title: Maternal ego development and mother-infant interaction in drug-abusing women.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to expand our knowledge about factors in substance-abusing women, other than chronic drug abuse, that may influence maternal caregiving behaviors. Specifically, the study explored relationships between maternal characteristics and mother-infant interaction in a sample of drug-abusing women to determine whether drug-addicted mothers' level of ego development affected mother-infant interaction at 1 month. Data collection occurred during a prenatal lab visit and 1 month postpartum and included a clinical interview, self-report on participants' addiction severity, clinical personality inventory, ego development test, and videotaped observation of mother-infant feeding interactions. Only ego development, and to a lesser degree psychological symptoms associated with substance abuse, were found to be significant predictors of maternal-child interaction at 1 month. This points to the need to focus on building internal resources in providing substance abuse treatment and other services for substance-abusing mothers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of California, Los Angeles 90095-7033, USA.
authors.forename: N R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Fineman
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Beckwith
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Howard
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Espinosa
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004532:Ego; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007361:Intelligence Tests; D008875:Middle Aged; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D011247:Pregnancy; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012044:Regression Analysis; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D014888:Wechsler Scales