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MOTHER–CHILD AND FATHER–CHILD INTERACTION WITH THEIR 24-MONTH-OLD CHILDREN DURING FEEDING, CONSIDERING PATERNAL INVOLVEMENT AND THE CHILD’S TEMPERAMENT IN A COMMUNITY SAMPLE LUCA CERNIGLIA
International Telematic University Uninettuno SILVIA CIMINO AND GIULIA BALLAROTTO
University of Rome, Sapienza The article aims to study mother–child and father–child interactions with 24-month-old children during feeding, considering the possible influence of time spent by the parent with the child, the infantile temperament, and the parental psychological profile. The families were recruited from 12 preschools in Italy (N = 77 families). Through an observation of the feeding [Scala di Valutazione dell’Interazione Alimentare (SVIA – Feeding Scale; I. Chatoor et al., 1997; L. Lucarelli et al., 2002)], self-reporting [Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R; L.R. Derogatis, 1994), and report-form questionnaires [Italian Questionnaires on Temperament (QUIT; G. Axia, 2002)], and information provided by the parents about the amount of time spent with their children, results showed that the overall quality of father–child interactions during feeding is lower than that of mother–child interactions. Fathers showed higher psychological symptoms than did mothers. No associations were found between the fathers’ psychopathological risk and the quality of interactions with their children during feeding. Mothers’ psychopathological risks predicted less contingent exchanges interactions with their children during feeding. Children’s temperaments significantly influence mother–child interactions, but no association exists between maternal involvement and the quality of interactions with their children. Paternal involvement predicts a better quality of father–infant interactions when associated with a child’s higher scores on Social Orientation. The quality of parents’ interactions with their children during feeding are impacted by different issues originating from the parent’s psychological profile, the degree of involvement, and from the child’s temperament.
ABSTRACT:
RESUMEN: El art´ıculo se propone estudiar las interacciones pap´a-hijo y mam´a-hijo con ni˜nos de 24 meses de edad durante el momento de alimentarse, considerando la posible influencia del tiempo que el progenitor pasa con el ni˜no, el temperamento infantil y el perfil sicol´ogico de los padres. Las familias fueron reclutadas en doce centros prescolares en Italia (N = 77 familias). Por medio de una observaci´on del momento de alimentaci´on (SVIA), el auto-reportaje (SCL-90-R) y cuestionarios en formularios de reporte (QUIT), e informaci´on ofrecida por los padres acerca de la cantidad de tiempo pasada con sus ni˜nos, los resultados mostraron que la calidad general de las interacciones pap´a-hijo durante el momento de alimentarse es m´as baja que las de mam´a-hijo. Los pap´as mostraron m´as altos s´ıntomas sicol´ogicos que las mam´as. No se encontr´o ninguna asociaci´on entre el riesgo sicopatol´ogico de los pap´as y la calidad de las interacciones con sus ni˜nos durante la alimentaci´on. Los riesgos sicopatol´ogicos de las madres predijeron menos interacciones de intercambios eventuales con sus ni˜nos durante la alimentaci´on. El temperamento de los ni˜nos significativamente influye en las interacciones mam´a-hijo, pero no existe asociaci´on entre el involucramiento materno y la calidad de las interacciones con sus ni˜nos. El involucramiento paterno predice una mejor calidad de interacciones pap´a-infante cuando est´a asociado con los m´as altos puntajes del ni˜no en la Orientaci´on Social. Diferentes asuntos impactan la calidad de las interacciones de los padres con sus ni˜nos durante la alimentaci´on, partiendo del perfil sicol´ogico