Are changes in mothers’ representations of their infants related to changes in observed mother–infant interaction quality?

Abstract

Infant mental health clinicians aiming to improve mother–infant dyads at risk typically target mothers’ representations of their infant or mother–infant interactions, assuming that one port of entry leads to change in the other. However, little is known about the relation between changes in mothers’ representations and in mother–infant interactions. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate this in a low- to moderate-risk community sample of 152 mothers (M = 29.7 years) of infants aged 0–2 years (M = 11.5 months) recruited from rural and urban cities in Norway. The mothers’ representations were measured using the Working Model of the Child Interview, and the quality of the mother–infant interactions was measured with the Emotional Availability Scales. We found no evidence of a relation between mothers’ changed representations and changed quality of mother–infant interactions. Several explanations concerning the low-risk status of the sample, the observation situation, the time between assessment points, and the homogeneous scores from the instruments used are discussed, as are the implications for clinical practice and future research.