Child-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Pediatric Abdominal Pain Disorders Reduces Caregiver Anxiety in Randomized Clinical Trial.

Pediatric functional abdominal pain disorders (FAPD) are associated with elevated anxiety in youth and their caregivers, both contributing to an adverse impact on functioning in youth with FAPD. While a CBT approach (ie, Aim to Decrease Anxiety and Pain Treatment [ADAPT]) is known to improve health outcomes for youth, it is unknown if child-focused treatment improves caregiver anxiety. This secondary analysis of a larger randomized clinical trial examined if child-focused CBT (ADAPT) for pain and anxiety also impacts caregiver anxiety and explored the relation between caregiver anxiety and child symptoms (ie, pain, disability, anxiety) after treatment.

Maternal Accuracy for Children's Fearful Distress in Toddlerhood and Kindergarten: Moderation of a Serial Indirect Effect by Toddler Fearful Temperament.

Objective: Drawing on existing literature concerning the interrelations among toddler fearful temperament, maternal protective parenting, and maternal cognitions, the current study sought to test how mothers' abilities to predict their children's distress expressions and behaviors in future novel situations ("maternal accuracy"), may be maintained from toddlerhood to children's kindergarten year.

Design: A sample of 93 mother-child dyads completed laboratory assessments at child age 2 and were invited back for two laboratory visits during children's kindergarten year. Fearful temperament, age 2 maternal accuracy, and protective behavior were measured observationally at age 2, and children's social withdrawal and kindergarten maternal accuracy were measured observationally at the follow-up kindergarten visits.

The Influence of Caregiver Distress and Child Anxiety in Predicting Child Somatization in Youth with Functional Abdominal Pain Disorders.

Pediatric functional abdominal pain disorders (FAPD) are associated with adverse outcomes including increased somatization (e.g., heightened physiological sensations that include gastroenterological and non-gastroenterological symptoms) and increased functional disability.

The Relation between Specific Parenting Behaviors and Toddlers' Early Anxious Behaviors is Moderated by Toddler Cortisol Reactivity.

Differential susceptibility theory posits that neurobiological reactivity (e.g., cortisol levels) should be considered as an individual index of susceptibility to both positive and negative environments.

Mother-Toddler Cortisol Synchrony Moderates Risk of Early Internalizing Symptoms.

Cortisol synchrony is the degree to which mother-toddler cortisol levels are mutually regulated within a dyad. Synchrony's impact on toddler development is not well understood, so this study investigated how synchronous cortisol levels (reactivity and total concentration) in mother-toddler dyads moderates the association between risk factors (i.e.

Paternal Anxiety in Relation to Toddler Anxiety: The Mediating Role of Maternal Behavior.

Despite robust investigations examining the impact of maternal anxiety and parenting behaviors and child anxiety risk, less is understood about the impact of paternal anxiety and parenting behaviors on child anxiety risk, particularly within the broader family context. An Actor Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) was used to examine whether paternal anxiety longitudinally predicted child anxiety risk indirectly through maternal and paternal parenting behaviors, while controlling for maternal anxiety. Both fathers and mothers of 12- to 30-month-olds (n = 94) provided self-report of their anxiety and parenting behaviors.

Maternal anxiety and physiological reactivity as mechanisms to explain overprotective primiparous parenting behaviors.

In this study, we sought to determine whether the affective and physiological experience of primiparous, or first-time, motherhood is distinct from multiparous motherhood, how the child's level of inhibited temperament impacts it, and if such a temperament results in overprotective parenting behaviors. A total of 117 mothers and their 24-month-old toddlers participated in novelty tasks designed to elicit parenting behaviors and toddler's typical fear reactions. Mothers also completed a battery of questionnaires.

Correlates and consequences of toddler cortisol reactivity to fear.

Cortisol reactivity to fear-eliciting stimuli during toddlerhood may represent an indicator of risk for anxiety spectrum problems and other maladjustment. Thus, it is important to understand factors that may contribute to cortisol reactivity as well as those that determine its predictive relation to early emerging anxiety. In this vein, the current study investigated maternal comforting behaviors, both solicited and unsolicited by the toddler, as correlates of cortisol reactivity at 2years of age.

Current Themes in Understanding Children's Emotion Regulation as Developing from within the Parent-Child Relationship.

A large existing literature has established that children's emotion regulation (ER) behaviors and capacities emerge from within the parent-child relationship. This review identified very recently published studies that exemplify contemporary themes in this area of research. Specifically, new research suggests that the influence of fathers, above and beyond that of mothers, becomes more pronounced across development.