Are parents doing better when they are together? A study on the association between parental sensitivity and family-level processes

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of one parent's presence on the quality of the interaction between the other parent and their three-month-old infant. Family interactions were observed in a sample of 69 two-parent families. Parental sensitivity was assessed during two sessions, first in a ‘dyadic’ context (D) and then in a ‘dyad within the triad’ context (DT). Subsequently, we compared maternal and paternal sensitivity in the D and DT contexts according to the quality of family functioning (‘high coordination’ versus ‘low coordination’). The results showed that parents were significantly more sensitive in the DT context than in the D context. This effect appeared to vary according to the quality of family alliance. Moreover, family alliance was globally associated with sensitive parenting. This study helps clarify the role of the triad as a protective factor for early infant–parent dyads.

Keywords:

• sensitivity
• family interaction
• family coordination
• early interaction

Acknowledgements

We thank Marion Tièche and Emiline Briand for their work with the CARE-Index coding, as well as Chloé Lavanchy-Scaiola for the coding of the FAAS.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Laura Udry-Jørgensen is a researcher and a clinical psychologist, specialised in family relationships, and particularly parental responsiveness. Research interests are focused on the perinatal period and interactions both at dyadic and triadic levels. She has been working for several years at the research unit of the Centre d’Etude de la Famille (University of Lausanne) as a research assistant and is currently working in clinical practice with children, adolescents, and families.

Hervé Tissot obtained a Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of Geneva in 2013. He currently works as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Geneva. His research interests are the effect of maternal and paternal depression on family relationships, normative processes in the transition to parenthood, and the impact on marital and coparenting relations on child development. He is a specialist in the assessment of mother–father–infant triadic interactions.

France Frascarolo is a psychologist (Ph.D.) and co-director of the Research Unit of the Center for Family Study in Lausanne (Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois). She is also privat-docent in Lausanne University. She wrote several articles on family triad, father–mother–infant interactions, and development of communication.

Jean-Nicolas Despland is a doctor of medicine, psychiatrist, and psychotherapist FMH, full professor at the Faculty of Biology and Medicine of the University of Lausanne and Director of the University Institute of Psychotherapy Department of Psychiatry (Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, CHUV) in Lausanne. He began his career as a therapist and as a trainer in psychoanalytic psychotherapy field. He is a certified member of the European Federation of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. For 15 years he devoted himself to the study of the efficacy and processes that are associated with psychotherapy practised psychiatry and medicine. It bases on instruments to devalue qualitatively and quantitatively defense mechanisms, conflicting relational themes, interventions therapist, and non-verbal behaviour by micro analytical methods.

Prof. Nicolas Favez is a clinical psychology professor specialised in family and interpersonal relationships at the University of Geneva and is Co-Director of the research unit of the Centre d’Etude de la Famille (IUP, University of Lausanne). He worked for several years studying early father–mother–child interactions and his teaching relates to observation and assessment methodology and therapeutic work with families. He has carried out several research projects focused on the influence of the psychosocial context – especially family relationships – on child cognitive and affective development and on practitioner–parents relationships.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation under Grant 32003|B_125493 and Grant 100014_140602.