Abstract
There is increasing recognition that young children’s self-regulation provides a foundation for overall wellness later in life. Yet, infants reared in poverty may exhibit less-developed self-regulation compared to their more economically-advantaged peers. Factors associated with poverty that may influence early self-regulation include maternal depression and parenting self-efficacy. However, few researchers have examined how both parenting self-efficacy and maternal depression may affect young children’s self-regulation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the associations among maternal depression, parenting self-efficacy, and infant self-regulation for a racially diverse sample of 142 mother–infant dyads living in low-income households in the United States. Maternal depressive symptomatology was determined with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depressive Scale. Parenting self-efficacy was determined with a self-report measure, reflecting caregivers’ mindset or feelings reflecting competency as a parent of an infant. Infant self-regulation was measured by parental report of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire Short Form Effortful Control subscale. While maternal depressive symptomatology and self-efficacy were directly and significantly correlated with infant self-regulation, results of a mediation model suggested that parenting self-efficacy mediated the relationship between maternal depressive symptomatology and infant self-regulation. Lower maternal depressive symptomatology predicted better parenting self-efficacy, in turn predicting better infant self-regulation. This study increases our understanding of how early factors shape the self-regulation of infants reared in low-income homes—highlighting the potential role of targeting parenting self-efficacy for parenting interventions for mothers experiencing depressive symptoms.
Highlights
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We investigated infant self-regulation in low-income homes in the US.
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Maternal self-efficacy mediated depression and infant self-regulation relation.
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Lower maternal depression predicted better self-efficacy and better self-regulation.
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Data Availability
For this longitudinal study, data cleaning is still underway for later time points. However, data and code for the first three time points used in this study are clean can be made available by emailing the corresponding author.
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Author Contributions
R.A.B.: designed and executed the study, completed data analyses, and wrote the paper. P.J.S.: collaborated with the design and writing of the study. L.M.J.: collaborated with the design and writing of the study. J.M.D.: collaborated with the design of the study and editing of the final manuscript. J.A.R.L.: collaborated with the design of the study, statistical consultation, and editing of the final manuscript. M.R.G.: collaborated with the design of the study and editing of the final manuscript. K.M.P.: collaborated with the design of the study and editing of the final manuscript.
Funding
This work was supported by the Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy of The Ohio State University (study design, data analysis, data interpretation, writing of report) and in part by the National Institute of Nursing Research of the National Institutes of Health (F31NR017103 and T32NR014225), and the Jonas Foundation. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy, National Institutes of Health, or the Jonas Foundation.
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Bates, R.A., Salsberry, P.J., Justice, L.M. et al. Relations of Maternal Depression and Parenting Self-Efficacy to the Self-Regulation of Infants in Low-Income Homes. J Child Fam Stud 29, 2330–2341 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-020-01763-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-020-01763-9