The experience of intersubjectivity in the mother-infant relationship
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A mixed methods study to explore the experience of the mother-infant relationship for both mother and infant and what this means for health visitor practice: focusing on experiences of companionship, moments of meeting/connection, and mother’s sense making of their infant’s internal world.
IRAS ID
238789
Contact name
Elizabeth Milne
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Bradford
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
It has been suggested that infants’ relationships with their caregivers are central to infants’ mental health. This mixed methods study aims to explore experiences of the mother-infant relationship, to improve understanding of mothers’ and infants’ experiences so that interventions provided by services are effective. Mothers’ reflections on their experience of their relationship with their infant will be explored with particular foci on mothers’ perceptions of companionship, moments of meeting/connection, and how mothers impute their infant’s internal world. The relationship between these experiences and their Bethlem Mother-Infant Interaction Scale scores (BMIIS), mind-mindedness and CARE-Index will be considered. These measures will inform the qualitative, thick description of the infant’s experience in interaction with their mother. Mothers’ experiences will be collated from semi-structured interviews which will include mothers reviewing a video of their interaction with their infant. \nHealth visitors provide both universal and targeted services to families and supporting the parent-infant relationship is central to their service delivery (Public Health England 2016). Health Visitors’ responses to the findings of mothers’ and infants’ experiences will be ascertained via focus groups. \nThe research will compare responses from British-White women and British-South East Asian women. It will focus on women with low SES. Women of minority ethnic groups and of low SES are under-represented in research regarding parenting and subjective experiences.\nIt is proposed that the research will recruit from Keighley by health visitors. In total 10 women, 5 British-White and 5 British-South East Asian, with their babies, need to participate in the research. The mothers will choose where the interviews take place. Mothers will be interviewed twice, for approximately one hour each time. At the end of the first interview they will be videoed for 5 minutes interacting with their child and they will be shown this video at the second interview.\n
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/YH/0394
Date of REC Opinion
14 Nov 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion