Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T09:31:19.206Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Maternal intrusiveness in infancy and child maladaptation in early school years

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2008

Byron Egeland*
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
Robert Pianta
Affiliation:
University of Virginia
Maureen A. O'brien
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
*
Address reprint requests to: Byron Egeland, University of Minnesota, Institute of Child Development, 51 East River Road, Minneapolis, MN 55455-0345.

Abstract

Using longitudinal data, a subsample of 37 high-risk children whose mothers were observed to be intrusive in their interactions with their 6-month-old infants in feeding and play situations were compared to 145 children from the same environmental risk sample. The children of mothers judged to be intrusive were doing poorly academically, socially, emotionally, and behaviorally in first and second grades. The findings were robust even after covarying out the effects of a maternal social/affective interaction factor, IQ, and stressful life events experienced by the family. The relation between an intrusive style of caretaking in infancy and child maladaptation in the early school years is viewed as support for a mutual regulation model of social engagement.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achenbach, T. M., & Edelbrock, C. S. (1986). Child Behavior Checklist. Manual for the Teachers Report Form and Teacher Version of the Child Behavior Profile. Burlington: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.Google Scholar
Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the Strange Situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Als, H., & Brazelton, T. B. (1981). Affective reciprocity and the development of autonomy: The study of a blind infant. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 16, 194207.Google Scholar
Anders, T. F. (1989). Clinical syndromes, relationship disturbances and their assessment. In Sameroff, A. G. & Emde, R. N. (Eds.), Relationship disturbance in early childhood: A developmental approach (pp. 125144). New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Belsky, I., Rovine, M., & Taylor, D. G. (1984). The Pennsylvania Infant and Family Development Project, II: The development of reciprocal interaction in the mother-infant dyad. Child Development, 55, 718728.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bornstein, M. H. (1989). Between caretakers and their young: Two modes of interaction and their consequences for cognitive growth. In Bornstein, M. H. & Bruner, J. S. (Eds.), Interaction in human development (pp. 197214). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Brazelton, T. B., Koslowski, B., & Main, M. (1974). The origins of reciprocity: The early mother-infant interaction. In Lewis, M. & Rosenblum, L. A. (Eds.), The effect of the infant on its caregiver (pp. 4976). New York: Wiley Interscience.Google Scholar
Cohn, T. F., Matias, R., Tronick, E. Z., Connell, D., & Lyons-Ruth, K. (1987). Face to face interactions of depressed mothers and their infants. In Tronick, E. & Field, M. M. (Eds.), New directions for child development. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Cohn, T. F., & Tronick, E. Z. (1983). Three-month-old infants' reaction to simulated maternal depression. Child Development, 54, 185193.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Connolly, J., & Doyle, A. (1981). Assessment of social competence in preschoolers: Teachers versus peers. Developmental Psychology, 17(4), 454462.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Das, J. P., Mulcahy, R. F., & Wall, A. E. (1982). Theory and research in learning disabilities. New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunn, L. M., & Markwardt, F. C. (1970). The Peabody Individual Achievement Test. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.Google Scholar
Egeland, B. (1985, 04). The impact of an interfering style of parenting behavior on the later development of the child. Paper presented to Society for Research in Child Development,Toronto, Canada.Google Scholar
Egeland, B., Breitenbucher, M., & Rosenberg, D. (1980). Prospective study of the significance of life stress in the etiology of child abuse. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 48(2), 195205.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Egeland, B., & Farber, E. A. (1984). Infant-mother attachment: Factors related to its development and changes over time. Child Development, 55, 753771.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Egeland, B., & Kreutzer, T. (1991). A longitudinal study of the effects of maternal stress and protective factors on the development of high risk children. In Cumming, E. M., Greene, A. L., & Karracker, K. H. (Eds.), Life-span developmental psychology: Perspectives on stress and coping (pp. 6185). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Emery, R. E., & O'Leary, K. D. (1982). Children's perceptions of marital discord and behavior problems of boys and girls. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 10, 1124.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Field, T. M. (1977). Effects of early separation, interactive deficits, and experimental manipulations on infant-mother face-to-face interaction. Child Development, 48, 763771.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gianino, A., & Tronick, E. Z. (1988). The mutual regulation model: The infant's self and interactive regulation coping and defensive capacities. In Field, T., McCabe, P., & Schneiderman, N. (Eds.), Stress and coping (pp. 4768). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Greenspan, S., with Greenspan, N. (1989). The essential partnership. New York: Viking.Google Scholar
