OBJECTIVE The aim was to examine how traumatic and stressful events, responses to violence, child characteristics, and mothering quality, as measured in middle childhood predict psychological distress and positive resources in adolescence. METHOD The participants were 65 Palestinian adolescents (17+/-.85 years; 52% girls), who had been studied during the First Intifada (T1), during the Palest...

Maternal love, which is at the core of maternal behavior, is essential for the mother–infant attachment relationship and is important for an infant’s development and mental health. In addition, maternal love plays important roles in promoting not only the infant’s resilience, but also the mother’s. Therefore, it is crucial to clarify the neural basis of maternal love and related behaviors to un...

Background Mothering co-occupations in caring for children with cerebral palsy (CP) are very challenging for mothers but play an important role in the daily life of children with CP.This study aimed to explore the mothering co-occupations process in caring for children with CP at home in an Iranian context. Materials and Methods A grounded theory approach was recruited using semi-structured i...

In the present study, linkages were examined between parental behaviors (maternal practices) at bedtime, emotional availability of mothering at bedtime, and infant sleep quality in a cross-sectional sample of families with infants between 1 and 24 months of age. Observations of maternal behaviors and maternal emotional availability were conducted independently by 2 sets of trained observers who...

There are many aspects of "mothering" that may provide information to the mammalian infant about environmental conditions during critical periods of development. One essential element of mothering involves the quantity and quality of milk that mothers provide for their infants, but little is known about the consequences of variation in milk production. Mother's milk may affect infant behavior b...

This study explores the role of cortisol and early life experiences in the regulation of maternal behavior and mood in teen and adult mothers. Primiparous mothers (n=119) (teen mothers < 19 years, n=42), young mothers (19-25 years, n= 4), and mature mothers, (>25 years, n=43) were assessed for their maternal behavior, mood, and hormonal profile at approximately 6 weeks postpartum. Outcome measu...

Maternal behavior has a significant individual variability, as mothers take care differently to their young based on their own breeding experience or age. In this parent-youth system, we investigated whether the young played a role as modulator of maternal behavior. For this, we evaluated how adoptive quail (unstressed) raised chicks coming from stressed female (PS) or not (NPS) thank a social ...

Individual differences in maternal behavior are affected by both early life experiences and oxytocin, but little is known about genetic variation in oxytocin genes and its effects on mothering. We examined two polymorphisms in the oxytocin peptide gene OXT (rs2740210 and rs4813627) and one polymorphism in the oxytocin receptor gene OXTR (rs237885) in 187 Caucasian mothers at six months postpart...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of transnational Latina mothers who immigrated to the United States without legal documentation or their children. DESIGN The study used a qualitative approach to collect data from eight transnational Latina mothers from South Florida during the summer of 2009. METHODS Data were collected using open-ended questions in one-on-o...