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Journal of Pediatric Psychology Advance Access published online on October 13, 2008
Journal of Pediatric Psychology, doi:10.1093/jpepsy/jsn110
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Pediatric Psychology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Maternal Emotional Availability and Infant Pain-related Distress

Laila Din, MA1, Rebecca Pillai Riddell, PhD, C. Psych1,2 and Stuart Gordner, MD, FRCP2,3

1Department of Psychology, York University, 2Department of Psychiatry Research, The Hospital for Sick Children, and 3Department of Pediatrics, University of Toronto

All correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Laila Din, The O.U.C.H. Laboratory, York University, 038J Atkinson, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario, M3J 1P3. E-mail: ldin{at}yorku.ca


  Abstract

Objectives The current study investigated the relationships between maternal emotional availability and infant pain expressions. Methods A group of 73 mother–infant dyads were recruited prior to their routine immunization appointment and were subsequently filmed. Results Analyses revealed that maternal nonintrusiveness was related to lower infant pain expressions both immediately and 1 min following needle. In addition, maternal sensitivity and overall emotional availability were related to lower infant pain expressions 1 min after needle. Conclusions These results suggest that intrusive caregiving behaviors can increase infant pain reactivity and hinder the regulation of pain-related distress. On the other hand, sensitive and emotionally available caregiving help infants to regulate their pain-related distress. The results support that infant pain expressions are related to the quality of maternal caregiving.

Key words: immunizations; infant pain-related distress; maternal emotional availability; maternal interactive behaviors.

Received June 12, 2008; revision received September 25, 2008; accepted September 26, 2008


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