Figaro

The interaction between mothers and their children provides the basis for the healthy development of the child and helps it to build up effective self-regulation mechanisms. Studies have already shown that the well-being and health of the mother during pregnancy in particular can have a direct influence on mother-child interaction. However, the extent to which the well-being and health of the mother shortly after birth and during the first months of the child's life are also linked to the quality of interaction and bonding as well as the developing self-regulation mechanisms of children is still largely unclear.

This study aims to investigate the complex interplay between maternal well-being, mother-child interaction and bonding as well as the early socio-emotional development of children. To this end, mother-child interactions in a free phase and during the still-face paradigm according to Tronick et al. (1978) are observed and analysed. Factors that influence the well-being of mother and child, such as stress, will be mapped physiologically (here: salivary and hair cortisol) and subjectively using questionnaires. In addition, other important factors influencing the health of mother and child will be surveyed: perceived attachment to the child, mother's depression, mother's experience of self-efficacy, maternal and child personality and character traits, critical life events and breastfeeding behavio

For the study, we are looking for mothers and children who have reached the 4th month of life at the time of the survey (in the case of premature babies, we refer to this as the corrected age). We are explicitly looking for both full-term babies (i.e. born after the 37th week of pregnancy) and premature babies (i.e. born between the 26th and 37th week of pregnancy, minimum birth weight of 800g). Mothers should have reached the age of 18 and give their written consent to the study prior to participation, for which sufficient knowledge of German is required. If the children are known to have serious illnesses and/or congenital developmental disorders, participation is unfortunately not possible.

If you are interested, please contact us by e-mail (FIGARO@hhu.de) or telephone (+49(0) 211/81 14566) and we will send you further information about our study.