MATERNAL PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR INFANTS: DO PERCEPTIONS PREDICT MATERNAL MOTIVATION TO NURTURE?

Forty-five mothers of infants two to five months of age were asked about their perceptions of their infants. The possible link between those maternal perceptions and the mothers ’ motivation to engage in the nurturing tasks that infant care requires was explored. Also examined was the possible association between maternal perceptions and the extent to which the mothers were bothered by their infants ’ care-challenging behaviors of crying, feeding, sleep patterns, vomiting, and elimination. The independent variable, maternal perception, was measured by (a) the Neonatal Perception Inventory (NPI, Broussard & Hartner, 1970); and (b) mothers ’ sense of their infants as revealed by the reflective (Slade, 2005), experience-connected (Bucci, 1997, pp. 173-94), and infant-inspired expressions in their responses to a semi-structured interview. The semi-structured interview was composed of questions that asked the mothers about their infants ’ appearance, sound and cry, signaling, and temperament. Dependent variables, maternal motivation and maternal degree of bother, were measured by a self-report, motivation-to-nurture inventory based on intrinsic motivation constructs (Deci & Ryan, 1985); and by the Degree of Bother Inventory (DBI, Broussard & Hartner, 1971). It was hypothesized that maternal perception would predict degree of maternal motivation to nurture and the extent to which a mother is bothered by care-challenging infant behaviors. Results of the regression analyses were inconclusive due to self-report and narrative measurement limitations. However, the DBI and the Maternal Motivation Inventory (MTN) were significantly correlated and may be measuring similar constructs. ii