moran Sensitivity Q-Sort.[9]

  1. ^ Wu, Tiejian; Wallace E. Dixon; William T. Dalton; Fred Tudiver; Xuefeng Liu (2011). "Joint Effects of Child Temperament and Maternal Sensitivity on the Development of Childhood Obesity". Maternal and Child Health Journal. 15 (4): 469–477. doi:10.1007/s10995-010-0601-z. PMID 20358395. S2CID 24929495.
  2. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference dev psy was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Demers, Isabelle; Bernier, Annie; et al. (July 2010). "Mind-mindedness in adult and adolescent mothers: Raltions to maternal sensitivity and infant attachment". International Journal of Behavioral Development. 34 (529): 529–537. doi:10.1177/0165025410365802. S2CID 143670689. Retrieved 13 June 2012.
  4. ^ Bento, S.; Evans, E.M.; Moran, G.; Pederson, D.R. (March 2007). "Assessing Maternal Sensitivity from Videotaped Recordings". Psychology Presentations. Retrieved June 7, 2012.
  5. ^ McLeod, B. "Mary Ainsworth – Strange Situation". SimplyPsychology. Retrieved June 17, 2012.
  6. ^ Zentall, S.R.; Boker S.M.; Braungart-Rieker, J.M. (2006). "Mother–Infant synchrony: A dynamical systems approach". Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Development and Learning. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.491.8160.
  7. ^ Meins; et al. (2002). "Maternal Mind-Mindedness and Attachment Security as Predictors of Theory of Mind Understanding". Child Development. 73 (6): 1715–1726. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00501. PMID 12487489.
  8. ^ Benson, Janette B.; Haith, Marshall M., eds. (2009). Social and emotional development in infancy and early childhood (1st ed.). Amsterdam: Academic. ISBN 978-0-12-375065-5.
  9. ^ Moran, G.; Pederson, D. R.; Pettit, P.; Krupka, A. (1992). "Maternal sensitivity and infant-mother attachment in a developmentally delayed sample". Infant Behavior and Development. 15 (4): 427–442. doi:10.1016/0163-6383(92)80011-i.