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Maternal responsiveness and sensitivity reconsidered: Some is more

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2013

Marc H. Bornstein  and
Nanmathi Manian
Marc H. Bornstein*
Affiliation:
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Nanmathi Manian
Affiliation:
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Marc H. Bornstein, Child and Family Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Suite 8030, 6705 Rockledge Drive, Bethesda, MD 20892-7971; E-mail: Marc_H_Bornstein@nih.gov.
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Abstract

Is it always or necessarily the case that common and important parenting practices are better, insofar as they occur more often, or worse, because they occur less often? Perhaps, less is more, or some is more. To address this question, we studied mothers' microcoded contingent responsiveness to their infants (M = 5.4 months, SD = 0.2) in relation to independent global judgments of the same mothers' parenting sensitivity. In a community sample of 335 European American dyads, videorecorded infant and maternal behaviors were timed microanalytically throughout an extended home observation; separately and independently, global maternal sensitivity was rated macroanalytically. Sequential analysis and spline regression showed that, as maternal contingent responsiveness increased, judged maternal sensitivity increased to significance on the contingency continuum, after which mothers who were even more contingent were judged less sensitive. Just significant levels of maternal responsiveness are deemed optimally sensitive. Implications of these findings for typical and atypical parenting, child development, and intervention science are discussed.

Type
Regular Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 25 , Issue 4pt1 , November 2013 , pp. 957 - 971
Creative Commons
This is a work of the US Government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States.
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013.

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