Top

Published in:

01-02-2016 | Original Article

Affect recognition and the quality of mother-infant interaction: understanding parenting difficulties in mothers with schizophrenia

Authors: Sarah J. Healy, Jona Lewin, Stephen Butler, Kyla Vaillancourt, Fiona Seth-Smith

Published in: Archives of Women's Mental Health | Issue 1/2016

Abstract

This study investigated the quality of mother-infant interaction and maternal ability to recognise adult affect in three study groups consisting of mothers with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, mothers with depression and healthy controls. Sixty-four mothers were recruited from a Mother and Baby Unit and local children’s centres. A 5-min mother-infant interaction was coded on a number of caregiving variables. Affect recognition and discrimination abilities were tested via a series of computerised tasks. Group differences were found both in measures of affect recognition and in the mother-infant interaction. Mothers with schizophrenia showed consistent impairments across most of the parenting measures and all measures of affect recognition and discrimination. Mothers with depression fell between the mothers with schizophrenia and healthy controls on most measures. However, depressed women’s parenting was not significantly poorer than controls on any of the measures, and only showed trends for differences with mothers with schizophrenia on a few measures. Regression analyses found impairments in affect recognition and a diagnosis of schizophrenia to predict the occurrence of odd or unusual speech in the mother-infant interaction. Results add to the growing body of knowledge on the mother-infant interaction in mothers with schizophrenia and mothers with depression compared to healthy controls, suggesting a need for parenting interventions aimed at mothers with these conditions. While affect recognition impairments were not found to fully explain differences in parenting among women with schizophrenia, further research is needed to understand the psychopathology of parenting disturbances within this clinical group.

Addington J, Addington D (1998) Affect recognition in schizophrenia. Schizophr Bull 32:171–181CrossRef

Bakermans-Kranenburg, Van IJzendoorn, Kroonenberg (2004) Differences in attachment security between African-American and white children: ethnicity or socio-economic status? Infant Behav Dev 27(3):417–433CrossRef

Balge K, Milner J (2000) Emotion recognition ability in mothers at high and low risk for child physical abuse. Child Abuse Negl 24(10):1289–1298CrossRefPubMed

Beardslee WR, Versage EM, Gladstone TRG (1998) Children of affectively ill parents: a review of the past 10 years. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 37(11):1134–1141CrossRefPubMed

Beck C (2001) Predictors of postpartum depression: an update. Nurs Res 50(5):275–285CrossRefPubMed

Bosanac P, Buist A, Burrows G (2003). Motherhood and schizophrenic illnesses: A review of the literature. Aust N Z J Psychiatry 37(1)24–30

Brune M, Abdel-Hamid M, Lehmkamper C, Sonntag C (2007) Mental state attribution, neurocognitive functioning, and psychopathology: what predicts poor social competence in schizophrenia best? Schizophr Res 92:151–159CrossRefPubMed

Camras L, Ribordy S, Hill J, Martino S, Spaccarelli S, Stefani R (1988) Recognition and posing of emotional expressions by abused children and their mothers. Dev Psychol 24:776–781CrossRef

Cannon M, Caspi A, Moffitt T, Harrington H, Taylor A, Murray R et al (2002) Evidence for early childhood, pan-developmental impairment specific to schizophreniform disorder: results from a longitudinal birth cohort. Arch Gen Psychiatry 59:449–457CrossRefPubMed

Chandra PS, Bhargavaraman RP, Raghunandan VNGP, Shaligram D, Hipwell AE, Kumar R (2006) Delusions related to infant and their association with mother-infant interactions in postpartum psychotic disorders maternal psychopathology and prediction of outcome based on mother-infant interaction ratings (BMIS). Arch Womens Ment Health 9(5):285–288CrossRefPubMed

Cohn J, Campbell S, Matias R, Hopkins J (1990) Face-to-face interactions of postpartum depressed and nondepresssed mother–infant pairs at 2 months. Dev Psychol 26:15–23CrossRef

Cox J, Chapman, G, Murray D, Jones P (1996) Validation of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) in non-postnatal women. J Affect Disord 39:185–189

Danaci A, Dinc G, Deveci A, Sen F, Icelli I (2002) Postnatal depression in Turkey: epidemiological and cultural aspects. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 37:125–129CrossRefPubMed

During S, McMahon R (1991) Recognition of emotional facial expressions by abusive mothers and their children. J Clin Child Psychol 20:132–139CrossRef