de los padres, el grado de involucramiento y el temperamento del ni˜no. ´ ´ Cet article a pour but d’´etudier les interactions p`ere-enfant et m`ere-enfant avec leurs enfants de 24 mois durant l’alimentation, en consid´erant RESUM E: l’influence potentielle du temps pass´e par le parent avec l’enfant, le temp´erament de l’enfant et le profil psychologique parental. Les familles ont e´ t´e recrut´ees dans dix cr`eches italiennes (N = 77 familles). Au travers d’une observation de l’alimentation (SVIA), du questionnaire SCL-90-R, des questionnaires sous forme de rapport (QUIT), et les renseignements donn´es par les parents sur la quantit´e de temps pass´e avec leurs enfants, les r´esultats ont montr´e que la qualit´e g´en´erale des interactions p`ere-enfant durant l’alimentation est moins e´ lev´ee que celle des interactions m`ere-enfant. Les p`eres ont fait preuve de plus de symptˆomes psychologiques que les m`eres. Aucun lien n’a e´ t´e trouv´e entre le risque psychopathologique des p`eres et la qualit´e des interactions avec leurs enfants durant l’alimentation. Les risques psychopathologiques des m`eres ont pr´edit des e´ changes interactifs moins
I, Luca Cerniglia, declare that no author has any conflict of interest. Direct correspondence to: Luca Cerniglia, Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, 39–00100–Rome, Italy; e-mail:
[email protected]. INFANT MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL, Vol. 35(5), 473–481 (2014) C 2014 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI: 10.1002/imhj.21466
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contingents avec leurs enfants durant l’alimentation. Le temp´erament des enfants influencent fortement les interactions m`ere-enfant mais aucun lien n’existe entre l’engagement maternel et la qualit´e des interactions avec leurs enfants. L’engagement paternel pr´edit un meilleure qualit´e des interactions p`ere-b´eb´e lorsque li´ees a` des scores plus e´ lev´es de l’enfant sur l’Orientation Sociale. Diff´erents probl`emes issus du profil psychologique du parent, du degr´e d’engagement et du temp´erament de l’enfant ont un impact sur la qualit´e des interactions des parents avec leurs enfants durant l’alimentation. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG: Der Artikel zielt darauf ab, Vater-Kind-und Mutter-Kind-Interaktionen bei 24 Monate alten Kindern w¨ahrend der F¨utterung, in Anbetracht des m¨oglichen Einflusses der Zeit, die das Elternteil mit dem Kind verbringt, des kindlichen Temperaments und des psychologischen Profils der Eltern, zu untersuchen. Die Familien wurden aus zw¨olf Vorschulen in Italien (N = 77 Familien) rekrutiert. Anhand einer Beobachtung der F¨utterung (SVIA), Selbst-Berichten (SCL-90-R) und anderen Frageb¨ogen (QUIT) sowie Informationen von den Eltern u¨ ber die Menge der Zeit, die sie mit ihren Kindern verbracht haben, zeigten die Ergebnisse, dass die Gesamtqualit¨at der Vater-Kind-Interaktionen w¨ahrend der F¨utterung niedriger ist als die der Mutter-Kind-Interaktionen. V¨ater zeigten h¨ohere psychische Symptome als M¨utter. Es wurden keine Zusammenh¨ange zwischen dem psychopathologischen Risiko der V¨ater und der Qualit¨at der Interaktion mit ihren Kindern w¨ahrend der F¨utterung gefunden. Die psychopathologischen Risiken der M¨utter sagten weniger zuf¨allige Austauschsinteraktionen mit ihren Kindern w¨ahrend der F¨utterung vorher. Die Temperamente der Kinder beeinflussen die Mutter-Kind-Interaktionen signifikant, es besteht jedoch kein Zusammenhang zwischen m¨utterlichem Engagement und der Interaktionsqualit¨at mit ihren Kindern. V¨aterliches Engagement sagt eine bessere Qualit¨at der Vater-Kind-Interaktionen vorher, wenn sie mit h¨oheren Werten f¨ur die soziale Orientierung des Kindes assoziiert wird. Die