Definition
Maternal sensitivity: mothers’ ability to respond in predictable, coherent, warm, and accepting manner to infant signals, emotions, and behaviors in the context of daily interactions.
Introduction
Maternal sensitivity can be defined as mothers’ ability to respond in a predictable, coherent, warm, and accepting manner to infant signals, emotions, and behaviors in the context of normal, daily interactions (Ainsworth et al. 1978). Some of the first maternal sensitivity researchers attributed a specific role to sensitive responses in specific cases where children are alarmed, tired, sick, or otherwise in search of help in circumstances that require regulation (Ainsworth et al. 1978; Bowlby 1969), but it has become increasingly evident that the quality of maternal behavior and responses in the context of normative, daily, and relatively banal...
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References
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Tarabulsy, G.M., Savage, LE., Bernier, A. (2016). Maternal Sensitivity and Human Development. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_534-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_534-1
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