Family nurture intervention increases term age forebrain EEG activity: A multicenter replication trial.

Objective: This trial (RCT-2) sought to replicate the EEG findings of a randomized controlled trial of Family Nurture Intervention in the NICU (FNI-NICU) (RCT-1) comparing infants receiving standard care (SC) with infants receiving SC plus FNI .

Methods: RCT-2 (NCT02710474) was conducted at two NICUs. Subjects were randomly assigned to receive SC or FNI during their NICU stay.

Preterm infant heart rate is lowered after Family Nurture Intervention in the NICU: Evidence in support of autonomic conditioning.

Background: Cardiac complications after premature birth are associated with negative long-term consequences to health. The Family Nurture Intervention (FNI) has been designed to support mother-infant parasympathetic calming sessions in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). FNI has shown neurodevelopmental and autonomic benefit across infant development.

The Welch Emotional Connection Screen: Adapting observational methods to pediatric primary care via resident training.

The Welch Emotional Connection Screen (WECS) is a novel instrument that is a brief, practicable, evidenced-based observational screening tool for assessing relationship health between parent and child. The WECS requires observing 2-3 min of face-to-face interactions between parent and child, without toys, prompts, paradigms or technology. Here, we describe a translational project from the coding lab to the primary care provider via a residency training program conducted with 50 residents during a 30-day developmental and behavioral pediatrics medical resident education rotation.

The practical utility of the Welch Emotional Connection Screen for rating parent-infant relational health.

Emotional Connection (EC) measured by the Welch Emotional Connection Screen (WECS) was related to the Parent-Infant Interaction Rating System (PIIRS), a 5-point adaptation of the rating system developed for the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (e.g., NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 1999, Developmental Psychology, 35, 1399).

Investigation of a developmental pathway from infant anger reactivity to childhood inhibitory control and ADHD symptoms: interactive effects of early maternal caregiving.

Background: ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder with a complex pathogenesis. Individual differences in temperamental reactivity - in particular, anger reactivity - are predictive of ADHD. The goal of this study was to examine the moderating (maternal caregiving behaviors; MCB) and mediating (inhibitory control) variables of reactivity using a 9-year multimethod prospective longitudinal design.

Autonomic regulation of preterm infants is enhanced by Family Nurture Intervention.

Preterm infants have maturational delays in several neurobehavioral systems. This study assesses the impact of the Family Nurture Intervention (FNI) in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) on the maturation of autonomic regulation of preterm infants. Preterm infants born at 26-34 weeks postmenstrual age (PMA) were assigned to groups receiving either standard care (SC) or SC plus FNI, using a randomized controlled trial design.

Validation study showed that ratings on the Welch Emotional Connection Screen at infant age six months are associated with child behavioural problems at age three years.

Aim: The emotional connection between mothers and infants born preterm has been associated with positive behaviour. The aim of this study was to examine the longitudinal association between emotional connection at six months of age and behavioural problems at three years.

Methods: This study was carried out by the University of North Texas, USA and comprised 49 mothers and infants from a longitudinal investigation of family interaction and infant development conducted in 1994-1997.

The Welch Emotional Connection Screen: validation of a brief mother-infant relational health screen.

Aim: The Welch Emotional Connection Screen (WECS), assesses mother-infant Emotional Connection in clinical settings. It includes: Attraction, Vocal Communication, Facial Communication, Sensitivity/Reciprocity and clinical decision of Emotional Connection (yes/no). We tested concurrent and construct validity of the WECS and associations with behavioural and physiological measures in preterm infants.

Infant temperament reactivity and early maternal caregiving: independent and interactive links to later childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms.

Background: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with origins early in life. There is growing evidence that individual differences in temperament reactivity are predictive of ADHD symptoms, yet little is known about the relations between temperament reactivity in early infancy and later ADHD symptoms or the combined effect of reactivity with early environmental factors on ADHD symptom development. Using a 9-year prospective longitudinal design, this study tested the independent and interactive contributions of infant reactivity and maternal caregiving behaviors (MCB) on parent- and teacher-reported childhood ADHD symptoms.

Early Caregiving and Human Biobehavioral Development: A Comparative Physiology Approach.

A large and growing body of evidence demonstrates associations between quality of the early caregiving environment and risk for stress-related illness across the lifespan. The recent research examining associations between early caregiving environments and subsequent development is reviewed, with particular attention to early programming and subsequent malleability of systems underlying stress responsivity. A developmental comparative physiology model is suggested; one in which postnatal programming and phenotypic plasticity act in concert as mechanisms underlying the persisting effects of early care environments for biobehavioral outcomes.

Emergent patterns of risk for psychopathology: The influence of infant avoidance and maternal caregiving on trajectories of social reticence.

The current study investigated the influential role of infant avoidance on links between maternal caregiving behavior and trajectories at risk for psychopathology. A sample of 153 children, selected for temperamental reactivity to novelty, was followed from infancy through early childhood. At 9 months, infant avoidance of fear-eliciting stimuli in the laboratory and maternal sensitivity at home were assessed.

Family Nurture Intervention in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit improves social-relatedness, attention, and neurodevelopment of preterm infants at 18 months in a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Preterm infants are at high risk for adverse neurodevelopmental and behavioral outcomes. Family Nurture Intervention (FNI) in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is designed to counteract adverse effects of separation of mothers and their preterm infants. Here, we evaluate effects of FNI on neurobehavioral outcomes.