Interaktionsqualit¨at der Eltern mit ihren Kindern w¨ahrend der F¨utterung wird von unterschiedlichen Themen beeinflusst: dem psychologischen Profil der Eltern, dem Grad des Engagements und vom Temperament des Kindes. ABSTRACT: dd:dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddd24ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddd12dddddddddd(N = 77 dd)dddddddd(SVIA)ddddd(SCL-90-R)ddddddddddd(QUIT)d ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd dcontingent exchanges interactionsddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddSocial Orientationddddddddddddddddddddddd dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd
* * * It has been widely recognized that the quality of mother– infant interaction during a child’s first years of life has a profound influence on his or her psychological welfare and on the possible onset of psychopathologies in infants (Ramchandani et al., 2013). Nevertheless, family and ecological theories (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Minuchin, 1974) suggest that mother–infant and father–infant dyads are interconnected. Growing evidence has suggested that positive father–infant interactions can directly impact children’s cognitive and socioemotional development (Brown, McBride, Bost, & Shin, 2011) (e.g., engaging with their children, monitoring them, and setting limits and rules), and also indirectly impact such development (e.g., influencing mother–infant interactions, supporting mothers’ decisions and behaviors concerning their sons and daughters, and/or providing economic support to the family, which may contribute to the rearing and emotional health of the children) (Atzaba-Poria et al., 2010; Carlson, 2006; Cimino, Cerniglia, Paciello, & Sinesi, 2012). Lamb’s (2010) theoretical framework has conceptualized that fathers are unique kinds of interactional partners for their children, and are rather distinct from mothers; the paternal fashion of interactions differ from the maternal fashion, being more characterized by physical contact and rough-and-tumble play, which seems to have a specific role in promoting a child’s emotional-regulation processes (Feldman, 2003).
Consequently, in more recent years, research has concentrated on both mothers and fathers, specifically on the role of fathers as protectors, and on risk factors for the development of children’s psychological difficulties while considering triadic interactions to verify whether there are differences in parenting quality and children’s interactive behaviors with mothers and fathers in the dyadic context versus those in the triadic context (Di Folco & Zavattini, 2014; Kwon, Jeon, Lewsader, & Elicker, 2012; Lamb & Lewis, 2007). While it has been proposed that a combination of maternal and paternal psychopathologies may create a style of coparenting dominated by negative interactive cycles with children during play and feeding (Pinquart & Teubert, 2010), the specific impact that psychopathological symptoms in fathers might have on a child’s mental health has been only recently addressed, mostly investigating the construct of involvement in community samples (Lamb, 2010). Highly involved fathers (in terms of time spent with their children) seem likely to have more empathic sons and daughters who show a more internal locus of control (Cerniglia, Cimino, Ballarotto, & Monniello, 2014; Pleck, 2010). With specific regard to the context of feeding, international research has mainly focused on mother–infant interactions because mothers are traditionally thought to take primary responsibility for feeding their children (Blissett, Meyer, & Haycraft, 2006) and are usually considered
Infant Mental Health Journal DOI 10.1002/imhj. Published on behalf of the Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.
