|
| Int'l Symposium - Attachment Parenting |
| Monday, May 31, 2004 |
| 3:00 PM–4:20 PM |
| Hampton |
| Area: DEV/CBM; Domain: Applied Research |
| Chair: Patrice Marie Miller (Salem State College) |
| Abstract: . |
| |
| Natural Parenting - Back to Basics in Infant Care: Review of Supportive Evidence |
| REGINE A. SCHON (University of Helsinki), Risto Vuorinen (University of Helsinki), Maarit Silven (University of Tampere) |
| Abstract: This review examines an age-old approach to parenting recently rediscovered in Western industrialized societies. The nurturing style in question has been called attachment parenting, empathic parenting, natural nurturing, and instinctive care. Its leading principle is to view the infant as capable of communicating his needs in subtle ways, with all expressed needs being taken seriously by the caregiver and fulfilled in a sensitive and consistent way. This results in the infant being kept in close physical contact to his mother for most of the day until the child starts to become more mobile, after which physical closeness gradually lessens. The child is breastfed on demand for up to 2-4 years and the process of weaning is child-led. Cosleeping of parents and child may continue for years. An overview of research from diverse areas regarding emotional as well as physiological aspects of early care provides ample evidence for the beneficial effects of natural parenting. A cross-cultural comparison of infant care practices and a look at human history reveal the widespread use of the investigated approach. It is concluded that “natural” parenting provides the human infant psychologically as well as physiologically with an ideal behavioral environment. |
| |
| Natural Parenting -- A Parenting Style Rediscovered in the Western World: Its Effects on Infant and Parents |
| REGINE A. SCHON (University of Helsinki), Maarit Silven (University of Tampere), Risto Vuorinen (University of Helsinki) |
| Abstract: This paper presents an international research project on the effects of natural parenting on infant and parents during the child's first year of life. A key characteristic of natural parenting is utmost sensitivity to the child's emotional and physical needs, resulting in extended breastfeeding on demand, extensive infant carrying on the caregiver's body, and cosleeping of parents and infant in the parental bed. Thirty families from nine Western industrialized countries were followed from their child's birth until the end of the child's first year of life. Questionnaire data on different aspects of the families' daily functioning was gathered throughout the year. Twenty-five of the families adhered in varying degrees to the natural parenting style; the remaining five represented the prevalent Western approach to childrearing. Results on how attachment parenting was realized in practice, as well as data on characteristics of adherents to this parenting style will be presented. The following topics will be discussed: the infant's cry and fuss behavior, physical and language development, health status, temperament, and use of attachment objects. Parent measures included parenting stress, quality of marital relationship, postnatal depression in the mothers, and mother-to- infant attachment. |
| |
| Effects of Parenting Practices on Infant Cortisol, Brain Development, and Mother-Infant Attachment |
| TRISH ELLIS HERR (Harvard University) |
| Abstract: Familial social environment influences the hypothalamic-anterior pituitary-adrenal cortex (HPA) system in the human infant. During the first year of life, presence of and physical contact with an attentive caretaker is associated with low levels of cortisol. Elevated levels of cortisol have been associated with brain damage in rodents and pathologies in adult humans. Social buffering may therefore prevent cortisol from reaching dangerously high concentrations, and lack of social buffering may therefore have negative repercussions on the developing HPA and central nervous systems. Social buffering requires attentive caretaking. An infant is biologically adapted to expect the constant physical caretaking environment within which human infants evolved. That environment is significantly different from the one in which many infants are raised today. This project investigates relationships between mother responsiveness and the infant HPA axis, the infant brain, and the security of mother-infant attachment. Mother-infant dyads from the United States and from the Toba of Argentina are being recruited. Mother responsiveness is being assessed through observation and questionnaires. Basal and reactive cortisol samples are being taken from each of the infants. Infants within the United States are undergoing tests of cognition and attachment security. Statistical analyses will be performed to analyze relationships between variables. |
| |
| Possible Effects of Cultural Variations in Care Practices |
| PATRICE MARIE MILLER (Salem State College) |
| Abstract: Much emotional and interactive behavior is learned during the first two years of life. At the same time, there is a great deal of recent research that suggests that this early learning has important implications for emotional behavior later in life. Evidence also suggests that aspects of this early experience become encoded in the brain. The current paper focuses on the possible effects of early experiences on both overt behavior and on brain structures. Two child rearing prototypes are contrasted: the EuroAmerican prototype, which stresses independence (sleeping alone, routine separations, scheduled feedings and a de-emphasis on physical contact) is compared to a more traditional prototype in which infants sleep with their parents, are held for long periods of the day, and are fed on demand. Evidence for the stressful nature of the independence promoting childcare style is reviewed using both human and animals studies. Implications for brain and later emotional development are discussed. |
|
| |