Infant-Directed Speech From a Multidimensional Perspective: The Interplay of Infant Birth Status, Maternal Parenting Stress, and Dyadic Co-regulation on Infant-Directed Speech Linguistic and Pragmatic Features

Abstract

Infant-directed speech (IDS), the particular form of spontaneous language observed in interactions between parents and their infants, is a crucial aspect of the mother-infant interaction and an index of the attunement of maternal linguistic input to her infant communicative abilities and needs during dyadic interactions. The present study aimed to explore linguistic and pragmatic features of IDS during mother-infant interactions at 3-month of infant age. The effects of infant (birth status: preterm vs. full-term birth), maternal (perceived parenting stress) and dyadic (dyadic co-regulation) factors on IDS were explored. Results evidenced few differences between the groups on IDS linguistic characteristics. Moreover, observing the interaction of birth status and dyadic co-regulation, full-term mothers varied their IDS pragmatic features according to the quality of co-regulation while preterm mothers did not. Parenting stress was associated to specific linguistic IDS features independently from the birth status. Findings are discussed underling implications for the study of preterm dyads interactions and the importance to consider the interplay of several factors in affecting the quality of IDS.

Infant-Directed Speech to Preterm Infants during the First Year Postpartum: The Influence of Preterm Birth Weight and Maternal Parenting Stress

“…The literature on the impact of prematurity on parental stress levels has reported conflicting results to date. Indeed, while some studies indicated a significant impact of prematurity on maternal stress [30,32], others did not highlight differences between PT and FT populations [33,36,37,63]. Our finding aligned with this latter series of studies suggesting…”

“…The presence of parental postpartum symptomatology and higher levels of parenting stress can adversely impact the quality of early dyadic interactions [27,32,33], including the quality of early dyadic exchanges between mothers and their infants, in terms of interactive behaviors [14,18,[34][35][36] and verbal input directed towards the infant [15,37]. Consequently, these difficulties have the potential to result in more negative outcomes for infant development [34,38].…”

“…As previously mentioned, IDS represents a fundamental aspect in caregiver-infant exchanges, promoting closeness and the development of attachment bonding, as well as supporting the infant's development in several domains. Concurrently, maternal emotional well-being and psychological stress have an influence on both formal and pragmatic aspects of maternal speech directed towards the infant [15,37,51]. Within this context, recent literature reported atypical IDS patterns related to both the presence of maternal postpartum symptomatology and parenting stress and the infant's birth condition, specifically premature birth [15,37].…”

“…Concurrently, maternal emotional well-being and psychological stress have an influence on both formal and pragmatic aspects of maternal speech directed towards the infant [15,37,51]. Within this context, recent literature reported atypical IDS patterns related to both the presence of maternal postpartum symptomatology and parenting stress and the infant's birth condition, specifically premature birth [15,37].…”

“…Specifically, even if the literature that focuses on mothers experiencing depressive symptoms has revealed variations in IDS patterns and characteristics when compared to non-depressed mothers' speech [15,51], there is a notable lack of studies that have examined the connections between the quality of maternal speech directed to the infant and the presence of parenting stress. To the best of our knowledge, only a recent study by Spinelli and colleagues [37] investigated IDS towards 3-month-old PT and FT infants (corrected age for PT infants) while considering the levels of perceived parenting stress in mothers. The results highlighted that, although there was no main effect of prematurity on IDS characteristics, mothers who experienced higher levels of stress tended to use IDS that was more syntactically and lexically complex and thus more suitable for older infants.…”