Parent–Child Interaction During Feeding
their primary caregiver (Campbell et al., 2010; Patrick, Nicklas, Hughes, & Morales, 2005). However, parents’ gender roles and responsibilities have changed in the last few decades, above all as a result of increasing employment outside the home for mothers with young children. Research has been considering these changes, and recently has focused on fathers’ psychological characteristics and practices during feeding interactions with their children (Khandpur, Blaine, Fisher, & Davison, 2014). Although Blissett and Haycraft (2011) found no significant differences in feeding practices between mothers and fathers, in the same study fathers reported feeling personally responsible for organising meals at least half of the time, and deciding what kinds of foods their children should eat (Mallan et al., 2013). Hendy, Williams, Camise, Eckman, and Hedemann (2009) found that fathers were less likely to limit their children in consuming snacks and were less focused on letting them eat a variety of foods such as fruits and vegetables. Some studies have shown that fathers are more likely than are mothers to encourage children to eat using prompts (verbal or physical), reasoning, pressure, and incentives during feeding (Haycraft & Blissett, 2008; Orrell-Valente et al., 2007). Nevertheless, threats to withdraw play privileges or access to food were not usually used by fathers, with no psychopathological risk (Haycraft & Blissett, 2012; Tschann et al., 2013). Regarding the context of feeding, the ages of children have been linked to diverse father–child interactions. Fathers of older children reported lower use of food for emotional regulation than did fathers of younger children, and more restriction of food for older children if they were concerned about the child’s weight (Musher-Eizenman, de Lauzon-Guillain, Holub, Leporc, & Charles, 2009). Furthermore, parent–child interactions during feeding seem to be less problematic with toddlers than with infants, although this result seems to have been confirmed only in low-risk samples whereas high-risk samples show a different trend. Psychopathological risk in mothers and in fathers as well as in low-income parents seems to be related to maladaptive parent–child interactions more frequently during toddlerhood than during childhood (Horodynski & Arndt, 2005). In fact, nonresponsive parenting characterizes families with psychopathological parents who frequently fail to respond to new skills and signals shown by toddlers, such as self-feeding, the use of utensils, and the use of language to request food and help (Birch, Fisher, & Davison, 2003). In clinical samples, paternal pressure to eat has been correlated with bulimia and restriction symptoms in fathers (Blissett et al., 2006) whereas eating disorders and depression in mothers proved to be the most significant psychopathology correlated with maladaptive patterns of interaction between mothers and infants (Cimino, Cerniglia, & Paciello 2014; Watkins, Cooper, & Lask, 2012). Depressed mothers seem to display less positive engagement with their infants during feeding interactions and to show anxiety, anger, and intrusivity, having difficulties with empathically recognizing and regulating the child’s affective states during mealtimes. Ammaniti, Lucarelli, Cimino, D’Olimpio, and Chatoor (2010) showed that these parental symptoms may foster feeding disorders in children.
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While earlier studies have aimed to consider the amount of time spent by fathers with their children as an indicator of involvement, more recent studies seem to have underlined the importance of the actual quality of interactions to specifically understand why and how paternal involvement should be expected to have a positive effect on child development (Stueve & Pleck, 2001). Lamb (2013) stressed the role of engagement accessibility and sensitivity as well as the significance of paternal warmth and support during interactions. Attachment theory proposes that fathers’ involvement promotes child development because it fosters secure attachment, which is linked to positive child outcomes (Brown, McBride, Shin, & Bost, 2007). Nevertheless, little attention has been given in attachment literature to the quality of father–child interactions during feeding and to their links with adaptive or maladaptive outcomes in the emotional and behavioral development of children, which in turn may be bidirectionally linked to security or insecurity of attachment in infants and in their parents. Some research has suggested that temperamentally easy children are more likely to be involved in good-quality interactions with their fathers (Mehall, Spinrad, Eisenberg, & Gaertner, 2009). Children who show high levels of irritability, negative moods, and irregular behavioral and biological patterns seem to be involved in lower quality interactions with their mothers and fathers. On the other hand, Frodi et al. (1982) found that fathers were more involved with difficult sons (but not with difficult daughters), as recently confirmed by Leaper (2002) and Cabrera, Fagan, Wight, and Schadler (2011). To capture the bidirectional effect of child–father interaction, several studies have chosen to