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Does Love Matter to Infants' Health: Influence of Maternal Attachment Representations on Reports of Infant Health

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2019

Elaine Scharfe Open the ORCID record for Elaine Scharfe [Opens in a new window]  and
Nicole Black
Elaine Scharfe*
Affiliation:
Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
Nicole Black
Affiliation:
Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
*
Address for correspondence: Dr Elaine Scharfe, Department of Psychology, Trent University, Peterborough, ON K9J 7B8, Canada. Email: escharfe@trentu.ca
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Abstract

Although there is considerable support for the influence of maternal attachment on children's development (see Gerhardt, 2015), this is one of the first studies to examine the effects of maternal prenatal reports of attachment representations with close others on reports of infants’ health. Mothers (N = 483) completed surveys to assess attachment and depression in the second or third trimester of pregnancy, infants’ health over the first 6 months, and depression and infant temperament when infants were 6 months old. We found that insecure mothers, as compared to secure mothers, were more likely to report that their infants experienced colic and illnesses associated with immune, cardiovascular, and respiratory systems. It may be that secure mothers experience less anxiety associated with parenting and, as expected, were consistently found to report lower levels of infant illness symptoms. Alternatively, secure mothers would be expected to provide more consistent and responsive care compared to insecure mothers, which may also influence their infants’ physical health (see also Gerhardt, 2015). Future research needs to further explore this finding — do secure mothers simply perceive their infants to be healthier due to their own low anxiety or are infants of secure mothers healthier due to consistent and responsive care received?

Keywords

attachment relationshipsmother-infant interactionmaternal depressionhealth
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Relationships Research , Volume 10 , 2019 , e4
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2019 

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