A prevention and promotion intervention program in the field of mother-infant relationship

The purpose of the study was to analyze the efficacy of early home-visiting intervention in enhancing the quality of mother-infant interaction in psychosocial risk and depressive risk mother-infant dyads. Thirty depressive risk, 28 psychosocial risk, and 33 low-depressed and low-risk mothers were randomly distributed between the Home Visiting Program and control groups. Attachment (Adult Attachment Interview; Main & Goldwyn, 1997) and maternal representations during pregnancy (Interview of Maternal Representations During Pregnancy; Ammaniti, Candelori, Pola, & Tambelli, 1999) and after the birth of the infant (Interview of Maternal Representations After the Birth; Ammaniti et al., 1999) were evaluated as well as depressive symptoms (Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale; Radloff, 1977) during the first year. Ratings of sensitivity, interference, affective state of the mother, cooperation, and infant self-regulation during mother-infant interactions were assessed at 3, 6, and 12 months. Results showed the efficacy of the home-visiting program in improving sensitive maternal behaviors toward the child after 6 months of intervention.