use observational methods, which take into consideration verbal and nonverbal contexts of behavioral dynamics (Hughes et al., 2010). Many of these studies have focused on play routines (both involving mothers and fathers) while only some of them have observed feeding interactions (Blissett, 2011). Yet, several studies have suggested that feeding interactions between parents and their children constitute an important context in which infants and toddlers may learn to recognize and make sense of verbal and nonverbal communications and signals, thus building a basis for emotional bonds and attachment quality that in turn forms essential roots for healthy emotional/behavioral functioning (Black & Aboud, 2011). Based on these theoretical and empirical premises, which include Lamb’s (2010) conceptual framework, and that no other study to our knowledge has addressed father–toddler interactions during feeding in nonclinical samples, we chose to study father– infant and mother–infant interactions during feeding at 24 months of age, considering the possible influence of time spent by the parent with the child, the infantile temperament, and the parental psychological profile. In particular, this study has the following objectives: •
to verify whether the quality of mother–child and father– child interactions during feeding differ from each other;
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to assess parental psychopathological risks; and
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to verify whether parental psychopathological risks affect the quality of parent–child interactions during feeding while considering child temperament and parental involvement. METHOD
Participants
Seventy-seven families were recruited from 12 preschools in Italy (N = 77). The children (45 girls, 32 boys) ranged from 23 to 26 months of age (SD = 0.8), and their parents’ mean ages were 34.5 (SD = 1.2) years for the fathers and 32.3 (SD = 0.9) years for the mothers. Eighty-nine per cent of the children were firstborn, and 73% of them had been breast-fed in their first year of life. Ninety-one per cent of the couples were married, and all parents were of middle-class socioeconomic status (SES; Hollingshead, 1975). Ninety-four percent of the parents cohabited, three percent of the parents who cohabited were not married, and 82% of the families had double income. All partners of the mothers recruited for the present study were biological fathers of the children, and all parents were Caucasian. All parents included in the study, both mothers and fathers, were involved in caregiving practices with their children on a daily basis [average time spent weekly by the mothers with their children: 76.1 hr (SD = 2.3); average time spent weekly by the fathers with their children: 38.6 hr (SD = 4.1)]. Procedure
Sample selection criteria were: (a) age of the children ranging between 23 and 26 months, (b) no reported mental or physical problems or disorders in either the parents or the children, and (c) both parents reporting frequently feeding the child without the presence of the other parent. A group of trained psychologists contacted 12 preschools in Central Italy and presented the research rationale and objective. Families who agreed to be recruited for the study filled out an informed consent form. The order of the administration of the measures (described later) was randomly selected. All parent–child pairs in the sample were observed at their homes in 20-min video-recordings during lunch at midday; the feeding interactions were part of one regular meal observed separately (on 2 different days) for mother–child and father–child interactions. The videos were recorded by psychologists who were specifically trained in the use of this observational tool, and were coded by two trained independent raters who watched the videos and scored them on the basis of the manual (Lucarelli et al., 2002) using both a paper–pencil system and a coding software program designed for the computation of scores on each subscale. The whole observation was scheduled on the basis of a validated procedure for the Italian population [Scala di Valutazione dell’Interazione Alimentare (SVIA) – Observational Scale for Mother-Infant Interaction during Feeding; Chatoor et al., 1997; Lucarelli et al., 2002; described later] and in connection with several previous studies (Ammaniti et al., 2010). This tool was chosen over others because it is the only procedure that specifically assesses parent–child interactions
during feeding that are validated for the Italian population. Two instruments were given to each parent to be completed at their home and independently: a self-report measure for the assessment of their psychological symptom status, the Symptom Checklist90-Revised (SCL-90-R; Derogatis, 1994), which was filled out independently by each parent, and a report-form questionnaire to evaluate their child’s temperament: the Italian Questionnaires on Temperament (QUIT; Axia, 2002). Mothers and fathers independently filled out this questionnaire, but they obtained an interrater agreement of 89%. Consequently, we used a mean score. Moreover, each parent filled out a form asking him or her to report the average number of hours spent with the child during the week.
