Marinus van IJzendoorn

The Role of Oxytocin in Mother-Infant Relations: A Systematic Review of Human Studies

Background: Oxytocin is associated with the establishment and quality of maternal behavior in animal models. Parallel investigations in humans are now under way. This article reviews the current research examining the role of oxytocin in mother‐infant relations, attachment, and bonding in humans. Methods: A systematic search was made of three electronic databases and other bibliographic sources for published research studies that examined oxytocin and mother‐infant relations in humans, including attachment, maternal behavior, parenting, and mother‐infant relations. Results: Eight studies were identified, all of which were unique in their methodologies, populations studied, and measures used. Seven studies found significant and strong associations between levels or patterns of oxytocin and aspects of mother‐infant relations or attachment. Conclusions: Oxytocin appears to be of crucial importance for understanding mother‐infant relationships. The findings of this review suggest that the pioneering, but preliminary, research undertaken to date is promising and that replication with larger samples is needed. Research that draws on more robust measures of attachment and bonding, as well as improved measures of oxytocin that include both central and peripheral levels, will elucidate the role of oxytocin in human mother‐infant relationships. As the production of oxytocin is by no means restricted to mothers, the extension of the oxytocin studies to fathering, as well as to alloparental caregiving, would be an intriguing next step.

Is the ideal mother a sensitive mother? Beliefs about early childhood parenting in mothers across the globe

In this article, we test the hypothesis that beliefs about the ideal mother are convergent across cultures and that these beliefs overlap considerably with attachment theory’s notion of the sensitive mother. In a sample including 26 cultural groups from 15 countries around the globe, 751 mothers sorted the Maternal Behavior Q-Set to reflect their ideas about the ideal mother. The results show strong convergence between maternal beliefs about the ideal mother and attachment theory’s description of the sensitive mother across groups. Cultural group membership significantly predicted variations in maternal sensitivity belief scores, but this effect was substantially accounted for by group variations in socio-demographic factors. Mothers living in rural versus urban areas, with a low family income, and with more children, were less likely to describe the ideal mother as highly sensitive. Cultural group membership did remain a significant predictor of variations in maternal sensitivity belief scores above and beyond socio-demographic predictors. The findings are discussed in terms of the universal and culture-specific aspects of the sensitivity construct.

Bowlby before Bowlby: the sources of an intellectual departure in psychoanalysis and psychology.

John Bowlbys first scientific papers express a viewpoint of the etiology of childhood disorders that gradually developed during his university years and the first years of his professional life. As becomes clear from, among other things, Bowlbys private correspondence, it was the period spent as a student at Cambridge, his work as a teacher at two progressive schools, and his work at a child guidance clinic that allowed him to articulate a view on childhood deviancy that was at variance with the Kleinian variant of psychoanalysis. Bowlbys position as an independent thinker in the British Psycho-Analytical Society can be understood against the background of these intellectual influences.

Temperamental sensitivity moderates the effects of maternal love-withdrawal on perception of infant crying

Parenting has an impact on the offsprings social and behavioral outcomes. However, not all individuals are affected equally; according to the differential susceptibility hypothesis, temperamental traits may moderate the effects of early life experiences. We examined the association between young adults’ experiences of maternal love-withdrawal and their perception of infant crying, and the potentially moderating role of temperamental orienting sensitivity. In an ecologically valid but standardized setting, 132 female participants spent two consecutive evenings taking care of an infant simulator. Orienting sensitivity moderated the relation between experienced love-withdrawal and the perception of infant crying: Participants with high orienting sensitivity who experienced low levels of love-withdrawal perceived the crying bouts as less negative than others. We conclude that the long-term impact of early life experiences may be moderated by temperamental characteristics, with implications for individual differences in perceptual responses to infant stimuli in adulthood.

Mercy pregnancy and emotional Well-being study (MPEWS): Understanding maternal mental health, fetal programming and child development. Study design and cohort profile

Maternal mental health represents a significant global health burden. The Mercy Pregnancy and Emotional Well‐being Study (MPEWS) was established to provide a comprehensive investigation of early developmental mechanisms and modifiers for maternal, fetal and child emotional well‐being. MPEWS is a prospective, longitudinal study from pregnancy to 36 months postpartum that includes diagnostic measures of maternal mental health, observational measures of the mother–infant relationship, measures of child development, and repeat biological sampling. A total of 282 pregnant women were recruited in early pregnancy from the Mercy Hospital for Women in Melbourne, Australia, including 52 women on antidepressant medication, 31 non‐medicated women meeting diagnostic criteria for current unipolar depression or dysthymia, and 65 women with a past history of depression. Sample recruitment characteristics included a mean age of 31 years and average gestation of 16 weeks. The MPEWS cohort was comparable to national averages for Australia on key pregnancy and birth variables. Those participants taking antidepressant medication had higher mean Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) scores than the cohort as a whole but were comparable on other key variables. The MPEWS protocol provides a unique opportunity to evaluate the impact of pregnancy mental health on future maternal mental health and child development to aid the development of evidence‐based interventions. The study is open for collaborative proposals via approach to the principal investigators.

Maternal depression, antidepressant use and placental oxytocin receptor DNA methylation: Findings from the MPEWS study

The aim of this study was to investigate placental DNA methylation of the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) in women with depression in pregnancy. We also explored the role of antidepressant medication in pregnancy on placental OXTR methylation. Data were obtained from 239 women in the Mercy Pregnancy and Emotional Wellbeing Study (MPEWS), a selected pregnancy cohort. Current depressive disorders were diagnosed using the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (SCID-IV). Depressive symptoms were measured during the third trimester in pregnancy using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). Plasma levels of antidepressant drugs were measured in maternal and cord blood obtained at delivery. OXTR DNA methylation was measured in placenta samples. Depressive symptoms in pregnancy were not associated with significant changes in DNA methylation of OXTR in the placenta. Cord plasma antidepressant levels were more strongly associated than maternal antidepressant dose or circulating blood antidepressant levels with increased DNA methylation of a specific unit within the promotor region of OXTR. This study provides preliminary data to suggest that antidepressant use during pregnancy can alter OXTR methylation in placental tissue. Our findings also indicate that the way exposures are measured in pregnancy can influence the direction and strength of findings. Future studies should investigate whether altered OXTR methylation might mediate the impacts of maternal antidepressant treatment on pregnancy and offspring outcomes.

Attachment histories and futures: reply to Vicedo’s ‘Putting attachment in its place’

For Vicedo, ‘putting attachment in its place’ seems to entail two aspects. The first is working to understand the rise of attachment theory and its place within the history of knowledge practices. The second is to criticize the validity of attachment theory. In this reply, we appraise three criticisms made by Vicedo of attachment theory, chosen as points for sustaining a dialogue. Our main point in this reply is that, in excluding the work of attachment researchers after Ainsworth from consideration, Vicedo’s work is not yet able to properly ‘put attachment in its place’, in either sense of the phrase. At most, she puts Bowlby in the 1950s–1960s in his place, but without speaking effectively to subsequent attachment research. In our view, not just the validity, but the very meaning of attachment as a scientific research programme cannot be understood outside of its temporal context, and the relationship this entails between theory and research, past and future.