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PubMed2003

Maternal experience influences the establishment of visual/auditory, but not olfactory recognition of the newborn lamb by ewes at parturition.

Maternal behavior in sheep is characterized by the rapid establishment of individual recognition of the lamb through the use of different sensory modalities. Olfactory recognition mediates acceptance at suckling whereas visual/auditory cues are involved in recognition from a distance. This study investigates (a) the timing of both types of recognition and (b) whether they can be influenced by maternal experience. Olfactory recognition was assessed at lambing, 30 min, 1, 2, or 4 hr postpartum by presenting successively an alien and the familiar lamb. Recognition at a distance was assessed at 6, 8, and 12 hr postpartum by using a two-choice test between the familiar and an alien lamb. A majority (33/51) of ewes showed selectivity at suckling as early as 30 min after parturition, and no differences due to maternal experience were observed. By contrast, in the two-choice recognition test, multiparous ewes showed a preference for their familiar lamb at 6 hr whereas primiparous mothers did so only after 24 hr of mother-young contact: The performance of biparous mothers was intermediate. Thus, both types of recognition can be rapidly established after parturition, and maternal experience has a differential effect on the dynamics of these learning processes.

Animals↗

PubMed1983

The relationship between neonatal characteristics and three-month mother-infant interaction in high-risk infants.

The behavior of 4 groups of infants--healthy term, healthy preterm, sick preterm, and sick full-term--was assessed in the neonatal period using the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS). At 3 months postterm, infants and their mothers were observed and videotaped in a free-play session. Both the NBAS and mother-infant interaction data were analyzed to assess the effects of maturity (term vs. preterm), illness (sick vs. healthy), and their interaction. Results revealed that illness of the infant affected both NBAS performance and maternal behavior during the interaction at 3 moths. Infants who were ill performed poorly on the NBAS orientation dimension; this dimension was found to be significantly associated with maternal and infant behaviors at 3 months. These data demonstrate an association between early infant characteristics and subsequent mother and child interactive behaviors. They also identify postnatal illness as an important influence on the development of the mother-infant dyad.

Asphyxia Neonatorum↗

PubMed1978

Nutrition and infant behavior: a replication study in the Katmandu Valley, Nepal.

As a cross cultural comparison with an earlier study done in West Bengal, behavioral observations were made in the Katmandu Valley of 36 well-nourished and 38 undernourished children, 7 to 18 months of age, and their mothers. Undernourished children showed lowered levels of exploratory activity and attachment behavior, especially distance interaction, and a heightened need for physical closeness to the mother. Moreover, among the undernourished children the level of intellectual performance and the overall time spent in play were decreased, while time spent sucking at the breast was increased. In contrast to the West Bengali study, maternal behavior showed no differences between the two nutritional groups, and the intercorrelations between maternal and child scores showed similar or parallel patterns of reciprocity for the well-nourished and the undernourished children. No sex or age differences were found. The findings were interpreted to support Levitsky and Barnes' hypothesis of "functional isolation" as a mechanism between undernutrition and environmental stimulation to produce long-term behavioral changes. In addition, hunger as a motivational state, expressed as increased sucking, may interfere with other motivational determinants that might lead to exploration and/or increased social contacts.

Child Behavior↗

PubMed1992

Maternal Type A behavior during pregnancy, neonatal crying, and early infant temperament: do type A women have type A babies?

It was hypothesized that type A behavior in pregnant women would be associated with increased neonatal crying and differential reports of infant temperament at 3 months. Type A behaviors during pregnancy were measured in a self-selected cohort of 72 healthy, primiparous, middle-class women. Their newborns were assessed at 48 hours of age and the women completed an infant temperament questionnaire at 3 months. Women who were classified as type A on the Job Involvement scale of the Jenkins Activity Survey had infants who cried more during a standardized neurobehavioral assessment compared with infants of women who were type B on the same scale. Women who were type A for Job Involvement rated their 3-month-old infants as more intense and less predictable in their responses to the environment. They were also more likely to be breast-feeding their infants at 3 months. This is the first study to examine the prevalence and nature of maternal type A behaviors during pregnancy and to show their relationship to neonatal crying behavior, to maternal report of early infant temperament, and to maternal breast-feeding.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

A new method for measuring misclassification of maternal sets in maternally linked birth records: true and false linkage proportions.