Eapen V, Ghubash R, Salem M, Sabri S (2005) Familial predictors of childhood shyness: a study of the United Arab Emirates population. Community Genet 8:61–64CrossRefPubMed

Elliot R-L, Campbell L, Hunter M, Cooper G, Melville J, McCabe K, Newman L, Loughland C (2014) When I look into my baby’s eyes … Infant emotion recognition by mothers with borderline personality disorder. Infant Ment. Health J 35:21–32

Erwin R, Gur R, Gur R, Smailis J, Skolnick B (1992) Facial emotion discrimination: 1. Task construction and behavioral findings in normal subjects. Psychiatry Res 42:231–240CrossRefPubMed

Garety P, Freeman D, Jolley S, Dunn G, Bebbington P, Fowler D et al (2005) Reasoning, emotions, and delusional conviction in psychosis. J Abnorm Psychol 114:373–384CrossRefPubMed

Getz G, Shear P, Strakowski S (2003) Facial affect recognition deficits in bipolar disorder. J Int Neuropsychol Soc 9:623–632PubMed

Goleman D (1995) Emotional intelligence. Bantam, New York

Goodman S (1987) Emory university project on children of disturbed parents. Schizophr Bull 13(3)

Goodman S, Brumley H (1990). Schizophrenic and depressed mothers: relational deficits in parenting. Dev Psychobiol 26(1)

Goodman S, Gotlib I (1999) Risk for psychopathology in the children of depressed mothers: a developmental model for understanding mechanisms of transmission. Psychol Rev 106(3):458–490CrossRefPubMed

Goodman SH, Rouse MH, Long Q, Ji S, Brand SR (2011) Deconstructing antenatal depression: What is it that matters for neonatal behavioral functioning? Infant Mental Health Journal 32(2):339–31

Gur R, Erwin R, Gur R, Zwil A, Heimberg C, Kraemer H (1992) Facial emotion discrimination. II: behavioral findings in depression. Psychiatry Res 42:241–251CrossRefPubMed

Hay DF, Pawlby S, Sharp D, Asten P, Mills A, Kumar R (2001) Intellectual problems shown by 11‐year‐old children whose mothers had postnatal depression. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 42:871–889CrossRefPubMed

Hay DF, Pawlby S, Angold A, Harold GT, Sharp D (2003) Pathways to violence in the children of mothers who were depressed postpartum. Dev Psychol 39:1083CrossRefPubMed

Howard LM, Kumar C, Leese M, Thornicroft G (2002) The general fertility rate in women with psychotic disorders. Am J Psychiatry 159(6)

Ihnen GH, Penn DL, Corrigan PW, Martin J (1998) Social perception and social skill in schizophrenia. Psychiatry Res 80:275–286

Kay SR (1991) Positive and Negative Syndromes in schizophrenia: Assessment and Research. Clinical and Experimental Psychiatry Monograph No. 5. New York, Brunner/Mazel

Kenny M, Conroy S, Pariante CM, Seneviratne G, Pawlby S (2013) Mother-infant interaction in mother and baby unit patients: before and after treatment. J Psychiatr Res 47(9):1192–1198

Kohler C, Turner T, Bilker W, Brensinger C, Siegel S, Kanes S et al (2003) Facial Emotion Recognition in schizophrenia: intensity effects and error pattern. Am J Psychiatry 160:1768–1774CrossRefPubMed

Kohler C, Turner T, Gur R (2004) Recognition of facial emotions in neuropsychiatric disorders. CNS Spectr 9(4):267–274PubMed

Kropp J, Haynes O (1987) Abusive and nonabusive mothers’ ability to identify general and specific emotion signals of infants. Child Dev 58(1):187–190CrossRefPubMed

Kuchrska-Pietura K, David A, Masiak M, Phillips M (2005) Perception of facial and vocal affect by people with schizophrenia in early and late stages of illness. Br J Psychiatry 187:523–528CrossRef

Lennox B, Jacob R, Calder A, Lupson V, Bullmore E (2004) Behavioural and neurocognitive responses to sad facial affect are attenuated in patients with mania. Psychol Med 34:795–802CrossRefPubMed

Lovejoy M, Graczyk P, O’Hare E, Neuman G (2000) Maternal depression and parenting behavior: a meta-analytic review. Clin Psychol Rev 20:561–592CrossRefPubMed

Lyons-Ruth K, Bronfman E, Parsons E (1999) Maternal frightened, frightening, or atypical behaviour and disorganized infant attachment patterns. Monogr Soc Res Child Dev 67–96