Measures
Assessment of parents’ psychological symptom statuses. The SCL-90-R is a 90-item self-report symptom inventory designed to measure psychological symptoms and psychological distress (Derogatis, 1994). It is scored and interpreted in terms of nine primary subscales (Somatisation, Obsessive-Compulsivity, Interpersonal Sensitivity, Depression, Anxiety, Hostility, Phobic Anxiety, Paranoid Ideation, and Psychoticism) and three Global Indices of Distress (Global Severity Index, Positive Symptom Distress Index, and Positive Symptom Total). The SCL-90-R is rated on a Likert scale of 0 (not at all) to 4 (extremely) and asks participants to report if they have suffered in the past week from: Headaches (Somatisation scale), Trouble remembering things (Obsessive-Compulsivity scale), Feeling critical of others (Interpersonal Sensitivity scale), Blaming oneself for things (Depression scale), Feeling fearful (Anxiety scale), Feeling watched or talked about by others (Paranoid Ideation scale), and The idea that something is wrong with one’s mind (Psychoticism scale). The SCL-90-R has been shown to have good internal coherence (α = 0.70–0.96) in adolescents and adults (Italian validated version: Prunas, Sarno, Preti, Madeddu, & Perugini, 2012). Assessment of child temperament. Participants’ answers on the QUIT (Axia, 2002) are rated on a Likert scale of 1 (almost never) to 6 (almost always). This questionnaire was validated for an Italian sample to measure child temperament from the first month after birth to 11 years of age, within four age groups: 1 to 12 months, 13 to 36 months, 3 to 6 years, and 7 to 11 years. It is given to the parents and investigates six dimensions: the level of motor activity (e.g., The child grasps objects with rapid movements), attentional capacity (e.g., The child immediately turns his/her gaze towards the person by whom he or she is called), inhibition to novelty and availability to socialization (e.g., the child observes strangers for a long time), positive emotionality (e.g., the child maintains a smiling face when playing), and negative emotionality (e.g., the child cries for a long time when contradicted). The questionnaire for the age group 1 to 12 months showed good internal consistency (Cronbach αs = .59–.71), and the values of the Pearson correlations between the scales of the questionnaire completed separately by the mother
Infant Mental Health Journal DOI 10.1002/imhj. Published on behalf of the Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.
Parent–Child Interaction During Feeding
and father, ranging between .32 and .62, show that both give a very similar assessment of the child (Axia, 2002). Assessment of parent–child feeding interactions. The Italian version (SVIA – Feeding Scale; Chatoor et al., 1997; Lucarelli et al., 2002) of the observational scale has 41 items rated on a Likert scale of 0 (confirm, none) to 3 (confirm, many) and four subscales coding dyadic mother–child and father–child interactions separately: Affective State of the Parent (e.g., the parent appears sad during feeding), Interactional Conflict (e.g., the parent forces food into the child’s mouth), Food Refusal Behaviors of the Child (e.g., the child refuses to open his/her mouth), and Affective State of the Dyad (e.g., the parent and the child show joy during feeding). Higher scores on the Affective State of the Parent refer to greater difficulties of the caregiver in showing positive affects and to a higher frequency of negative affects such as sadness or distress. The subscale Interactional Conflict evaluates both the presence and the intensity of conflictual exchanges within the dyad (e.g., the parent directs the meal according to his or her own emotions and intentions rather than following the signals from the child). The subscale Food Refusal Behaviors of the Child explores the behavioral and emotional characteristics of the feeding patterns of the child (e.g., being easily distracted, or showing opposition or negativity). Higher scores on the Affective State of the Dyad refer to the difficulties of the caregiver in supporting autonomous initiatives of the child (by means of requests, insistent orders, and criticism) while the child demonstrates distress and is generally oppositional. In the Italian version that was validated for mother– infant interactions (Lucarelli et al., 2002), the discriminant analysis showed correct group classification ranging from 82 to 92%, and construct validity for the tool has been proven. Interrater reliability ranged between 0.82 and 0.92 (intraclass correlation coefficients). DATA ANALYSES
