Maternal sensitivity in rural Andean and Amazonian Peru

• Published in: Attachment & human development 2021-04, Vol.23 (2), p.134-149
• Main Authors: Fourment, Katherine, Nóblega, Magaly, Conde, Gabriela, del Prado, Juan Nuñez, Mesman, Judi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: indigenous community; maternal sensitivity; multiple caregivers; Peru
• ISSN: 1461-6734; 1469-2988
• DOI: 10.1080/14616734.2020.1828515

In the current study, we observed 12 mothers with a 4-21-month-old infant for around 3 hours during their daily activities such as feeding, bathing, and soothing in the multiple-caregiver cultural contexts of rural Peru. Overall, sensitivity levels were high, with an average of 7.33 (out of 9), and seven of the twelve mothers scoring in the high range (scores 7-9), and the remaining five in the good-enough range (scores 5-6). A qualitative description of sensitive responsiveness is presented through representative examples. Notable patterns were flexibility in caregiving routines that allow for very child-centered maternal behavior; mothers' ability to multitask, combining household and agricultural work with high sensitive responsiveness to their infants' signals; the presence of multiple caregivers that ensured that the infants were well attended when mothers were temporarily unavailable; and what seems to be a culturally normative tendency to be sensitively responsive to very young children.