magazine issue 10 2014 / Issue 23

The influential child: It is not all up to the parents

• written by Reut Avinun
• edited by Reine van der Wal

The effect of the child's characteristics was also shown in a study that examined the home environment of 24-month-old toddlers (Saudino & Plomin, 1997). Observational methods and questionnaires were used in order to estimate the emotional and verbal responsivity of the mother, her involvement, avoidance of restriction, organization of the child's environment, provision of appropriate toys and stimulation. The results demonstrated that the genetic factors that influence the toddlers' attention characteristics, such as: attention span, persistence and goal directedness, also influence maternal involvement (child's genes  child's attention characteristics  maternal involvement and responsivity). Hence, parents appear to respond to the first buds of their toddler's personality. Interestingly, the child's attention characteristics did not seem to affect the home environment 12 months before, when children were one year old. Parents may need time in order to develop a clearer picture of their infant's attentional attributes and adjust the environment accordingly.

Are all parents similarly affected by children's behaviors?

Just like different children evoke different responses from parents, different parents react differently to the same child behavior. Indeed, research indicates that the interplay between children's and parents' characteristics can produce unique contexts for development. Infant's irritability (assessed when infants were 10 days old) was associated with postnatal depression at two-months in high-risk mothers (Murray, Stanley, Hooper, King, & Fiori-Cowley, 1996). Mothers were rated as being at high-risk for postnatal depression based on a predictive index that included questions regarding the experience of pregnancy, previous mood disorder and the quality of close relationships. When these vulnerable mothers had irritable infants they were more likely to fall into depression.

Furthermore, having an infant with poor motor functioning (i.e., poor quality of movement and activity level rated as either hypo- or hyper-aroused) increases the likelihood of postnatal depression in both low- and high-risk mothers. One suggested explanation for this pervasive effect was that these infants are less responsive to parental attention, which limits opportunities for satisfying and rewarding parent-infant interactions. In contrast with poor motor functioning, fussing and crying, although frustrating, may still be seen as attempts of the infant to communicate various needs, and consequently be treated with more understanding and patience by mothers who have the emotional resources to do so. The study demonstrates how the effect of the child on the parent can be conditional. Irritable infants require more attention, and the question is whether their caregivers have the resources to handle the additional challenge they present

A study that also demonstrated this point examined the effect of maternal self-efficacy on the link between infants' behavior and parenting (Leerkes & Crockenberg, 2002). Self-efficacy is defined as the belief in one’s ability to achieve a desired outcome. Contrary to self-esteem it is not a global evaluation of the self, but rather an evaluation regarding a specific ability. The results of the study showed that infant distress to limitations (e.g., not being able to reach a desired item) had a negative impact on maternal sensitivity (how the mother reacted to her infant's cues), but only when maternal self-efficacy was low. It is possible that low self-efficacy causes the mother to be less persistent when encountering a difficult task like a frustrated (and frustrating…), crying infant (Leerkes & Crockenberg, 2002). It is easy to imagine how parents who already doubt their parenting skills would feel after failing to soothe their infant. The failure in reaching the desired goal of a relaxed and quiet infant exacerbates the feeling of incompetence. These contingent influences of the child stress yet again the bidirectional facet of parent-child interactions. Children's effects are not independent of their parents' characteristics.