Maternal prenatal felt security and infant health at birth interact to predict infant fussing and crying at 12 months postpartum.

Infants born with medical problems are at risk for less optimal developmental outcomes. This may be, in part, because neonatal medical problems are associated with maternal distress, which may adversely impact infants. However, the reserve capacity model suggests that an individual's bank of psychosocial resources buffers the adverse effects of later-encountered stressors. This prospective longitudinal study examined whether preexisting maternal psychosocial resources, conceptualized as felt security in close relationships, moderate the association between neonatal medical problems and infant fussing and crying 12 months postpartum. Maternal felt security was measured by assessing its indicators in 5,092 pregnant women. At birth, infants were classified as healthy or having a medical problem. At 12 months, experience sampling was used to assess daily maternal reports of fussing and crying in 135 mothers of infants who were healthy or had medical problems at birth. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that attachment, relationship quality, self-esteem, and social support can be conceptualized as indicators of a single felt security factor. Multiple regression analyses revealed that prenatal maternal felt security interacts with infant health at birth to predict fussing and crying at 12 months. Among infants born with medical problems, higher felt security predicted decreased fussing and crying. Maternal felt security assessed before birth dampens the association between neonatal medical problems and subsequent infant behavior. This supports the hypothesis that psychosocial resources in reserve can be called upon in the face of a stressor to reduce its adverse effects on the self or others.

Bias and accuracy in close relationships: an integrative review.

Intimates typically are positively biased in their relationship evaluations. Given this fact, how can intimates regulate their esteem needs about their relationships and still function effectively, without risking later regret and disappointment? We address this issue by first reviewing work showing that because bias and accuracy are independent, they can co-exist. We next show how bias and accuracy are subject to different evaluative motives, relationship evaluations, and situations. It is argued that the pursuit of important goals is a time when people are motivated to feel good about their relationships. This is a time when relationship judgments are positively biased and relatively inaccurate. However, important choice points in the relationship are times when people are motivated to both accurately understand their relationships and to feel good about their relationships. These dual needs can be simultaneously met by becoming more accurate in epistemic-related relationship judgments while being more positively biased in esteem-related relationship judgments.

Identification and the commitment shift: accounting for gender differences in relationship illusions.

Previous work revealed gender differences in relationship illusions. Women, and not men, perceived their dating partners more favorably than their partners' self-perceptions. In two studies, the authors replicated these findings and showed they are moderated by relationship commitment but not by relationship satisfaction. Dating men low in commitment devalued their partners' virtues, whereas those high in commitment exaggerated their partners' virtues compared to their partners' self-perceptions. In contrast, dating women showed relationship illusions irrespective of their commitment. In Study 2, similar results were obtained with relationship-specific identification. Moreover, men's commitment mediated the effect of identification with the relationship. This suggests that gender differences in relationship identities exist at a general level and that men need to identify with and then commit to a specific relationship before they exhibit pro-relationship thinking, which women exhibit as general dispositions.