Tempering Temperament: Exploring the Influence of Maternal Mind‐Mindedness on Infant Temperament in Shaping Socioemotional Wellbeing

TL;DR

This study explores how infant temperament and maternal mind-mindness together influence a baby's socioemotional wellbeing.

Contribution

It reveals that maternal mind-mindness moderates the impact of infant temperament on socioemotional development.

Findings

Maternal mind-mindness moderates the relationship between infant negative affect and socioemotional wellbeing.

Effortful control in infants predicts better socioemotional outcomes regardless of parenting style.

The study supports the differential susceptibility hypothesis in socioemotional development.

Abstract

Although several studies independently explore temperament and parenting, research on connections between temperament and mind‐mindedness are largely absent. This study examined relationships between maternal mind‐mindedness and infant temperament on infant socioemotional wellbeing. Participants comprised culturally diverse mother‐infant dyads (n = 63; 52.38% girls). Infants, aged 4‐ (n = 32) and 8‐months‐old (n = 31), and their mothers completed a free‐play task. While direct relationships between mind‐mindedness and wellbeing were not supported, an indirect interactional relationship between mind‐mindedness and temperament on wellbeing was supported. Mind‐mindedness moderated the relationship between negative affect and socioemotional development whereby infants with higher negative affect who received higher appropriate comments had better socioemotional wellbeing than their lower negative affect counterparts. This highlights that, for higher negative affect infants, appropriate comments are particularly influential in enhancing wellbeing. Effortful control predicted wellbeing, suggesting that specific temperament traits experience optimal socioemotional development independently of mind‐minded parenting. These findings broaden research knowledge regarding the differential susceptibility hypothesis. Overall, this study has shown how wellbeing can be affected by the temperamental dispositions that infants bring into the world as well as the parenting experiences that they encounter.

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