An Ordinal Pattern Analysis of Four Hypotheses Describing the Interactions between Drug-addicted, Chronically Disadvantaged, and Middle-Class Mother-Infant Dyads

Abstract

This study investigated mother‐infant interactions in 18 dyads. All participants were African American and enrolled in an early intervention program because the infants (2–26 months of age) had developmental disabilities or were at high risk for developmental disability. Some mothers had used drugs during their pregnancy, and all mothers were of low or middle socioeconomic status. Dyads were videotaped interacting at 4 different times, separated by at least 5 months in time. Videotapes were rated in terms of infant involvement and maternal responsivity in the interaction. 4 hypotheses concerning the pattern of maternal interaction across time were tested using ordinal pattern analysis. The hypothesis that mothers would become less responsive to infants over time (HD) as a function of drug addiction, poverty, or serious developmental delay was supported for only 4 of the 18 dyads. There was support for the hypothesis (Hj) that mothers naturally increase their responsivity over time (N= 6) and support for the hypothesis (HT) that mothers' interactive sensitivity fluctuates in relation to infants' involvement in the interaction over time (N= 7). Ordinal pattern analysis has advantages in determining how well competing hypotheses describe individuals within populations relative to approaches that identify differences that apply to entire populations.

Mother‐Infant Interaction and Maternal Substance Use/Abuse: An Integrative Review of Research Literature in the 1990s

“…Contrary to other studies it was Baxter, & pattern analysis ordinal pattern analysis -Parent-Infant found that only 4 of the 18 dyads Butler of four Interaction Scale showed a mother who was less (1994 [12]) hypotheses N=18 dyads: (PIIS) (I) contingently responsive and Chicago, Ill.…”

“…Literature Search (12) Published literature on the topic was obtained from comprehensive review of relevant research articles using the following databases: Medline, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Psychological Abstracts (PsychINFO), and tracking of citations from published articles. For the search, the following key words were used separately, and in combination: maternal/mother, substance use/abuse, infant/child, and mother-infant/child interaction.…”

“…Therefore, to lessen the impact of these factors acting as confounding variables in their evaluation of exposed infants, four studies restricted their sample to infants that were full term and of average birth weight ( [35]). In a fifth study, investigators specifically recruited infants with developmental delays or at high risk for same (due to prematurity, LBW, prenatal drug exposure, or teenage motherhood) as they wished to investigate the interactions of developmentally disabled infants attending an early intervention program (Brinker, Baxter, & Butler, 1994 [12]). regress in their interactional abilities.…”

“…Parent-Child Early Relationship Assessment (PCERA) was also used with several studies [13] [14] [35]. Other research utilized scoring systems that were formally validated [12] [21] [27], while one study demonstrated a more informal approach to measurement [30].…”

“…(54) Mother-infant interaction -Interventions. Among the 23 studies reviewed, 10 included an intervention [ [30]; to drug treatment including some parenting education [9] [10] [18]; to an early intervention for children with, or at-risk for, developmental delay [12]; to a planned program of individualized care in the hospital postnatally [26]; and to those offering teaching of mother-infant interaction skills [20,22,36]. In samples selected from existing drug treatment programs, the quality of mother-child interaction was measured as one tool to evaluate services, whereas in the nursing intervention studies it was the major outcome measure.…”