Infant Affect Regulation with Mothers and Fathers: The Roles of Parent Mental Health and Marital Satisfaction
摘要
Parenting is a product of complex, interactive, and interwoven factors, which are affected by a variety of characteristics, including parent characteristics and the family environment. Such characteristics, including marital dissatisfaction and poor mental health, could place infants at an increased risk for affect regulation difficulties. The current longitudinal study extended previous research by examining how multiple factors of the parenting environment are associated with infant affect regulation with mothers and fathers. Families (n = 89, primarily White) from the Southeastern United States were assessed at 4 and 8 months of age. Parent mental health (anxiety and depression symptoms, well-being) and marital satisfaction were measured by questionnaires when infants were 4 months old. Infant affect regulation was measured via infant affect observational ratings during a face-to-face play task at 4 and 8 months of age. Mothers, who were higher in well-being, had infants lower in negative affect. Infants, whose fathers were low in social anxiety and had higher marital satisfaction, had decreased levels of negative affect. Findings provide target areas for promoting infant affect regulation, such as parent marital satisfaction and parent mental health.