Repetitive Negative Thinking and Impaired Mother–Infant Bonding: A Longitudinal Study

Schmidt, Dana; Seehagen, Sabine; Hirschfeld, Gerrit; Vocks, Silja; Schneider, Silvia; Teismann, Tobias

doi:10.1007/s10608-016-9823-8

Cited by 16 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Studies in which researchers measure both RNT and depression symptoms at multiple time points during pregnancy and the post-partum period will have scope to shed light on how RNT is related to, or perhaps plays a role in shaping, the trajectories of depression symptoms throughout this period. Taking such an approach in a recent study, Schmidt et al [29] found that overall levels of RNT (assessed at 4 time points; 2 in the antenatal, 2 in post-partum periods), as well as increases in RNT across pregnancy, both significantly predicted postnatal depression symptoms. We see great value in such future investigations also including measures of anxiety, so as to also delineate the potential role of RNT in shaping the trajectory of perinatal anxiety symptoms.…”

Section: Potential Roles Of Rnt In the Perinatal Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Repetitive Negative Thinking and Its Role in Perinatal Mental Health

et al. 2018

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Background: There is evidence that anxiety is common, perhaps even more prevalent than depression, in the post-partum period. In this review we propose adopting a transdiagnostic approach to perinatal mental health: to delineate psychopathology and identify potential underlying cognitive mechanisms such as repetitive negative thinking (RNT). Sampling and Methods: We provide an overview of key studies of RNT in perinatal mental health and suggest directions for future work. We propose the value of examining post-partum depression and anxiety, and their co-occurrence, and of testing whether the psychological mechanisms that predict and maintain depression and anxiety also play a role in these conditions in the post-partum period. Further, given that psychological distress often first emerges in the antenatal phase, we make a case for investigating RNT across the perinatal period – i.e., in antenatal and postnatal women. Results and Conclusions: RNT may be a modifiable risk factor which can be targeted in pregnancy to prevent depression and anxiety in new mothers.

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Section: Potential Roles Of Rnt In the Perinatal Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Repetitive Negative Thinking and Its Role in Perinatal Mental Health

et al. 2018

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“…Such problem is called "over-mentalizing," i.e., the parent overly mentalizes the child into a generalization without relying on situational cues into circular reasoning "he defies me to humiliate me because he is mean." Holding on to such a misbelief, the parent can develop a judgmental stance toward the child, which subsequently predicts chronic rejection, rage toward the child, parent-child bonding problems, and parental depressive moods (23). Furthermore, when parents habitually over-mentalize the child, they ignore situational, emotional, and behavioral cues in the "real-time" parent-child interactions that could otherwise serve as bottom-up data to rectify the parents' misbeliefs (24).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Potential Neural Mediators of Mom Power Parenting Intervention Effects on Maternal Intersubjectivity and Stress Resilience

Muzik

Rosenblum

et al. 2020

Front. Psychiatry

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Stress resilience in parenting depends on the parent's capacity to understand subjective experiences in self and child, namely intersubjectivity, which is intimately related to mimicking other's affective expressions (i. e., mirroring). Stress can worsen parenting by potentiating problems that can impair intersubjectivity, e.g., problems of “over-mentalizing” (misattribution of the child's behaviors) and “under-coupling” (inadequate child-oriented mirroring). Previously we have developed Mom Power (MP) parenting intervention to promote maternal intersubjectivity and reduce parenting stress. This study aimed to elucidate neural mechanisms underlying the effects of MP with a novel Child Face Mirroring Task (CFMT) in functional magnetic-resonance-imaging settings. In CFMT, the participants responded to own and other's child's facial pictures in three task conditions: (1) empathic mirroring (Join), (2) non-mirroring observing (Observe), and (3) voluntary responding (React). In each condition, each child's neutral, ambiguous, distressed, and joyful expressions were repeatedly displayed. We examined the CFMT-related neural responses in a sample of healthy mothers (n = 45) in Study 1, and MP effects on CFMT with a pre-intervention (T1) and post-intervention (T2) design in two groups, MP (n = 19) and Control (n = 17), in Study 2. We found that, from T1 to T2, MP (vs. Control) decreased parenting stress, decreased dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) during own-child-specific voluntary responding (React to Own vs. Other's Child), and increased activity in the frontoparietal cortices, midbrain, nucleus accumbens, and amygdala during own-child-specific empathic mirroring (Join vs. Observe of Own vs. Other's Child). We identified that MP effects on parenting stress were potentially mediated by T1-to-T2 changes in: (1) the left superior-temporal-gyrus differential responses in the contrast of Join vs. Observe of own (vs. other's) child, (2) the dmPFC-PAG (periaqueductal gray) differential functional connectivity in the same contrast, and (3) the left amygdala differential responses in the contrast of Join vs. Observe of own (vs. other's) child's joyful vs. distressed expressions. We discussed these results in support of the notion that MP reduces parenting stress via changing neural activities related to the problems of “over-mentalizing” and “under-coupling.” Additionally, we discussed theoretical relationships between parenting stress and intersubjectivity in a novel dyadic active inference framework in a two-agent system to guide future research.

