Participants

120 women followed from pregnancy through the first 3 years of their infants’ life; age range: 18-42, M = 26, SD = 5.7

•  Race: 47% African–American, 36% Caucasian, 13% Biracial, 4% Other (see Figure 1) •  Marital Status: 64% single/never married, 28% married, 4% divorced, 4% separated •  Education: 20% had a high school diploma or less, 44% some

college, 36% college degree •  Income: Median monthly household income = $1500; 73%

receive services from WIC, and 76% have public health insurance

Maternal Self-Efficacy and Hostility during the Perinatal Period as Predictors of Perceptions of Infant Emotion

Gloria Romero, B.S., Katherine Guyon-Harris, M.S., Emily Gutman, B.S., Alissa Huth-Bocks, Ph.D. Eastern Michigan University

Procedures

•  Pregnant women were recruited through the posting of flyers in pregnancy agencies and area community organizations. The first interview took place during the third trimester of pregnancy (T1), with subsequent interviews at 3-months post-partum (T2), 1-year postpartum (T3), and 2-years postpartum (T4). Retention (n): T1 (120), T2 (119), T3 (115), T4 (99). Data from the T1, T2, and T3 waves were used in this study.

RESULTS

INTRODUCTION

DISCUSSION

Figure 1. Race/Ethnicity

METHOD

The capacity to accurately interpret and respond to infant emotional states is related to sensitive parenting, which is central to healthy infant social-emotional development (Leerkes, Crokenburg, & Burrous, 2004). Therefore, the propensity to attribute negative emotions to neutral infant affective expressions may result in disruption to the parent-child relationship and poor infant emotional regulation (Schore, 1994). A mother’s tendency to interpret infant emotions as negative has been associated with prior exposure to intimate partner violence and with parental insensitivity across the first 2 years of the infant’s life (Dayton, Huth-Bocks, & Busuito, 2015). Given the detrimental outcomes of negative attributions of infant emotions, the present study is interested in examining what might lead a mother to have more negative or problematic interpretations of infant emotion. In particular, maternal self-efficacy and mental health will be explored. •  The purpose of this study is to expand current knowledge by

investigating aspects of maternal mental health and self-efficacy associated with maternal perceptions of infant emotion.

•  Bivariate correlations revealed that greater hostility during pregnancy was related to maternal perceptions of more negative (Tone) and more aroused infant emotions at 12-months post-partum. Furthermore, higher maternal self-efficacy in the ability and preparedness for the mothering role domain was related to perceptions of more positive tone. Based on significant bivariate associations, a regression model with hostility during pregnancy and self-efficacy (general ability and preparedness) at 3-months postpartum was tested.

•  These findings indicate that hostility experienced during pregnancy has a significant effect on the way in which mothers perceive infant emotional states 1 year postpartum; hostility experienced during pregnancy can be carried over after the baby is born, subsequently affecting postpartum maternal perceptions of babies’ emotional states. Thus, pregnancy may be a vital and sensitive period for intervention.

•  Moreover, this study shows that the absence of post-partum hostility may not necessarily indicate that mothers are not at risk, but that pregnancy may be a more powerful predictor of post-partum risk for negative perceptions.

•  Results of this study also indicate that mothers with higher self-efficacy 3-months post-partum, particularly in the general ability and preparedness domain, perceive infant emotion as more positive. For example, mothers who feel confident in their abilities perceive infant emotion as more positive 1-year post-partum.

•  The results of this study add to our understanding of what contributes to mothers’ perceptions about infant emotional states, including maternal mental health and feelings of self-efficacy as a mother. However, future research could examine how maternal self-efficacy and other mental health variables during pregnancy may also impact maternal perceptions of infant emotion.

•  Results may help inform interventions with high-risk mothers by focusing on increasing accurate perceptions of infant emotions and sensitive parenting behaviors to improve infant emotional development.

METHOD continued

Measures

•  Maternal perception of infant emotion: Maternal perceptions of infant emotion were assessed at T3 using the Infant Facial Expressions of Emotions from Looking at Pictures (IFEEL; Emde et al., 1993) task, which includes a series of 30 color photographs of 1-year-old infants displaying different facial expressions. Mothers are asked to provide a word that describes what the infant is feeling in each picture; responses yield scores that represent the positive or negative feeling/valence (Tone) of the words, and the level of arousal of the emotion words (Arousal). Higher scores represent more positive tone and higher levels of arousal.

•  Hostility: Hostility was measured during pregnancy (α = .80; T1) and 12-months post-partum (α = .83; T3) using the Brief Symptom Inventory- Hostility (BSI-H; Deragotis, 1994). The BSI-H includes 5 items (e.g. “Having urges to break or smash things”), which participants are asked to rate on a 5-point scale from 0 = “not at all” to 4 = “extremely”.

•  Maternal self-efficacy: Maternal self-efficacy was measured at 3-months post-partum (T2) using the Maternal Self-Report Inventory-Short Form (MSRI; Shea & Tronick, 1988), which yields five subscales: General ability and preparedness for the mothering role (α = .73; GAP; e.g., “I think that I will be a good mother”), Feelings concerning pregnancy, labor, and delivery (α = .85; FCP; e.g., “I found the delivery experience to be very exciting”), Caretaking ability (α = .79; CA; e.g., “I am concerned that I will have trouble figuring out what my baby needs”), Acceptance of baby (α = AB; e.g., “I have real doubts about whether my baby will develop normally”), and Expected relationship with baby (α = .53; ER; e.g., “I am confident that my baby will love me very much”).

• Hostility at 12-months post-partum was entered into the first step as a control variable followed by prenatal hostility and self-efficacy regarding ability and preparedness entered as predictors in step two. Hostility during pregnancy and self-efficacy were found to significantly predict tone of mothers’ perceptions of infant emotions above and beyond hostility at 12-months postpartum (see Table 2). Overall, this model explained 11% of the variance in maternal perceptions of infant emotional tone.

RESULTS continued

47%

36%

13%

4%

African-American

Caucasian

Biracial

Other