Maternal sensitivity refers to a mother's ability to keenly perceive and understand the underlying meaning behind her infant's behavioral signals and respond in a timely and appropriate manner. Recent research shows that children are happier in the future when their mothers are highly sensitive!
A Mother's Early Positive Care Has a Significant Impact on a Child's Emotional and Social Development. (Photo / Provided by Heho Health)
This study, published in the journal Developmental Science, points out that if a mother demonstrates high sensitivity during interactions with her infant, the infant's brain becomes more active when seeing happy faces, especially in the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for self-control and emotional regulation. This suggests that early positive care from mothers has a significant impact on the emotional and social development of children.
Previous research has often focused on the adverse effects of negative care, such as neglect or abuse, but this study emphasizes the importance of positive care. By analyzing data from a sample of 95 mother-infant pairs when the infants were 5 and 7 months old, researchers found that infants with highly sensitive mothers showed stronger brain responses to happy expressions. However, this response was limited to happy emotions; there was no similar enhanced response to angry or fearful faces, indicating that maternal sensitivity may particularly influence the shaping of positive social reactions in infants.
Recent studies show that children are happier in the future when their mothers are highly sensitive! (Photo / Provided by Heho Health)
In short, when a mother can accurately perceive and meet her child's needs, the child's brain is better equipped to receive feelings of happiness and joy and can quickly regulate responses to distress. This also reminds us of the importance of paying attention to maternal mental health to support maternal sensitivity in the parenting process.
