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A LONGITUDINAL EXAMINATION OF TODDLERS’ BEHAVIORAL CUES AS A FUNCTION OF SUBSTANCE‐ABUSING MOTHERS’ DISENGAGEMENT
Author(s) -
Rasmussen Hannah F.,
Borelli Jessica L.,
Decoste Cindy,
Suchman Nancy E.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
infant mental health journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.693
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1097-0355
pISSN - 0163-9641
DOI - 10.1002/imhj.21552
Subject(s) - disengagement theory , psychology , developmental psychology , operationalization , longitudinal study , narrative , medicine , gerontology , philosophy , linguistics , epistemology , pathology
As a group, substance‐abusing parents are at risk for maladaptive parenting. The association between substance abuse and parenting may result, in part, from parents’ emotional disengagement from the parent–child relationship, which makes perceiving and responding to children's cues more challenging. In this study, we examined whether substance‐abusing mothers’ levels of disengagement from their relationship with their children (ages 2–44 months), operationalized in two different ways using parenting narratives (representational and linguistic disengagement), prospectively predicted children's engagement and disengagement cues during a structured mother–child interaction. Within a sample of 29 mothers, we tested the hypotheses that greater maternal disengagement at Time 1 would predict a decrease in children's engagement and an increase in children's disengagement at Time 2. Results indicated that representational disengagement predicted a decrease in children's engagement cues whereas linguistic disengagement predicted an increase in children's disengagement cues. Results provide partial support for a reciprocal, iterative process in which mothers and children mutually adjust their emotional and behavioral disengagement with one another.