Maternal Mind‐mindedness: Relations With Maternal–fetal Attachment and Stability in the First Two Years of Life: Findings From an Australian Prospective Study

Abstract

Mind-mindedness captures a caregiver's attunement to his or her infant's mental states, and the tendency to interpret behavior as resulting from these mental states. The construct is assessed through analysis of maternal language during interaction or from mothers' use of mental state words when invited to describe their child. This study examined whether maternal-fetal attachment predicted maternal mind-mindedness, whether there was continuity in mind-mindedness over the first 2 postnatal years, and concordance for the two approaches to measurement. One hundred fifty women completed a questionnaire measure of maternal-fetal attachment in the third trimester of pregnancy and participated in home visits to assess maternal mind-mindedness when their infants were 7 months and 19 months of age. Path analysis showed that maternal-fetal attachment predicted indices of maternal mind-mindedness at 7 and 19 months; mothers who made more mind-related comments during play at 7 months also did so at 19 months, and mothers who made more mind-related comments during play at 19 months also used more mental state words when describing their child. Results suggest that a proclivity to mind-mindedness may be a caregiver characteristic that is present prior to birth and stable over time.

Non‐Attuned Mind‐Mindedness, Infant Negative Affect, and Emotional Availability: Assessing Mind‐Mindedness during the Still‐Face Paradigm

“…Few studies have examined associations between sensitivity and non-attuned comments, with evidence limited to this single sample. Most studies do not report on nonattuned comments at all, as they are very infrequent and most mothers do not make any (Bernier, McMahon, & Perrier, 2017;Easterbrooks, Crossman, Caruso, Raskin, & Miranda-Julian, 2017;Licata et al, 2014;McMahon, Camberis, Berry, & Gibson, 2016). Meins et al (2012) in the study cited above reported an average proportional score for non-attuned comments of just 1.58% which is consistent with other research in community samples.…”

“…Few studies have examined associations between sensitivity and non‐attuned comments, with evidence limited to this single sample. Most studies do not report on non‐attuned comments at all, as they are very infrequent and most mothers do not make any (Bernier, McMahon, & Perrier, ; Easterbrooks, Crossman, Caruso, Raskin, & Miranda‐Julian, ; Licata et al., ; McMahon, Camberis, Berry, & Gibson, ). Meins et al.…”

Mothers' Early Mind‐Mindedness Predicts Educational Attainment in Socially and Economically Disadvantaged British Children

“…However, this should not be taken to mean that there is an association between maternal SES and early mind‐mindedness; in fact, the evidence on this link is somewhat equivocal. For example, Meins, Fernyhough, Arnott, Turner, and Leekam (); Bigelow, Power, Bulmer, and Gerrior (); and McMahon, Camberis, Berry, and Gibson () reported no association between SES and mothers' appropriate mind‐related comments, whereas Bernier et al. () and Laranjo and Bernier () reported small to medium positive correlations between SES and appropriate comments ( r s of .20 and .26, respectively).…”

Mind-mindedness in parents of looked-after children.

“…Previous research involving biological families has suggested that mindmindedness is relatively stable over time (Illingworth, MacLean, & Wiggs, 2016;Kirk et al, 2015;Meins, Fernyhough, Arnott, Leekam, & Turner, 2001;Meins et al, 2003;McMahon, Camberis, Berry, & Gibson, 2016). But this stability has been observed only within early childhood, and no study has investigated whether mind-mindedness changes in concert with fluctuations in the quality of the relationship.…”