TY - JOUR A1 - Sidor, Anna A1 - Fischer, Cristina A1 - Eickhorst, Andreas A1 - Cierpka, Manfred T1 - Influence of early regulatory problems in infants on their development at 12 months: a longitudinal study in a high-risk sample JF - Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health N2 - Background: This study examined the extent to which regulatory problems in infants at 4 and 6 months influence childhood development at 12 months. The second aim of the study was to examine the influence maternal distress has on 4-month-old children’s subsequent development as well as gender differences with regard to regulatory problems and development. Methods: 153 mother-child dyads enrolled in the family support research project “Nobody slips through the net” constituted the comparison group. These families faced psychosocial risks (e.g. poverty, excessive demands on the mother, and mental health disorders of the mother, measured with the risk screening instrument Heidelberger Belastungsskala - HBS) and maternal stress, determined with the Parental Stress Index (PSI-SF). The children’s developmental levels and possible early regulatory problems were evaluated by means of the Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQ) and a German questionnaire assessing problems of excessive crying along with sleeping and feeding difficulties (SFS). Results: A statistically significant but only low, inverse association between excessive crying, whining and sleep problems at 4 and 6 months and the social development of one-year-olds (accounting for 5% and 8% of the variance respectively) was found. Feeding problems had no effect on development. Although regulatory problems in infants were accompanied by increased maternal stress level, these did not serve as a predictor of the child’s social development at 12 months. One-year-old girls reached a higher level of development in social and fine motor skills. No gender differences were found with regard to regulatory problems, nor any moderating effect of gender on the relation between regulatory problems and level of development. Conclusions: Our results reinforce existing knowledge pertaining to the transactional association between regulatory problems in infants, maternal distress and dysfunctionality of mother-child interactions. They also provide evidence of a slight but distinct negative influence of crying and sleeping problems on children’s subsequent social development. Easily accessible support services provided by family health visitors (particularly to the so-called “at-risk families”) are strongly recommended to help prevent the broadening of children’s early regulatory problems into other areas of behavior. KW - Early regulatory problems KW - Early child development KW - Mother-child-interaction KW - Maternal distress KW - At risk KW - Frühkindliche Regulationsstörung KW - Kleinkind KW - Entwicklung KW - Mutter KW - Kind KW - Stress KW - Gefährdung Y1 - 2013 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bsz:960-opus4-16918 SN - 1753-2000 VL - 2013 IS - 7 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sidor, Anna A1 - Kunz, Elisabeth A1 - Schweyer, Daniel A1 - Eickhorst, Andreas A1 - Cierpka, Manfred T1 - Links between maternal postpartum depressive symptoms, maternal distress, infant gender and sensitivity in a high-risk population JF - Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health N2 - Background Maternal postpartum depression has an impact on mother-infant interaction. Mothers with depression display less positive affect and sensitivity in interaction with their infants compared to non-depressed mothers. Depressed women also show more signs of distress and difficulties adjusting to their role as mothers than non-depressed women. In addition, depressive mothers are reported to be affectively more negative with their sons than with daughters. Methods A non-clinical sample of 106 mother-infant dyads at psychosocial risk (poverty, alcohol or drug abuse, lack of social support, teenage mothers and maternal psychic disorder) was investigated with EPDS (maternal postpartum depressive symptoms), the CARE-Index (maternal sensitivity in a dyadic context) and PSI-SF (maternal distress). The baseline data were collected when the babies had reached 19 weeks of age. Results A hierarchical regression analysis yielded a highly significant relation between the PSI-SF subscale "parental distress" and the EPDS total score, accounting for 55% of the variance in the EPDS. The other variables did not significantly predict the severity of depressive symptoms. A two-way ANOVA with "infant gender" and "maternal postpartum depressive symptoms" showed no interaction effect on maternal sensitivity. Conclusions Depressive symptoms and maternal sensitivity were not linked. It is likely that we could not find any relation between both variables due to different measuring methods (self-reporting and observation). Maternal distress was strongly related to maternal depressive symptoms, probably due to the generally increased burden in the sample, and contributed to 55% of the variance of postpartum depressive symptoms. KW - Depressive Symptom Scale KW - Maternal Depression KW - Edinburgh Postnatal Depression KW - Postpartum Depression KW - Maternal Depressive Symptom KW - Wochenbettdepression KW - Mutter KW - Kind Y1 - 2011 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bsz:960-opus4-16929 SN - 1753-2000 VL - 5 ER -