SYNOPSIS

Objective. To examine whether maternal sensitivity in non-distress contexts and nurturance to infants’ distress mediate the association between cumulative sociodemographic risk and children’s emerging language ability. Design. Participants were a community sample of mothers and their infants (n = 99). During an initial home visit, mothers and infants 6 to 12 months old were videorecorded during free-play and infant distress-eliciting tasks, and mothers provided demographic information. Maternal behaviors were coded for sensitivity and nurturance to distress. Six months after the home visit, mothers reported children’s language ability. Cumulative risk was a latent variable with dichotomous indicators of high school education or less, income-to-needs ratio <1, maternal age ≤21, single parenthood, and minority status. Child language, a latent variable with five percentile scores as indicators, was regressed onto sensitivity, nurturance, and the latent risk variable. The indirect effects between sociodemographic risk and child language outcome via sensitivity and nurturance to distress were also estimated. Results. Risk was negatively associated with maternal sensitivity and nurturance to distress in infancy. Sensitivity, but not nurturance to distress, mediated the association between risk and child language ability between 12 and 22 months of age. Conclusions. Maternal sensitivity in non-distress contexts may represent an important target of intervention programs aimed at enhancing early language development among high-risk families.

概要

客观的。研究母亲在非痛苦环境中的敏感性和对婴儿痛苦的培养是否介导了累积社会人口风险与儿童新兴语言能力之间的关联。设计。参与者是母亲及其婴儿的社区样本（ n= 99)。在初次家访期间，母亲和 6 至 12 个月大的婴儿在自由玩耍和引发婴儿痛苦的任务中被录像，母亲提供了人口统计信息。母亲的行为被编码为对痛苦的敏感性和培养。家访六个月后，母亲报告了孩子的语言能力。累积风险是一个潜在变量，具有高中或以下教育、收入与需求比率<1、母亲年龄≤21、单亲和少数民族身份的二分指标。儿童语言是一个以 5 个百分位分数为指标的潜在变量，回归到敏感性、培养和潜在风险变量。还估计了社会人口学风险和儿童语言结果之间通过对痛苦的敏感性和培养的间接影响。结果。风险与母亲对婴儿期痛苦的敏感性和培养呈负相关。在 12 至 22 个月大之间，敏感性（而非对痛苦的滋养）调节了风险与儿童语言能力之间的关联。结论。非痛苦背景下的母亲敏感性可能是旨在促进高危家庭早期语言发展的干预计划的一个重要目标。