Depression and anxiety symptoms of mothers of preterm infants are decreased at 4 months corrected age with Family Nurture Intervention in the NICU.

Preterm delivery can precipitate maternal psychological morbidities. Family Nurture Intervention (FNI) was designed to minimize these by facilitating the emotional connection between mother and infant, beginning early in the infant's neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) stay. We examined depression and anxiety symptoms of mothers of preterm infants at 4 months infant corrected age (CA).

Longitudinal trajectories of social reticence with unfamiliar peers across early childhood.

Behavioral inhibition is a temperament assessed in the toddler period via children's responses to novel contexts, objects, and unfamiliar adults. Social reticence is observed as onlooking, unoccupied behavior in the presence of unfamiliar peers and is linked to earlier behavioral inhibition. In the current study, we assessed behavioral inhibition in a sample of 262 children at ages 2 and 3, and then assessed social reticence in these same children as they interacted with an unfamiliar, same-age, same-sex peer at 2, 3, 4, and 5 years of age.

Anger and Positive Reactivity in Infancy: Effects on Maternal Report of Surgency and Attention Focusing in Early Childhood.

We examined two aspects of temperamental approach in early infancy, positive reactivity and anger, and their unique and combined influences on maternal reports of child surgency and attention focusing at 4 years of age. One hundred and fourteen infants were observed for their positive reactions to novel stimuli at 4 months, and their anger expressions during arm restraint at 9 months. Child surgency and attention focusing at age 4 years were assessed by maternal report.

Maternal Caregiving Moderates the Relation Between Temperamental Fear and Social Behavior with Peers.

Temperament works in combination with a child's environment to influence early socioemotional development. We examined whether maternal caregiving behavior at infant age 9 months moderated the relation between infant temperamental fear (9 months) and observations of children's social behavior with an unfamiliar peer at age 2 in a typically-developing sample of 155 children. When infants received lower quality maternal caregiving, temperamental fear was inversely related to observed social engagement and aggression.

The Relations between Infant Negative Reactivity, Non-Maternal Childcare, and Children's Interactions with Familiar and Unfamiliar Peers.

The present study examined the influence of children's experiences during non-maternal childcare on their behavior towards unfamiliar peers. Participants included children classified as negatively reactive at 4 months of age (n = 52) and children not negatively reactive (n = 61), who were further divided into those who experienced non-maternal care and those who did not. Children were observed during childcare at 24 months of age and in the laboratory with an unfamiliar peer at 24 and 36 months of age, where their wariness, dysregulation and social engagement were assessed.

Beyond Licking and Grooming: Maternal Regulation of Infant Stress in the Context of Routine Care.

Rodent epigenetic models of early maternal care have demonstrated that natural variations in maternal behavior shape the development of stress reactivity and social behavior in offspring. Rodent models have also revealed the "hidden" regulatory functions of specific dimensions of maternal behavior. Here we present research that has extended rodent models of early care to the study of biobehavioral development in human infants.

Mother and child interpretations of threat in ambiguous situations: relations with child anxiety and autonomic responding.

This study examined maternal and child interpretive bias to threat (IBT) during dyadic conversation, child physiological reactivity and regulation during dyadic conversation, and maternal report of child anxiety in a community sample of 35 mothers and their 8- to 10-year-old children. Mothers and children discussed one neutral and six ambiguous scenarios, which were subsequently coded for frequency of maternal and child initiation, minimization, and expansion of threat-related themes. Child electrocardiogram data were collected during these conversations and maternal reports of child anxiety and internalizing problems were obtained.

Attention biases to threat link behavioral inhibition to social withdrawal over time in very young children.

Behaviorally inhibited children display a temperamental profile characterized by social withdrawal and anxious behaviors. Previous research, focused largely on adolescents, suggests that attention biases to threat may sustain high levels of behavioral inhibition (BI) over time, helping link early temperament to social outcomes. However, no prior studies examine the association between attention bias and BI before adolescence.

Longitudinal stability of temperamental exuberance and social-emotional outcomes in early childhood.

The goals of the current study were to investigate the stability of temperamental exuberance across infancy and toddlerhood and to examine the associations between exuberance and social-emotional outcomes in early childhood. The sample consisted of 291 4-month-olds followed at 9, 24, and 36 months and again at 5 years of age. Behavioral measures of exuberance were collected at 9, 24, and 36 months.

Ordinary variations in human maternal caregiving in infancy and biobehavioral development in early childhood: A follow-up study.

Rodent models of early caregiving find that pups reared by dams providing low levels of early stimulation subsequently display heightened stress reactivity and social aggression. We examined these effects in humans by investigating the effects of early caregiving on markers of biobehavioral development at ages 2 and 3 years. This study extended the findings reported by Hane and Fox (Hane and Fox [2006] Psychol.

Behavioral reactivity and approach-withdrawal bias in infancy.

Seven hundred seventy-nine infants were screened at 4 months of age for motor and emotional reactivity. At age 9 months, infants who showed extreme patterns of motor and negative (n = 75) or motor and positive (n = 73) reactivity and an unselected control group (n = 86) were administered the Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery, and baseline electroencephalogram data were collected. Negatively reactive infants showed significantly more avoidance than positively reactive infants and displayed a pattern of right frontal electroencephalogram asymmetry.