Professional Documents
Culture Documents
procedure, Tronick et al. 1978) the infants of impaired mothers became less
positive in affect and showed more dazed looks.
(Early MotherInfant Interaction, p. 24, Academic Dissertation, University of
Tampere, 2006)
3. Effect on Emotional Development
The importance of the mother-infant interaction for the emotional
development of the child is well recognized as is the fact that attachment
security is protective against poor developmental outcomes. The attachment
theory emphasizes the importance of intimate emotional bonds between
individuals. The first manifestation of such a bond is the need for physical
proximity of an infant with the caregiver. This increases the infants chance
of protection and survival and the caregiver is said to operate as a secure
base and a safe haven for the infant.
(Healthy mother-infant relationship: Assessment of risk in mothers with
serious mental illness, p.3 North Metropolitan Area Health Service, Mental
Health, WA Department of Health)
4. Effect on Academic Performance
Among five-year-olds in child care, those who received more sensitive and
stimulating care in the first three years exhibit, on average, higher cognitive
ability. Four-and-a-half-year-old children in child care who had received higher
quality (sensitive & stimulating) caregiving from six to 36 months had higher
cognitive ability scores in letter-word identification, applied problem-solving,
language comprehension, and short-term memory, regardless of concurrent
care-giving.
(National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Early Child Care
Research Network, Does Quality of Child Care Affect Child Outcomes at Age
4 1/2?, Developmental Psychology 39, No.3 (2003): 451-469.)
5. Mothers are strongest role models for children's education
Mothers have a greater impact on their children's educational achievements
than fathers, a new study has found. Maternal influence was found to be the