Maternal Responses to Infant Distress: Linkages Between Specific Emotions and Neurophysiological Processes.

Objective.The goals of the current article were to test the presence of an association between mothers’ neural activity (measured by frontal cortical alpha asymmetry) and their specific emotions (measured by observed facial expressions) in response to infant distress and the moderation of this relat...

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Published in:Parenting: Science & Practice Vol. 17; no. 3; pp. 200 - 225
Main Authors: Hajal, Nastassia J., Cole, Pamela M., Teti, Douglas M.
Format: research tables/charts Journal Article
Published: Taylor & Francis Ltd Jul-Sep2017
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: Jul-Sep2017
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      pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd
      place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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        10.1080/15295192.2017.1336001
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        atl: Maternal Responses to Infant Distress: Linkages Between Specific Emotions and Neurophysiological Processes.
      aug:
        au:
          Hajal, Nastassia J.
          Cole, Pamela M.
          Teti, Douglas M.
        affil: University of California, Los Angeles, Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior, 760 Westwood Plaza, Room A8-153, Los Angeles, CA
      sug:
        subj:
          Mother-Infant Relations
          Stress, Psychological In Infancy and Childhood
          Maternal Behavior
          Parenting
          Neurons Physiology
          Human
          Female
          Infant
          Descriptive Statistics
          Questionnaires
          Facial Expression
          Emotions
          Self-Efficacy
          Electroencephalography
          Brain Mapping
          Videorecording
          Infant: 1-23 months
          Female
      ab: Objective.The goals of the current article were to test the presence of an association between mothers’ neural activity (measured by frontal cortical alpha asymmetry) and their specific emotions (measured by observed facial expressions) in response to infant distress and the moderation of this relation by mothers’ appraisal processes (measured by sense of parenting efficacy).Design.Mothers of 5- to 8-month-olds (n= 26) watched videos of their own infants expressing distress while their brain activity was recorded via electroencephalogram and their facial expressions were videotaped for later microcoding. Mothers also completed a questionnaire measure of parenting efficacy.Results.Greater neurophysiological withdrawal in response to infant distress videos, indexed by frontal alpha asymmetry, was associated with longer sad and tense expressions in mothers with average or below average parenting efficacy, but not in those with above average efficacy.Conclusions.Previous research showing that patterns of parents’ brain activity in response to child stimuli are associated with parenting behavior often interpret results in relation to parental emotion, but rarely measure specific concurrent emotions. The current study helps fill this gap in the literature by showing that maternal neurophysiological withdrawal (together with parenting efficacy) was associated with simultaneously measured facial expressions of negative emotion in response to infant distress stimuli.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
        research
        tables/charts
        Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
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