A methodological investigation of maternal-infant bonding
Creators: name: Painter, Susan Lee
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2010

description: A methodological investigation of maternal-infant bonding was undertaken with the purpose of developing instruments and measures for studying maternal attachment. The research was longitudinal, based upon the belief that the bond between a mother and her infant develops gradually, beginning before the infant's birth and continuing through the early postpartum period and on into infancy. Existing research on maternal behaviour, which has grown out of the three fields of developmental psychology, ethology and pediatrics, was found to be limited in scope and lacking in adequate tools for measuring naturally occurring maternal-infant interactive behaviour. The present research was an attempt to extend and improve upon existing research by making a preliminary exploration of both the wide range of influences upon the maternal-infant bond and the equally wide range of manifestations of that bond, attitudinal as well as behavioural. The implicit model used as a basis for this research was a cumulative one, in which maternal behaviour is viewed as a response not only to concurrent events but to past events as well, and present behaviour is in turn thought to influence events yet to come. The time span under study was the two-month period from the last month of pregnancy through the first month of the infant's life. Twenty-seven primiparous women were interviewed during their third trimester of pregnancy and questionnaires concerning prenatal attitudes were administered (Prenatal Questionnaire and Infant Temperament Prediction). Information about labour, delivery and the postpartum hospital stay was taken from hospital records after the birth. While in hospital, mothers filled out the Hospital Diary, in which the amount of time spent with the infant each day was recorded. At one month postpartum, questionnaires were again administered (Postpartum Questionnaire and Infant Temperament Report), and a naturalistic observation of mother-infant interactive behaviour was made in the' home (Behaviour Record). After the home visit the observer filled out a set of eighteen Maternal Care Rating Scales developed by Ainsworth. Of the seven instruments used in this study, six were developed specifically for this research. The Prenatal Questionnaire administered in the third trimester of pregnancy assessed maternal feelings toward the pregnancy, experiences in prenatal classes, support of the husband or partner, preparation for labour and delivery, child care arrangements and prediction of parent-infant attachment. The Postpartum Questionnaire, which was filled out when the infant was one month old, was concerned with labour and delivery experiences, support of husband or partner, self-confidence in caregiving ability, caregiving routines and report of parent-infant attachment. The Infant Temperament Prediction (administered in the prenatal period) was concerned with the anticipation of infant behaviour in specific situations; the Infant Temperament Report (at one month postpartum) was concerned with maternal report of actual infant behaviour in those same situations. The Behaviour Record was an observational system which employed fifteen-second time intervals; twenty-eight maternal and seven infant behaviours were recorded for one hour. These individual behaviour categories were subsumed under nine behavioural composites which were determined a priori. The Maternal Care Rating Scales served as a molar assessment of maternal attitude, emotional involvement and perception of infant capability. Data gathered using these instruments provided evidence that both change and continuity characterize the development of the maternal-infant bond. Amid a general lack of correlation in maternal attitudes between the prenatal and postpartum periods, some areas assessed showed evidence of continuity. Specifically, the prediction of parent-infant attachment in the prenatal period was found to be correlated not only with postpartum report of attachment but also with observed social-interactive; as opposed to simply caregiving, behaviour at one month postpartum. The lack of correlation between the Infant Temperament Prediction and Report provided additional support for the general evidence of change from the prenatal to the: postpartum period. Neither the information taken from hospital records, i.e., length of labour, perinatal medication, type of delivery or infant outcome, nor the time spent with the infant in hospital during the,post-partum hospital stay was found to be correlated with prenatal or postpartum attitudes or with observed maternal behaviour at one month postpartum. It was concluded that evidence has been provided to support the notion that maternal-infant bonding should be studied longitudinally in order to trace the gradual development of that bond; in addition, evidence has been provided that the mother-infant bond should be studied using assessments of both attitudes and actual, observable maternal behaviour.