title: Associations between first-time expectant women's representations of attachment and their physiological reactivity to infant cry.
abstract: Associations among 53 primiparous women's Adult Attachment Interview classifications (secure-autonomous vs. insecure-dismissing) and physiological and self-reported responses to infant crying were explored. Heart rate, skin conductance levels, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) were recorded continuously. In response to the cry, secure-autonomous women demonstrated RSA declines, consistent with approach-oriented responses. Insecure-dismissing women displayed RSA and electrodermal increases, consistent with behavioral inhibition. Furthermore, insecure-dismissing women rated the cries as more aversive than secure-autonomous women. Nine months postpartum, secure-autonomous women, who prenatally manifested an approach-oriented response to the unfamiliar cry stimulus, were observed as more sensitive when responding to their own distressed infant, whereas women classified prenatally as insecure-dismissing were observed as less sensitive with their own infants.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, OR 97403-1227, USA. jcablow@uoregon.edu
authors.forename: Jennifer C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Ablow
authors.forename: Amy K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Marks
authors.forename: S Shirley
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Feldman
authors.forename: Lynne C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Huffman
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003448:Crying / Q000523:psychology*; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response / Q000502:physiology; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008425:Maternal Behavior / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D009034:Mother-Child Relations / Q000523:psychology*; D009769:Object Attachment; D011247:Pregnancy; D037841:Pregnant People / Q000523:psychology*; D012119:Respiration; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology; D013997:Time Factors