Flaminia Odorisio

A prevention and promotion intervention program in the field of mother–infant relationship

The purpose of the study was to analyze the efficacy of early home-visiting intervention in enhancing the quality of mother–infant interaction in psychosocial risk and depressive risk mother–infant dyads. Thirty depressive risk, 28 psychosocial risk, and 33 low-depressed and low-risk mothers were randomly distributed between the Home Visiting Program and control groups. Attachment (Adult Attachment Interview; Main & Goldwyn, 1997) and maternal representations during pregnancy (Interview of Maternal Representations During Pregnancy; Ammaniti, Candelori, Pola, & Tambelli, 1999) and after the birth of the infant (Interview of Maternal Representations After the Birth; Ammaniti et al., 1999) were evaluated as well as depressive symptoms (Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale; Radloff, 1977) during the first year. Ratings of sensitivity, interference, affective state of the mother, cooperation, and infant self-regulation during mother–infant interactions were assessed at 3, 6, and 12 months. Results showed the efficacy of the home-visiting program in improving sensitive maternal behaviors toward the child after 6 months of intervention.

Perinatal Parenting Stress, Anxiety, and Depression Outcomes in First-Time Mothers and Fathers: A 3- to 6-Months Postpartum Follow-Up Study

Objective: Although there is an established link between parenting stress, postnatal depression, and anxiety, no study has yet investigated this link in first-time parental couples. The specific aims of this study were 1) to investigate whether there were any differences between first-time fathers’ and mothers’ postnatal parenting stress, anxiety, and depression symptoms and to see their evolution between three and 6 months after their child’s birth; and 2) to explore how each parent’s parenting stress and anxiety levels and the anxiety levels and depressive symptoms of their partners contributed to parental postnatal depression. Method: The sample included 362 parents (181 couples; mothers’ MAge = 35.03, SD = 4.7; fathers’ MAge = 37.9, SD = 5.6) of healthy babies. At three (T1) and 6 months (T2) postpartum, both parents filled out, in a counterbalanced order, the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Results: The analyses showed that compared to fathers, mothers reported higher scores on postpartum anxiety, depression, and parenting stress. The scores for all measures for both mothers and fathers decreased from T1 to T2. However, a path analysis suggested that the persistence of both maternal and paternal postnatal depression was directly influenced by the parent’s own levels of anxiety and parenting stress and by the presence of depression in his/her partner. Discussion: This study highlights the relevant impact and effects of both maternal and paternal stress, anxiety, and depression symptoms during the transition to parenthood. Therefore, to provide efficacious, targeted, early interventions, perinatal screening should be directed at both parents.

Prenatal and postnatal maternal representations in nonrisk and at-risk parenting: exploring the influences on mother-infant feeding interactions.

The aim of this study was to investigate the mother-infant relationship in depressive, psychosocial, and cumulative-risk parenting by assessing prenatal and postnatal maternal representations and mother-infant interactions during feeding at 4 months of age. The sample consisted of 167 mother-infant pairs: 41 nonrisk women, 40 depressive-risk women, 40 psychosocial-risk women, and 46 cumulative-risk women. During pregnancy, the women were interviewed about psychosocial-risk variables. Maternal representations and depressive symptoms were evaluated during pregnancy and again when the infants were 3 and 4 months old, respectively. All mother-infant pairs were observed in 20-min video recordings during breast-feeding. Maternal Integrated/balanced representations were more frequent in the nonrisk group whereas the maternal Nonintegrated/ambivalent category was more represented in the cumulative-risk group during pregnancy and after the infants birth. At 4 months, the cumulative-risk group of mothers and infants showed a lack of reciprocity, conflictual communicative exchanges, and higher food refusal behavior. Moreover, at 4 months, differences between the quality of mother-infant feeding interactions and the quality of prenatal and postnatal maternal representations emerged, showing less adequate maternal scaffolding in the Nonintegrated/ambivalent and Restricted/disengaged women. This study has rich implications for intervention to support the affective and communicative caregiving system and to prevent infant feeding problems and mother-infant relational disturbances in childhood.

