Reaching the hard‐to‐reach: Serving isolated and depressed mothers with infants in the community

Lyons‐Ruth, Karlen; Botein, Sheila; Grunebaum, Henry

doi:10.1002/yd.23319842407

“…The great difficulties encountered by the home visitors in following up on service providers' referrals and making alliances with many of the home-visited mothers also weighs against the differential motivation hypothesis. These difficulties have been described in more detail in an earlier descriptive report (Lyons-Ruth, Botein, & Grunebaum, 1984). The mothers who received services required the high level of outreach and patient trust building described by others as needed by the most at-risk segments of the low-income population (Alexander, 1972;Bronfenbrenner, 1974).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Infants at Social Risk: Maternal Depression and Family Support Services as Mediators of Infant Development and Security of Attachment

Lyons‐Ruth¹,

Connell²,

Grunebaum³

et al. 1990

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

31 infants at high social risk due to the combined effects of poverty, maternal depression, and caretaking inadequacy were assigned to weekly home-visiting services. At 18 months infant age, the home-visited infants were compared with 2 groups of socioeconomically similar unserved infants on measures of infant development, infant attachment, mother-infant interaction, maternal depression, and maternal social contacts. Home-visited infants of depressed mothers outperformed unserved infants of depressed mothers by an average of 10 points on the Bayley Mental Scale and were twice as likely to be classified as securely attached, with unserved high-risk infants showing a high rate of insecure-disorganized attachments. Duration of services was positively correlated with maternal involvement at 12 months. Results of the study point both to the negative developmental consequences associated with severe social risk conditions and to the buffering effects of developmentally oriented home-visiting services for infants at greatest social risk.

show abstract

“…The professional service was staffed by master's level psychologists, included weekly home visits and weekly group meetings, and relied more on the psychodynamic model pioneered by Fraiberg (1980). Both service models and client characteristics are described in more clinical detail in Lyons-Ruth et al (1984).…”

Section: Subjectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infants at Social Risk: Maternal Depression and Family Support Services as Mediators of Infant Development and Security of Attachment

Lyons‐Ruth¹,

Connell²,

Grunebaum³

et al. 1990

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

31 infants at high social risk due to the combined effects of poverty, maternal depression, and caretaking inadequacy were assigned to weekly home-visiting services. At 18 months infant age, the home-visited infants were compared with 2 groups of socioeconomically similar unserved infants on measures of infant development, infant attachment, mother-infant interaction, maternal depression, and maternal social contacts. Home-visited infants of depressed mothers outperformed unserved infants of depressed mothers by an average of 10 points on the Bayley Mental Scale and were twice as likely to be classified as securely attached, with unserved high-risk infants showing a high rate of insecure-disorganized attachments. Duration of services was positively correlated with maternal involvement at 12 months. Results of the study point both to the negative developmental consequences associated with severe social risk conditions and to the buffering effects of developmentally oriented home-visiting services for infants at greatest social risk.

show abstract

“…In the larger study, community mothers and infants were individually matched to high-risk mothers and infants on family income, mothers's education and race, and the child's age, sex, and birth order (firstborn, later-born). A complete description of the larger study design is available in Lyons-Ruth, Botein, and Grunebaum (1984). Relationships among maternal behavior, infant attachment, and infant mental development are available in Lyons-Ruth, Connell, and Zoll (1989), Lyons-Ruth, Connell, Zoll, and Stahl (1987), and Lyons-Ruth, Connell, Grunebaum, and Botein (in press).…”

Section: Subjectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Family deviance and family disruption in childhood: Associations with maternal behavior and infant maltreatment during the first two years of life

Lyons‐Ruth

¹

,

Zoll

²

,

Connell

³

et al. 1989

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A structured childhood history interview was administered to 50 low-income mothers of infants. Three levels of risk for infant maltreatment were represented in the sample, including 10 maltreatment cases. Maternal behavior at home was rated and factor analyzed when the infants were 12 months and 18 months old, yielding separate factors labelled maternal involvement and hostile-intrusiveness. Risk for maltreatment was strongly correlated with the overall adversity of the mother's childhood history. Maternal hostile-intrusive behavior was best accounted for by psychiatric disorder in the mother's own mother and poor peer relationships in childhood. Maternal involvement was negatively associated with a separate cluster of variables indexing family disruption and lack of supervision. The emergence of two separate clusters of associations — positive affective involvement and negative affective involvement — is related to similar two-dimensional results in studies of self-reported mood, infant attachment relationships, and peer relationships. Implications of a two-dimensional affective construct for future theorizing in developmental psychopathology are discussed.

show abstract

Reaching the hard‐to‐reach: Serving isolated and depressed mothers with infants in the community

Abstract: How to win the trust of isolated and hostile mothers may be the most important issue facing infant mental health programs over the next decade.

Cited by 15 publications

References 19 publications

Infants at Social Risk: Maternal Depression and Family Support Services as Mediators of Infant Development and Security of Attachment

Infants at Social Risk: Maternal Depression and Family Support Services as Mediators of Infant Development and Security of Attachment

Infants at Social Risk: Maternal Depression and Family Support Services as Mediators of Infant Development and Security of Attachment

Family deviance and family disruption in childhood: Associations with maternal behavior and infant maltreatment during the first two years of life

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About