Greenspan, S. I., & Lieberman, A. F. (1989). Infants, mothers, and their interaction: A quantitative clinical approach to developmental assessment. In Greenspan, S. I., & Pollock, G. H. (Eds.), The course of life: Vol. 1. Infancy (pp. 503560). Washington, DC: International Universities Press.Google Scholar
Isabella, R. A., & Belsky, J. (1991). Interactional synchrony and the origins of infant-mother attachment: A replication study. Child Development, 62, 373384.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jacobvitz, D., & Sroufe, L. A. (1987). The early caregiver-child relationship: Attention-deficit disorder and hyperactivity in kindergarten: A prospective study. Child Development, 58, 14881495.Google ScholarPubMed
Kopp, C. B., Krakow, J. B., & Vaughn, B. (1983). Patterns of self control in young handicapped children. In Perlmutter, M. (Ed.), Minnesota Symposia on Child Psychology: Vol. 16. Development and policy concerning children with special needs. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Maccoby, E., & Martin, J. (1983). Socialization in the context of the family: Parent-child interaction. In Hetherington, E. M. (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 4. Socialization, personality, and social development. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Malatesta, C. Z., & Izard, C. E. (1984). The ontogenesis of human social signals: From biological imperative to symbolic utilization. In Fox, N. A. & Davidson, R. J. (Eds.), The psychobiology of affective development (pp. 161230). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Malatesta-Magai, C. Z. (1991). Development of emotion expression during infancy: General course and patterns of individual difference. In Garber, J. & Dodge, K. A. (Eds.), The development of emotion regulation and dysregulation (pp. 4968). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pianta, R. C., Egeland, B., & Sroufe, L. A. (1990). Maternal stress and children's development: Predictions of school outcomes and identification of protective factors. In Rolf, J., Masten, A., Cicchetti, D., Nuechterlein, K., & Weintraub, S. (Eds.), Risk and protective factors in the development of psychopathology (pp. 215235). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pulkkinen, L. (1982). Self control and continuity from childhood to adolescence. In Baltes, P. B. & Brim, O. G. (Eds.), Life-span development and behavior (Vol. 4, pp. 64105). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Rothbart, M., & Dennyberry, D. (1981). Development of individual differences in temperament. In Lamb, M. E. & Brown, A. L. (Eds.), Advances in developmental psychology (pp. 3785). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Sander, L. W. (1969). Regulation and organization in the early infant caretaker system. In Robinson, R. J. (Ed.), Brain and early behavior (pp. 311315). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Sander, L. W. (1975). Infant and caretaking environment: Investigation and conceptualization of adaptive behavior in a system of increasing complexity. In Anthony, E. T. (Ed.), Explorations in child psychiatry (pp. 129166). New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sroufe, L. A. (1989). Relationships, self, and individual adaptation. In Sameroff, A. G. & Emde, R. N. (Eds.), Relationship disturbance in early childhood: A developmental approach (pp. 7094). New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Sroufe, L. A., & Egeland, B. (1991). Person and environment: Illustrations of interaction from a longitudinal study of development. In Wachs, T. & Plomin, R. (Eds.), Organism-environment interaction (pp. 6884). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.Google Scholar
Sroufe, L. A., & Waters, E. (1977). Attachment as an organizational construct. Child Development, 48, 11841199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stern, D. (1974). The goal and structure of mother-infant play. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 13, 402421.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stern, D. (1985). The interpersonal world of the infant. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Tinsley, H. E. A., & Weiss, D. J. (1975). Interrater reliability and agreement of subjective judgements. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 22, 358376.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tronick, E. Z. (1980). On the primacy of social skills. In Sawin, D. B., Walker, L. O., & Penticuff, J. H. (Eds.), The exceptional infant: Psychosocial risks in infant environment transaction (pp. 144158). New York: Brunner/Mazel.Google Scholar
Tronick, E. Z. (1989). Emotions and emotional communication in infants. American Psychologist, 44(2), 112119.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tronick, E. Z., Ricks, M., & Cohn, J. F. (1982). Maternal and infant affective exchange: Patterns of adaptation. In Field, T. M. & Fogel, A. (Eds.), Emotion and interaction: Normal and high risk infants. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Wechsler, D. (1981). Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale–Revised. New York: The Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar