Emerging evidence suggests that exposure to unpredictable maternal sensory signals in caregiving behavior (characterized as entropy rate) during infancy affects child neurocognitive development. However, the research paradigm is new, and little is known regarding which parental characteristics are related to unpredictable sensory signals or how signal unpredictability is related to more traditional caregiving measurements. Moreover, the longitudinal effects of signal unpredictability on child development are understudied.

The aims of our study were 1) to examine how maternal mental health and selfregulation are associated with unpredictability of maternal sensory signals in caregiving behavior (Study I); 2) to investigate how unpredictable maternal sensory signals associate with maternal sensitivity (Study II) and 3) to explore whether unpredictable sensory signals relate to child self-regulation at 5 years of age (Study III). The study sample comprised mother-child dyads from the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study.

The main findings showed that higher maternal anxiety symptoms during the pre- and postnatal period together with low self-regulation capacity were associated with greater signal unpredictability during infancy. During the period of infancy to toddlerhood, unpredictable sensory signals and sensitivity were modestly correlated with each other. Exposure to unpredictable sensory signals, especially at very high levels, was associated with children’s poorer self-regulation at 5 years of age.

The findings suggest that the combination of high maternal anxiety symptoms and low self-regulation capacity seems to constitute a specific risk for higher unpredictability of maternal sensory signals in caregiving behavior. Results identify unpredictable sensory signals as a characteristic of parental care that is independent of quality measures, namely maternal sensitivity. Unpredictability of maternal sensory signals is a potentially important aspect of early caregiving behavior associated with the development of child self-regulation capacity.