Archival Materials

Permanent URI for this community

https://hdl.handle.net/1794/30264

Browse

Browsing Archival Materials by Author "Ablow, Jennifer"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Mindfully Parenting the Next Generation: Maternal History of Child Maltreatment, Stress, and Infant Attachment
    (University of Oregon, 2020-02-27) Hertz, Robin; Ablow, Jennifer
    Child maltreatment is associated with an enormous public health cost, and can be perpetuated intergenerationally via developmental effects of maltreatment (e.g., difficulties in stress regulation) that influence quality of caregiving. Mindfulness and mindful parenting have been associated with secure attachment, and may have therapeutic potential to enhance stress regulation and attachment security in parent-child dyads. The current study examined potential moderating effects of dispositional mindfulness and mindful parenting on the associations between maternal history of child maltreatment and mother/infant acute stress recovery as well as infant attachment classification. Mothers and infants participated in a stressful procedure designed to activate attachment behavior. Mothers and infants also provided cortisol samples after the procedure to provide information about physiological stress recovery. A significant interaction was found such that the infants of mothers with more severe histories of child maltreatment showed enhanced cortisol recovery when maternal dispositional mindfulness was high. Maternal mindfulness, however, was not otherwise associated with mother or infant cortisol recovery, nor did maternal history of child maltreatment or mindfulness significantly predict infant attachment classification. In contrast to expectations, maternal history of child maltreatment was associated with enhanced maternal cortisol recovery. This study provides preliminary evidence that higher levels of maternal dispositional mindfulness may indirectly help infants of mothers with more severe histories of child maltreatment to recover more efficiently from attachment-related stress.