HEY MOM, LOOK AT ME

The degree to which infant and maternal characteristics were related t o maternal psychological distress and play competence was examined in 40 mother preterm and full-term dyads. Measures of maternal psychologi cal distress, self-efficacy, infant temperament, and mother-infant int eraction in a play situation, were obtained at 4 months corrected for prematurity. Results revealed that maternal self-efficacy was the stro ngest correlate of maternal psychological distress but was not related to maternal play competence. Interaction effects for unadaptable temp erament and infant behavioral involvement were found in the regression s predicting both maternal psychological distress and maternal play co mpetence. Mothers of more adaptable and less behaviorally involved inf ants reported greater psychological distress and exhibited greater pla y competence than mothers of more adaptable and involved infants. The results suggest that a lack of concordance between mothers' perception s of their infants' behavior and actual behavioral experiences adverse ly affects mothers' affect and the quality of their play interactions.