OBJECTIVES: Numerous studies have used maternally linked birth records to investigate perinatal outcomes, maternal behaviors, and the quality of vital records birth data. Little attention has been given to assessing errors in the linkages and to understanding how such errors affect estimates derived from the linked data. The author developed a framework for conceptualizing maternal linkage error and measures for quantifying it, and examined the behavior of the new measures in a maternally linked file. METHODS: Linkage errors were conceptualized as misclassification, with the classes being the maternal sets (records classified as representing different births to the same woman). The true linkage proportion, analogous to sensitivity, was used to capture the degree to which all of a woman's births were assigned to a single maternal set; the false linkage proportion, analogous to specificity, was used to capture the degree to which the assigned maternal sets combined births from different women. The behavior of the two proportions was examined by introducing increasing degrees of linkage error into a maternally linked file. RESULTS: Both measures indicated greater misclassification with increasing simulated linkage errors. CONCLUSIONS: The new measures may be a useful tool for assessing the quality of maternally linked data, as well as other types of linked records where the linkages are within a single file. This is a necessary step towards developing methods for addressing misclassification bias in studies of maternally linked records through sensitivity analysis, adjustment, and other means.

Bias↗

PubMed1996

Oral motor function in the neonate.

The information in this article illustrates the importance of evaluating oral motor function of the infant, not only as function of his or her own ability but also of external and maternal assistance. The proper development of maternal behavior as a contribution toward the development of sucking behavior may not be readily evident; however, awareness is growing that a close mother-infant interaction can positively affect the infant's ability to feed, as well as his or her psychosomatic development. As a consequence, it becomes essential that the integrity of the nursing dyad be protected. More often than not, caretakers have seen the latter break down when mother or infant becomes too involved. Studies focusing on maternal and neonatal non-nutritional attributes stress the importance of acquiring a better appreciation of the psychosomatic benefits that can be generated by the nursing dyad. With such understanding, interventions may be developed to enhance the expression of these factors to help safeguard mother-infant relationship during difficult times.

Bottle Feeding↗

PubMed2006

Depression, sensation seeking, and maternal smoking as predictors of adolescent cigarette smoking.

The purpose of this study was to examine maternal and adolescent depression, maternal and teen sensation seeking, and maternal smoking, and their associations with adolescent smoking. Data were collected from a sample of 47 male and 66 female adolescents (ages 11-18 years) and their mothers from three different health clinics. The findings indicated that maternal sensation seeking was linked indirectly with adolescent smoking through teen sensation seeking, both of which were significantly associated with teen smoking (beta = 0.29, p < 0.001 and beta = 0.32, p < 0.001, respectively). Teen depression was associated positively with teen smoking (beta = 0.24, p < 0.01) when controlling for sensation seeking behaviors. Maternal smoking was also directly linked to adolescent smoking (beta = 0.20, p < 0.05). These findings underscore a potentially important role of sensation seeking in the origins of adolescent smoking, and clarify pathways of influence with regard to maternal attitudes and behaviors in subsequent teenage nicotine use.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Environmental enrichment alters plus maze, but not maternal defense performance in mice.

Maternal defense behavior (or maternal aggression) is a highly conserved behavior for protecting offspring that is normally associated with decreased fear and anxiety in rodent dams. Environmental enrichment can decrease indices of fearfulness and anxiety (and elevate novelty seeking) in laboratory animals. This study examined whether enrichment could alter levels of maternal aggression and elevated plus maze performance in lactating mice. One group of female mice was exposed to a series of novel objects for 1.5 months while the other group was not. As expected, mice that had been exposed to an enriched environment showed significantly more entries to and time on the open arms of an elevated plus maze while they were lactating. Enriched mice showed similar maze performances when tested 3 months later in a non-lactating state, even though enrichment had been removed for 3 months. Further, offspring of enriched dams exhibited maze performance similar to that of their dams, suggesting possible epigenetic influences on maze performance. In contrast, no differences in measures of maternal aggression or pup retrieval were detected between enriched and control lactating mice. Together, these results indicate that environmental enrichment has long lasting effects on plus maze performance, but does not alter maternal aggression. The findings also suggest that whatever neural pathways are altered by enrichment do not strongly overlap or regulate those governing maternal aggression.

Aggression↗

PubMed1979

The effects of methylphenidate on the mother-child interactions of hyperactive children.

Twenty hyperactive boys were observed while interacting with their mothers during a free play and task period on each of three occasions (no drug, drug, placebo). A triple-blind, drug-placebo crossover design was used to study the effects of methylphenidate on these interactions. A complex objective coding system was used to score the children's responses to various maternal behaviors as well as the mother's responses to a variety of children's behaviors. Results indicated that these children were more compliant with maternal commands during drug treatment. In response, mothers displayed increased attention to compliance while reducing their directiveness toward the boys. However, the hyperactive boys receiving methylphenidate initiated fewer social interactions and tended to show greater nonresponding. Thus, methylphenidate may improve the compliance of hyperactive children but tends to decrease their sociability.

Child↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Is prenatal tobacco exposure a risk factor for early adolescent smoking? A follow-up study.

Recent reports indicate a relation between prenatal tobacco exposure (PTE) and offspring smoking. Many of these reports have been retrospective or have not included important variables such as other prenatal substance exposures, maternal and child psycho-social characteristics, mother's current smoking, and friends' smoking. No prior study has examined the timing of PTE. In this prospective study of a birth cohort of 567 14-year-olds, we examined the relation between trimester-specific PTE, offspring smoking, and other correlates of adolescent smoking. Average age of the adolescents was 14.8 years (range: 13.9-16.6 years), 51% were female, 54% were African-American. Data on maternal tobacco and other substance use were collected both prenatally and postnatally, 51% of the mothers were prenatal smokers and 53% smoked when their children were 14 years. PTE in the third trimester significantly predicted offspring smoking (ever/never, smoking level, age of onset) when demographic and other prenatal substances were included in the analyses. PTE remained a significant predictor of the level of adolescent smoking when maternal and child psychological characteristics were added to the model. When more proximal measures of the child's smoking were included in the model, including mother's current smoking and friends' smoking, PTE was no longer significant. Significant predictors of adolescent smoking at age 14 were female gender, Caucasian race, child externalizing behavior, maternal anxiety, and child depressive symptoms. Although direct effects of PTE on offspring smoking behavior have previously been reported from this study and by others, by early-adolescence, this association is not significant after controlling for the more proximal covariates of adolescent smoking such as mother's current smoking and peer smoking.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1982

The effects of situations and situation transitions on maternal and infant behavior.

Mothers and their firstborn year-old infants (30 girls, 30 boys) were observed during two counterbalanced situations. In the noninteraction situation, mothers were not to initiate interaction; during interaction mothers were free to interact. Maternal and infant behavior were dependent upon both the situation examined and how it compared to the previous situation. During interaction, mothers directed more behavior toward their infants than during noninteraction; this effect was intensified when noninteraction preceded interaction. Infant looking and proximity-seeking were greater during interaction than during noninteraction, while the reverse was true for touching and vocalization. A decrease in the level of interaction resulted in increases in infant behavior, while the reverse transition was associated with a more variable pattern. Two models describe the interrelationships between changes in maternal and infant behavior. In a reciprocal system, increases by the mother in a given behavior, or in the general interactive level are related to decreases in infant behavior, and vice versa. In an incremental system, any change in maternal behavior is met by increases in infant behavior.

Female↗

PubMed2006

Mother-infant interaction, life events and prenatal and postpartum depressive symptoms among urban minority women in primary care.

OBJECTIVES: Prenatal and postpartum depression are significant mental health problems that can have negative effects on mother-infant interactions. We examined the relationships among mother-infant interactions, depressive symptoms, life events, and breastfeeding of low-income urban African American and Hispanic women in primary care settings. METHODS: Participants were 89 African American and Hispanic women who were part of a larger mental health intervention study conducted in community health centers. Questionnaire data on depression, as well as negative and positive life events, were collected during pregnancy and at three-months postpartum, while mother-infant interaction observations and breastfeeding practice were only collected at three-months postpartum. RESULTS: The ratings of maternal behavior for 'depressed' mothers did not differ from 'nondepressed' mothers. Except for gaze aversion behavior, infants' behavior while interacting with their mothers did not differ by maternal depression level. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that maternal positive life events positively predicted infant interactional summary ratings, while maternal negative life events were inversely associated with maternal interactional summary ratings. CONCLUSIONS: To improve services in primary care, perinatal screenings for depression can help identify those women most at risk. When follow-up use of structured diagnostic instruments is not possible or cost-effective, clinician assessment of severity of depression will determine women with clinical levels of depression. Reducing negative life events is beyond the control of women or clinicians but cognitive interventions to help women focus on positive life events can reduce the deleterious effects of depression on mothers and their infants.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Behavioral effects of gut hormones in neonatal rats: II. Cholecystokinin administration during the first postnatal week.

This exploratory study attempted to uncover physical and behavioral consequences of changes in the peripheral cholecystokinin (CCK) system in the first postnatal week. Sprague-Dawley rat pups received s.c. injections of CCK (8 micrograms/kg) or saline, on postnatal days 1-7 (2 times/day). Physical growth and neurobehavioral development of the pups were assessed on days 3, 6, 9 & 12, their social play was assessed on day 35, and the maternal behavior of their dams was assessed on days 9-12. CCK administration was associated with slower maturation of physical characteristics, more rapid reflexive performance on day 9, and increased maternal licking of pups. These findings stress the importance of further examining the impact of CCK and other gut-hormones on physical and behavioral development and on the quality of the mother-infant interaction.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Psychological distress and substance use by adolescent mothers: associations with parenting attitudes and the quality of mother-child interaction.

