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. 2007 Feb;30(1):161-7.
doi: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2006.08.005. Epub 2006 Sep 12.

Interactions between mothers and infants: impact of maternal anxiety

Rosemary Nicol-Harper  1 , Allison G Harvey, Alan Stein
Affiliations

Interactions between mothers and infants: impact of maternal anxiety

Rosemary Nicol-Harper et al. Infant Behav Dev. 2007 Feb.

Abstract

The aim of the study was to examine the impact of anxiety in the postnatal year on maternal contribution to mother-infant interaction. Participants were 32 mothers with high anxiety and 32 mothers with low anxiety, when their infants were aged 10-14 months. Mother-infant interaction was videotaped during a standardized play situation and coded blind to group status. High trait anxiety mothers showed less sensitive responsivity (p<.05) and reduced emotional tone (p<.05) during interaction. When participants scoring high in depressive symptomatology were removed for a subgroup analysis, the same pattern of results was obtained, suggesting that the observed differences in mother-infant interaction were due to group differences in anxiety.

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