Madigan S, Bakermans-Kranenburg MJ, Van Ijzendoorn MH, Moran G, Pederson DR, Benoit D (2006) Unresolved states of mind, anomalous parental behaviour, and disorganized attachment: a review and meta-analysis of a transmission gap. Attach Hum Dev 8:89–111CrossRefPubMed

Main M, Hesse E (1990) Parents’ unresolved traumatic experiences are related to infant disorganized attachment status: is frightened and/or frightening parental behaviour the linking mechanism. Attachment in preschool years: theory, research and intervention, 161–182

Mandal M, Pandey R, Prasad A (1998) Facial expressions of emotions and schizophrenia: a review. Schizophr Bull 23:399–412CrossRef

Martins C (2003) The emergence of ‘Secondary Intersubjectivity’: predictors and sequelae in infants of well and depressed mothers. Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Reading, UK

Martins C, Gaffan E (2000) Effects of early maternal depression on patterns of infant-mother attachment: a meta-analytic investigation. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 41:737–746CrossRefPubMed

McNeil TF, Kaij L, Malmquist-Larsson A, Naslund B, Persson-Blennow I, McNeil N et al (1983) Offspring of women with non-organic psychosis: development of a longitudinal study of children at high risk. Acta Psychiatr Scand 68:234–250CrossRefPubMed

Montag C, Heinz A, Kunz D, Gallinat J (2007) Self-reporteds empathic abilities in schizophrenia. Schizophr Res 92:85–89CrossRefPubMed

Morrison R, Bellack A, Mueser K (1988) Deficits in facial-affect recognition and schizophrenia. Schizophr Bull 14(1):67–83CrossRefPubMed

Mueser K, Bellack A (1998) Social skills and social functioning in schizophrenia. In: Mueser K, Tarrier N (eds) Handbook of social functioning in schizophrenia. Allyn & Boston, Michigan, pp 79–98

Mullick M, Miller J, Jacobsen T (2001) Insight into mental illness and child maltreatment risk among mothers with major psychiatric disorders. Psychiatr Serv 52(4):488–492CrossRefPubMed

Murray L (1988) Effects of postnatal depression on infant development: direct studies of early mother-infant interactions. In: Kumar R, Brockington IF (eds) Motherhood and mental illness. Wright, London, pp 159–190

Murray L, Trevarthen C (1986) The infant’s role in mother-infant communications. J Child Lang 13(1):15–29CrossRefPubMed

Murray L, Fiori-Cowley A, Hooper R, Cooper P (1996) The impact of postnatal depression and associated adversity on early mother–infant interactions and later infant outcome. Child Dev 67:2512–2526CrossRefPubMed

Murray L, Cooper P, Hipwell A (2003) Mental health of parents caring for infants. Arch Womens Ment Health 6(2):s71–s77CrossRefPubMed

Murray L, Halligan S, Cooper P (2009) The impact of postnatal depression and associated adversity on early mother–infant interactions and later infant outcome. Child Dev 67:2512–2526CrossRef

Niemi L, Suvisaari J, Tuulio-Henriksson A, Lonnqvist J (2003) Childhood developmental abnormalities in schizophrenia: evidence from high-risk studies. Schizophr Res 60:239–258CrossRefPubMed

O’Hara M, Swain A (1996) Rates and risk of postpartum depression-a meta-analysis. Int Rev Psychiatry 8(1):37–54CrossRef

Pawlby S, Fernyhough C, Meins E, Pariante C, Seneviratne G, Bentall R (2010) Mind-mindedness and maternal responsiveness in infant-mother interactions in mothers with severe mental illness. Psychol Med J Res Psychiatry Allied Sci 40:1861–1869

Philpot P, Feldman R (1990) Age and social competence in preschoolers’ decoding of facial expression. Br J Soc Psychol 29:43–54CrossRef

Pinkham AE, Penn DL, Perkins DO et al (2003) Implications for the neural basis of social cognition for the study of schizophrenia. Am J Psychiatry, 160:815–24

Righetti-Veltema M, Conne-Perreard E, Bousquet A, Manzano J (2002) Postpartum depression and the mother–infant relationship at 3 months old. J Affect Disord 70:291–306CrossRefPubMed

Riordan D, Appleby L, Faragher B (1999) Mother-infant interaction in post-partum women with schizophrenia and affective disorders. Psychol Med J Res Psychiatry Allied Sci 29(4)

