Correlates of Depressed Mothers' Sensitivity Toward Their Infants: The Role of Maternal, Child, and Contextual Characteristics

ABSTRACT 

Objective

To examine various maternal, child, and contextual characteristics, as well as the number of risk factors present, to distinguish which factors explain variance in the sensitivity of depressed mothers toward their infants.

Method

Participants were depressed mothers (n = 84) with their infants ages 1 month up to 1 year. Mothers were videotaped while bathing their children. The recordings were rated using the sensitivity scale of the Emotional Availability Scales.

Results

Three characteristics independently contributed to the explained variance in maternal sensitivity: level of education, feelings of parental incompetence, and family income. In addition, two subgroups were found to be particularly at risk: young mothers with high levels of depressive symptoms and low-income mothers who felt insecure about their parental competence. Together, these factors explained 23% of the variation in sensitivity in our sample of depressed mothers. The number of risk factors explained 9.8% of the variation in sensitivity.

Conclusions

The present results have implications for preventive interventions. Identifying specific groups at risk for low maternal sensitivity at an early stage may lead to favorable outcomes of targeted interventions that focus on enhancing depressed mothers' maternal sensitivity and feelingsof parental competence.

Key Words:  depression , maternal sensitivity , mother-child interaction