Mothers' representations of relationships with their children: Relations with mother characteristics and feeding sensitivity

Objective: To examine parenting representations and feeding interactions of mothers and their children with cerebral palsy (CP) and the extent to whic h mothers' representations predict their feeding behavior beyond other moth er and child characteristics. Methods: Fifty-eight mothers of children with mild to severe CP ages 16 to 52 months were interviewed with an adapted form of the Parent Development I nterview (PDI). Correlation and regression analyses examined relations betw een representations (compliance with parental requests, achievement, secure base, enmeshment, worry about the child's future, and emotional pain), dem ographic characteristics, diagnostic severity, and developmental status. Results: Mothers with more compliance-related concerns showed less sensitiv ity, acceptance, and delight during feeding. Mothers experiencing more emot ional pain displayed more hostility. Mothers reporting worries about the ch ild displayed sensitivity and delight. Representations of compliance-relate d experiences and worry about the child's future accounted for significant increments in explained variance in mothers' feeding behavior, after we con trolled for children's skills and abilities. Conclusions: Findings suggest maternal representations of relationships are associated with caregiving behavior for mothers of children with CP apart from other child and maternal characteristics and may be a useful focus for research and practice related to parenting children with special needs.