Rogosch F, Mowbray CT, Bogat G (1992) Determinants of parenting attitudes in mothers with severe psychopathology. Dev Psychopathol 4:469–487CrossRef

Sameroff AJ, Seifer R, Zax M, Garmezy N (1982) Early development of children at risk for emotional disorder. Monogr Soc Res Child Dev 47(7):1–82CrossRefPubMed

Sameroff AJ, Seifer R, Zax M, Barocas R (1987) Early indicators of developmental risk: Rochester longitudinal study. Schizophr Bull 13:383–394CrossRefPubMed

Schneider F, Gur R, Gur R, Shtasel D (1995) Emotional processing in schizophrenia: neurobiological probes in relation to psychopathology. Schizophr Res 17(1):67–75CrossRefPubMed

Seifer R, Sameroff AJ, Anagnostopolou R, Elias PK (1992) Mother-infant interaction during the first year: effects of situation, maternal mental illness, and demographic factors. Infant Behav Dev 15(4):405–426CrossRef

Sneddon J, Kerry R, Bant W (1981) The psychiatric mother and baby unit. Practitioner 225:1295–1300PubMed

Snellen M, Mack K, Trauer T (1999) Schizophrenia, mental state, and mother-infant interaction: examining the relationship. Aust. N Z J Psychiatry 33(6)

Steadman J, Pawlby S, Mayers A, Bucks RS, Gregoire A, Miele-Norton M et al (2007) An exploratory study of the relationship between mother-infant interaction and maternal cognitive function in mothers with mental illness. J Reprod Infant Psychol 25(4):255–269CrossRef

Stein A, Lehtonen A, Harvey AG, Nicol-Harper R, Craske M (2009) The influence of postnatal psychiatric disorder on child development. Psychopathology 42:11–21PubMedCentralCrossRefPubMed

Stuart S, Couser G, Schilder K, O’Hara M, Gorman L (1998) Postpartum anxiety and depression: onset and comorbidity in a community sample. J Nerv Ment Dis 186(7):420–424CrossRefPubMed

Wahlberg K-E, Wynne LC, Hakko H, Laksy K, Moring J, Miettunen J et al (2004) Interaction of genetic risk and adoptive parent communication deviance: longitudinal prediction of adoptee psychiatric disorders. Psychol Med J Res Psychiatry Allied Sci 34(8)

Wan M, Salmon MP, Riordan DM, Appleby L, Webb R, Abel KM (2007) What predicts poor mother-infant interaction in schizophrenia? Psychol Med J Res Psychiatry Allied Sci 37(4), pp.

Wan M, Abel K, Green J (2008a) The transmission of risk to children from mothers with schizophrenia: a developmental psychopathology model. Clin Psychol Rev 28:613–637CrossRefPubMed

Wan M, Penketh V, Salmon MP, Abel KM (2008) Content and style of speech from mothers with schizophrenia towards their infants. Psychol Res 159(1–2)

Wöllwer W, Streit M, Polzer U, Gaebel W (1996) Facial affect recognition in the course of schizophrenia. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 3:165–170CrossRef

Title: Affect recognition and the quality of mother-infant interaction: understanding parenting difficulties in mothers with schizophrenia
Authors: Sarah J. Healy
Jona Lewin
Stephen Butler
Kyla Vaillancourt
Fiona Seth-Smith
Publication date: 01-02-2016
Publisher: Springer Vienna
Published in: Archives of Women's Mental Health / Issue 1/2016
Print ISSN: 1434-1816
Electronic ISSN: 1435-1102
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-015-0530-3

2024 ASCO Annual Meeting

Springer Medicine

Affect recognition and the quality of mother-infant interaction: understanding parenting difficulties in mothers with schizophrenia

Abstract

2024 ASCO Annual Meeting

Springer Medicine

Abstract

Please log in to get access to this content

Other articles of this Issue 1/2016

Differences in successful treatment completion among pregnant and non-pregnant American women

Avoidance as an obstacle to preventing depression among urban women at high risk for violent trauma

Maternal depression from pregnancy to 4 years postpartum and emotional/behavioural difficulties in children: results from a prospective pregnancy cohort study

Mental health care use in relation to depressive symptoms among pregnant women in the USA

Obsessive-compulsive disorder in pregnancy and the postpartum period: course of illness and obstetrical outcome

Adaption of pregnancy anxiety questionnaire–revised for all pregnant women regardless of parity: PRAQ-R2