2010/07/26 by Joanna Maselko, Laura D. Kubzansky, Lewis P. Lipsitt +1 · 1 voice
Medicine · Psychology · #Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development #Infant Development and Preterm Care #Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
paper · doi:10.1136/jech.2009.097873
openalex publication_date 2010/07/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
BACKGROUND: Long-standing theory suggests that quality of the mother's (or primary caregiver's) interaction with a child is a key determinant of the child's subsequent resilience or vulnerability and has implications for health in adulthood. However, there is a dearth of longitudinal data with both objective assessments of nurturing behaviour during infancy and sustained follow-up ascertaining the quality of adult functioning. METHODS: We used data from the Providence, Rhode Island birth cohort of the National Collaborative Perinatal Project (mean age 34 at follow-up, final N=482) to conduct a prospective study of the association between objectively measured affective quality of the mother-infant interaction and adult mental health. Infant-mother interaction quality was rated by an observer when infants were 8 months old, and adult emotional functioning was assessed from the Symptom Checklist-90, capturing both specific and general types of distress. RESULTS: High levels of maternal affection at 8 months were associated with significantly lower levels of distress in adult offspring (1/2 standard deviation; b=-4.76, se=1.7, p<0.01). The strongest association was with the anxiety subscale. Mother's affection did not seem to be on the pathway between lower parental SES and offspring distress. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that early nurturing and warmth have long-lasting positive effects on mental health well into adulthood.