Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Sep 6;18(1):365.
doi: 10.1186/s12884-018-1979-7.

Mother-infant interaction quality and sense of parenting competence at six months postpartum for first-time mothers in Taiwan: a multiple time series design

Fen-Fang Chung  1   2 , Gwo-Hwa Wan  3   4   5 , Su-Chen Kuo  6 , Kuan-Chia Lin  7 , Hsueh-Erh Liu  8   9   10
Affiliations

Mother-infant interaction quality and sense of parenting competence at six months postpartum for first-time mothers in Taiwan: a multiple time series design

Fen-Fang Chung et al. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. .

Abstract

Background: For first-time mothers, not knowing how to interact with newborn infants increases anxiety and decreases the quality of the parent-infant interactions. A substantial lack of interactional knowledge can ultimately limit the adjustments necessary for a stable transition into motherhood. This study investigated how postpartum parenting education influenced first-time mothers' mother-infant interaction quality and parenting sense of competence.

Methods: Eighty-one healthy first-time-mother and infant dyads were recruited. The control group (n = 40) received postpartum care based on the medical and cultural norms practiced in Taiwan, while the experimental group (n = 41) received, on top of typical care, education by way of a 40-min videotape on infant states, behaviors, and communication cues, as well as a handout on play practices. Data were collected at five points: within the first week, and during follow-ups in the first, second, third, and sixth months after birth. We administered the Chinese versions of the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale and Edinburgh Perinatal Depression Scale, and used the Nursing Child Assessment Teaching Scale to score videotaped mother-infant interactions.

Results: We observed an increase in the quality of mother-infant interaction within the experimental group only. Furthermore, at the five assessment points, we observed no significant changes in perceived parenting competence. Among all subjects, there were correlations between postpartum depression scores, parenting competency, and quality of mother-infant interaction.

Conclusions: Our results indicate that first-time mothers in Taiwan who are provided with extra education on infants' abilities and how to effectively play with infants are likely to exhibit improvements in quality of interaction.

Keywords: First-time mothers; Parenting education; Parenting sense of competence; Parent–infant interaction quality.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study received institutional review board (IRB) approval (no. 99-0243B) of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taiwan. All participants signed an informed consent form.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Experimental procedure and data collection
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Trends for scores of the mother-infant interaction quality. T1: the 1st week; T2: the 1st month; T3: the 2nd month; T4: the 3rd month; T5: the 6th month after delivery; □: EG; ●: CG
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Effectiveness of postpartum parenting education on (a) mother, (b) infant, (c) total scores, (d) contingency scores, (e) PSOC. T1: the 1st week; T2: the 1st month; T3: the 2nd month; T4: the 3rd month; T5: the 6th month after delivery; □: EG; ●: CG
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Hofer MA. Psychobiological roots of early attachment. Curr Dir Psychol Sci. 2006;15(2):84–88. doi: 10.1111/j.0963-7214.2006.00412.x. - DOI
    1. Magill-Evans J, Harrison MJ. Parent-child interactions and development of toddlers born preterm. West J Nurs Res. 1999;21(3):292–307. doi: 10.1177/01939459922043893. - DOI - PubMed
    1. MacLean PC, Rynes KN, Aragón C, Caprihan A, Phillips JP, Lowe JR. Mother-infant mutual eye gaze supports emotion regulation in infancy during the still-face paradigm. Infant Behav Dev. 2014;37(4):512–522. doi: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2014.06.008. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Shannon JD, Tamis-LeMonda CS, London K, Cabrera N. Beyond rough and tumble: low-income fathers’ interactions and childrens’ cognitive development at 24 months. Parenting. 2002;2(2):77–104. doi: 10.1207/S15327922PAR0202_01. - DOI
    1. Negayama K, Delafield-Butt JT, Momose K, Ishijima K, Kawahara N, Lux EJ, Murphy A, Kaliarntas K. Embodied intersubjective engagement in mother–infant tactile communication: a cross-cultural study of Japanese and Scottish mother–infant behaviors during infant pick-up. Front Psychol. 2015;6:66. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00066. - DOI - PMC - PubMed