This study examines associations between psychological distress and alcohol and drug use across the first five years of raising a child and parenting quality at child age six for 185 adolescent mothers. Overall, alcohol and other drug use in this sample was relatively low, but drug use was associated with more mother-reported unrealistic expectations of child behavior and more attributions of child intent to annoy parent by misbehaving. Maternal psychological distress was associated with maternal reports of negative control (yelling, pushing, spanking, etc.), and alcohol use moderated the association between psychological distress and negative control. At low levels of alcohol use, more maternal distress was associated with greater negative control; at higher levels of alcohol use, maternal distress was not related to negative control, but the absolute level of negative control was similar to that reported by more distressed mothers. Neither psychological distress nor alcohol and other drug use were related to maternal behavior during an interaction task. Overall, much stronger associations with parenting outcomes were found for an index of maternal vocabulary, compared with maternal psychological distress or maternal alcohol and other drug use.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Maternally modulated infant separation responses are regulated by D2-family dopamine receptors.

Although dopamine is necessary for mammalian adult pair-bond formation and maternal behavior, its function in infant social behavior and attachment has been less thoroughly explored. The vocalization rate of an isolated rat pup is influenced by recent social contact. Interactions with the dam potentiate vocalization rate. Interactions with littermates or adult males do not. Systemic administration of the D2-family agonist quinpirole specifically blocked maternal potentiation at doses that did not alter vocalization rate in an isolation prior to dam contact. This result was not explained by quinpirole's effects on body temperature or locomotion. The results are consistent with a role for dopamine in infant social behavior.

Age Factors↗

PubMed1984

Ambivalence in monkey mothering. Infant abuse combined with maternal possessiveness.

The maternal behavior of an abusive Japanese macaque multiparous female was compared with that of three primiparous normal females from the same colony to evaluate the quality of the abusive mother-infant relationship. The abusive mother-infant pair scored highest on maternal warmth, protectiveness, possessiveness, and scored lowest on maternal rejectingness. The finding that the abusive mother alternated violent abuse with attentive maternal care is not consistent with the learning defect explanation of monkey infant abuse. Rather, the intense anxiety she showed in the relationship with her infant indicates that she suffered from an emotional disorder that can be adequately described by referring to Bowlby's model of anxious attachment. The implications of this case for the development of a nonhuman primate model of child abuse are examined in the light of human data clearly showing attachment disturbances in some child-abusing mothers.

Aggression↗

PubMed2004

Exposure to hexanal odor induces extraordinary Fos expression in the medial preoptic area and amygdala of Fyn tyrosine kinase-deficient mice.

Our previous study revealed that the odor of hexanal, which is derived from the wood chips used as bedding, influenced mouse maternal behavior and induced the neonatal death of Fyn-deficient (fyn(-/-)) pups born of fyn(-/-) parents. To clarify what regions of the brain are involved in this effect, we examined which brain regions of fyn(-/-) and Fyn-heterozygous (fyn(+/-)) females were activated by hexanal odor using Fos immunohistochemistry. Hexanal induced Fos immunoreactivity in the primary olfactory cortex and in the medial and central amygdala of both fyn(+/-) and fyn(-/-) mice. In fyn(-/-) females, hexanal also induced the activation of the medial preoptic area and the basolateral and posteriomedial cortical amygdala, which are known to be involved in the control of maternal and emotional behavior.

Aldehydes↗

PubMed1990

Mechanisms involved in the control of punished responding in mother rats.

In a previous study we found that mother rats show more drinking responses than virgins in the punished drinking paradigm, an animal model for anxiety. The present investigation was carried out to determine the possible mechanisms underlying this naturally occurring anticonflict effect. In Experiment 1, we investigated whether the induction of maternal behavior in virgin females (by long-term estrogen and progestin treatment in combination with pup exposure) enhances punished drinking. However, no release from shock-induced (0.25 mA) suppression of drinking was observed in maternally responsive virgins deprived of water for 24 hr. Unlike natural mothers, then, no anticonflict effect is seen in maternal virgins. A considerable body of evidence suggests that facilitation of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) activity in the brain increases punished responding in rats. In the second experiment, therefore, lactating females were injected with pentylenetetrazol, a GABA antagonist, before being monitored for punished drinking. The drug attenuated the enhanced acceptance of shock in mothers, the effect being observed at a dose level that did not reliably affect unpunished responding. Experiment 3 addressed the possible influence of ovarian and adrenal hormones on punished drinking in lactating females. No significant behavioral effects were observed in mothers subjected to adrenalectomy or ovariectomy 4 days before testing.

Animals↗