ArticlePloS one2018
What's going on in my baby's mind? Mothers' executive functions contribute to individual differences in maternal mentalization during mother-infant interactions.
Article in PloS one, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Impacts of the Attachment and Child Health (ATTACHInternational journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Trial
- Attention control in the peripartum period: a longitudinal study.Archives of women's mental health · 2025Article
- Parental representations after preterm birth: a narrative review.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Review
- Ecological validity in measuring parents' executive function.Child development perspectives · 2022Article
- The Dutch Infant Caregiving Assessment Scales: Psychometric properties in mothers with and without a severe psychiatric disorder.International journal of methods in psychiatric research · 2022Article
- Early childhood caries: Are maternal psychosocial factors, decision-making ability, and caries status risk indicators for children in a sub-urban Nigerian population?BMC oral health · 2021Article
- Neonatal Risk, Maternal Sensitive-Responsiveness and Infants' Joint Attention: Moderation by Stressful Contexts.Journal of abnormal child psychology · 2020Article
- The association between executive functioning and parental stress and psychological distress is mediated by parental reflective functioning in mothers with substance use disorder.Stress and health : journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress · 2019Article
- Tempering Temperament: Exploring the Influence of Maternal Mind-Mindedness on Infant Temperament in Shaping Socioemotional Wellbeing.Infancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant StudiesArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Maternal mentalization refers to a mother's capacity to understand mental-states of herself and her child and to regard her child as a psychological agent. In mother-infant interactions, this capacity is commonly conceptualized as maternal mind-mindedness, which can be divided into two dimensions: appropriate and nonattuned interpretations of the infants' mental-states. Appropriate mind-mindedness refers to interpretations that seem to be compatible with the infant's behaviors, whereas nonattuned mind-mindedness refers to noncompatible interpretations. The aim of this study was to investigate the cognitive mechanisms that contribute to mind-mindedness. Specifically, we investigated the role of executive functions in appropriate and nonattuned mind-mindedness, and the moderating roles of two infant-related factors, prematurity (as a stressful context) and child temperament (as a context of unpredictability and negative emotionality). To this end, mother-infant free play interactions were coded for mind-mindedness in a sample of 102 mothers and their 6-month-old infants (61 preterm, 41 full-term). When children were 66-months old, mothers completed cognitive tasks that assessed working memory updating, resistance to interference, response inhibition, and shifting. Appropriate mind-mindedness was positively associated with updating, and this link was stronger when infant temperament was rated as more difficult. Furthermore, among mothers of full-term infants, mothers' resistance to interference was negatively associated with nonattuned mind-mindedness. This link was not evident in the stressful context of premature birth. Mothers' response inhibition and shifting were not associated with either of the mind-mindedness dimensions. Implications on understanding variability in maternal mentalization during mother-infant interactions and the roles of executive functions in parenting are discussed.
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