"MOODY BLUES": Affect Interpretation of Infant Facial Expressions and Negative Affect in Mothers of Preterm and Term Infants

TL;DRAbstract

Preterm birth places infants at increased risk for adverse developmental outcomes, with selfand affect regulation problems among the most important impairments.However, few studies have empirically examined maternal interpretation of infant affect in mothers of pre-and term infants.The current study examines how negative affect of mothers of preterm and term infants is associated with their interpretation of infant facial expressions.One hundred and sixty-eight mothers with their infants (64 term and 104 preterm) participated.Seven days after birth, mothers completed the UWIST Mood Adjective Checklist (UMACL; Matthews, Jones, & Chamberlain, 1990) to assess maternal negative affect.During a home visit, six months after birth, mothers additionally completed a task developed to measure infant affect interpretation (Interpreting Facial Expressions of Emotions through Looking at Pictures task, IFEEL pictures task; Emde, Osofsky, & Butterfield, 1993).Mothers of preterm infants reported more

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