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“…This study was part of a larger longitudinal investigation of N = 163 women who were followed during pregnancy and after birth (for a full description of the sample, see Schmidt et al, 2017). The minimum age for participation was 18 years.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This, in turn, might affect different areas of development in the infant, such as learning about reliable associations between stimuli and maternal responses, sustained attention, joint attention, and emotion regulation (Stein et al, 2009). Some recent studies support these ideas (Müller, Teismann, Havemann, Michalak, & Seehagen, 2013;Schmidt et al, 2017;Schmidt, Seehagen, Vocks, Schneider, & Teismann, 2016;Stein et al, 2012). For example, in an experiment by Stein et al (2012), mothers who suffered from either a generalized anxiety disorder or a major depressive disorder or who were healthy were randomly assigned to a worry/rumination prime condition or a neutral prime condition.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If a mother has been repeatedly consumed by RNT in the past, she might not be as adept at picking up her infant's social signals as a mother who rarely engages in RNT – even if she does not currently engage in RNT. Second, with the exception of research by Stein et al (2012) who explored the impact of RNT for infant vocalization, the focus of studies on the role of RNT for early parenting has largely focused on the mothers, for example, on their experiences of bonding (Müller et al, 2013; Schmidt et al, 2017; Schmidt et al, 2016), parental problem-solving (O'Mahen, Boyd, & Gashe, 2015), and sensitivity in face-to-face interactions (Tester-Jones et al, 2017). However, the role of RNT in the transgenerational transmission of mental disorders is unclear.…”

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confidence: 99%

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The course of maternal repetitive negative thinking at the transition to motherhood and early mother–infant interactions: Is there a link?

et al. 2018

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Potential long-term associations between repetitive negative thinking and mother-infant interactions have received little attention. The current longitudinal study including N = 62 mother-infant dyads investigated both maternal and infant behavior in face-to-face interactions as a function of pre- and postnatal maternal repetitive negative thinking when infants were aged around 4 months. We hypothesised that mothers with a strong tendency to engage in repetitive negative thinking would react less contingently to their infants’ behavior compared to mothers with a weak tendency to engage in repetitive negative thinking. Furthermore, we hypothesised that infants of mothers high in repetitive negative thinking would differ from infants of mothers low in repetitive negative thinking in their reactions in the still-face task. Contrary to expectations, there was no difference in maternal contingency between mothers high versus low in repetitive negative thinking. However, infant behavior in the still-face task differed as a function of maternal repetitive negative thinking status. Specifically, infants of mothers high in repetitive negative thinking spent more time with object/environment engagement than infants of mothers who were low in repetitive negative thinking, and they also protested less frequently. These findings are discussed in terms of their relevance for the intergenerational transmission of mental disorders.

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Repetitive Negative Thinking and Impaired Mother–Infant Bonding: A Longitudinal Study

Cited by 16 publications

References 37 publications

Repetitive Negative Thinking and Its Role in Perinatal Mental Health

Repetitive Negative Thinking and Its Role in Perinatal Mental Health

Potential Neural Mediators of Mom Power Parenting Intervention Effects on Maternal Intersubjectivity and Stress Resilience

The course of maternal repetitive negative thinking at the transition to motherhood and early mother–infant interactions: Is there a link?

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