A preliminary screening of the data showed few data missing for each instrument (4% for each instrument). Missing data were corrected using multiple imputation in SPSS software (Version 18.0). To examine the quality of the interactional patterns between fathers and children and mothers and children during feeding, we carried out multivariate analyses of variances (MANOVAs) on the SVIA dimensions (to respond to Objective a). In all MANOVAs, univariate analyses were then conducted on significant effects, and the Duncan test (Bonferroni correction) was used for contrasts. To respond to Objective b, we investigated the maternal and paternal psychological status through a series of MANOVAs that were carried out on the scores (transformed in their square root whenever the distribution deviated from normality) obtained from the SCL90-R (the Global Severity Index and, subsequently, the subscales). In MANOVAs regarding the SVIA procedure and the SCL-90-R questionnaires, we considered the group of mothers and the group of fathers as criterion variables while mothers’ and fathers’ scores on the measures constituted dependent variables. As a final step (to respond to Objective c), two hierarchical regression analyses
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were conducted to investigate the influence of specific SCL-90-R subscales, temperament subscales, and parental involvement on the relational dimensions of the Feeding Scale in mother–infant and father–infant interactions. In all the analyses we conducted, the child’s gender showed no significant effect on the variables. All analyses were performed with SPSS software (Version 18.0). RESULTS Quality of Mother–Child and Father–Child Interactions During Feeding
MANOVA analyses of the observational scale during feeding showed that fathers’ scores were significantly higher than were mothers’ scores in all four subscales, p < .01 (see Table 1). No participant exceeded the cutoffs for the clinical population of the Italian version of the SVIA (Lucarelli et al., 2002). Parental Psychopathological Risk Assessment
With respect to the assessment of mothers’ and fathers’ psychological symptoms, the analyses showed that fathers scored higher than did mothers on the Global Severity Index and in all SCL-90R subscales, p < .01 (see Table 2). Furthermore, 3 mothers and 4 fathers obtained scores higher than the cutoffs of the clinical range (Prunas et al., 2012). Quality of Parent–Child Interactions During Feeding Considering Parental Psychopathological Risk, Child Temperament, and Parental Involvement
Two regression analyses were conducted separately for mothers and fathers to investigate the influence of all nine SCL-90-R subscales, all five temperament subscales, and parental involvement (in terms of hours spent by the parent with the child) on all four of the relational dimensions of the SVIA in mother–infant and father–infant interactions, which showed higher maternal scores on Phobic Anxiety predicting mothers’ Affective State of the Parent, p < .05, in the direction of more negative affects. Higher children’s Negative Emotionality scores in the QUIT, p < .001, predicted the Affective State of the Dyad in the direction of more maladaptive mother–infant interactions during feeding. Maternal psychological symptoms and involvement of the mother (in terms of time spent with the child weekly) did not predict the quality of mother–infant interactions during feeding. Regarding fathers, the regression analyses showed the only significant results: Higher paternal involvement (in terms of the number of hours spent with the child) predicts lower scores (i.e., a better quality of father–child interactions) on three of the subscales of the SVIA only when considered in association with higher children’s scores on Social Orientation (in particular, Interactional Conflict, p < .05; Food Refusal of the Child, p < .05; and Affective State of the Dyad, p < .05). No association or prediction was found between fathers’ psychopathological risks
Infant Mental Health Journal DOI 10.1002/imhj. Published on behalf of the Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.
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TABLE 1. Means (SDs), F, and P Values of Mothers’ and Fathers’ Scores on SVIA Subscales
Affective State of the Parent Interactional Conflict Food Refusal of the Child Affective State of the Dyad
Mothers
Fathers
Fisher F Test
p
5.27 (3.33) 4.64 (3.85) 2.52 (1.94) 2.79 (2.25)
12.46 (5.35) 11.29 (6.2) 6.42 (3.36) 6.55 (4.27)
F(1, 153) = 100,29 F(1, 153) = 63,91 F(1, 153) = 77,86 F(1, 153) = 46,61