Sostegno alla genitorialità nelle madri a rischio: valutazione di un modello di assistenza domiciliare sullo sviluppo della prima infanzia

RIASSUNTO: Obiettivo: Obiettivo del lavoro e stato quello di verificare l’efficacia dell’intervento precoce di Home Visiting diretto a rafforzare la qualita della relazione madre-bambino in diadi all’interno delle quali le madri presentano o un rischio depressivo, o un rischio psicosociale, o un rischio sia depressivo che psicosociale. Metodo: Sono state selezionate 38 donne a basso rischio, 39 donne a rischio psicosociale, 37 donne a rischio depressivo e 32 donne a doppio rischio, che sono state assegnate in modo casuale ad un programma di intervento o a un gruppo di controllo. Le donne hanno un’eta compresa tra i 20 e i 43 anni. Ad entrambi i gruppi sono state somministrate le seguenti interviste e questionari: l’AAI, l’IRMAG, l’IRMAN, il CES-D e l’SCL-90. Durante il primo anno di vita del bambino sono state effettuate delle videoriprese dell’interazione diadica madre-bambino a 3, 6 e 12 mesi. Risultati e conclusioni: i risultati hanno evidenziato una differente distribuzione delle rappresentazioni materne di se e del bambino nei quattro gruppi di donne, e l’efficacia dell’intervento precoce di Home Visiting in relazione ad un aumento di comportamenti materni sensibili, a partire dal 6° mese di vita, nel gruppo di donne che hanno ricevuto l’intervento. PAROLE CHIAVE: Gravidanza a rischio, Rappresentazioni materne, Home Visiting.

Depressione, ansia e stili paterni in un campione di padri con bambini nati pretermine

L’obiettivo del presente studio e stato quello di valutare i vissuti di depressione e ansia di padri di neonati prematuri e come questi potessero associarsi alle rappresentazioni paterne e alla disponibilita emotiva in un’interazione di gioco libera. E stato selezionato un gruppo di 68 padri, a cui sono stati somministrati i seguenti strumenti: il self-report STAI-Y1 per rilevare l’ansia di stato; l’EPDS per valutare la sintomatologia depressiva; l’intervista IRPAN per valutare la rappresentazione paterna al 4° mese di eta corretta e la videoregistrazione delle sequenze interattive, codificate mediante scale di valutazione dell’interazione EAS, al 6° mese. I risultati hanno messo in luce che i padri di bambini prematuri mostrano un rischio ansioso nel 32%, depressivo nel 19%, una prevalenza di rappresentazioni integrate/equilibrate nel 50%, ristrette/disinvestite nel 45% e non integrate/ ambivalenti nel 4%. I padri ansiosi del nostro studio hanno un’interazione meno efficace rispetto a quelli che non presentano una sintomatologia ansiosa, dimostrando di essere meno sensibili, non strutturano efficacemente l’interazione ludica, divenendo in alcuni momenti intrusivi. I bambini di questi padri sono meno coinvolti nell’interazione con l’adulto. I risultati hanno mostrato che i padri depressi sono meno sensibili nell’interazione con i loro bambini. I dati relativi alla rappresentazione paterna e l’interazione hanno mostrato come i padri con una rappresentazione integrata/equilibrata, pur mostrando dei livelli elevati di ansia, si caratterizzano per essere in grado di strutturare efficacemente l’interazione ludica a differenza delle altre categorie di rappresentazione, dimostrando come il fattore ansia sia funzionale alle loro capacita.

Le rappresentazioni materne prima e dopo la nascita del bambino, in condizioni a rischio e non a rischio : indicatori predittivi della relazione madre-bambino nel primo anno di vita

Maternal representations before and after childbirth under risky and non-risky conditions: predictors of mother-baby relationship in the first year of life - The aim of the present paper was to observe the distribution of maternal representations before and after childbirth, in order to evaluate its influence on the dyadic relationship during the first year of the baby’s life. The research involved mothers with depressive risk factors, mothers with psy-chosocial risk conditions, mothers with both risk elements (psychosocial and depressive) and mothers with no risk factor. When the babies were 3, 6 and 12 months old, the dyads were contacted in order to video-record natural interactive exchanges, which were then coded using appropriately built evaluation scales of mother-infant interaction. Observational parame-ters were used in order to assess the quality of maternal behavior (Sensiti-vity, Affective State, Interference), of infant’s regulatory skills (Self-Regula-tion) and of dyadic interaction. Key words: maternal representations, infant relational abilities, parental risk con-ditions, affective regulation, dyadic interactive exchanges.