Mothers' recollections of parenting by their own mothers and fathers and maternal and infant outcomes.

Objective: Using a family network approach, we examined patterns of remembered parental rearing by both parents and associations with maternal and infant outcomes.

Background: Women's memories of how they were cared for by their own mothers in childhood are associated with important outcomes in the perinatal period. However, few studies assess women's recollections of caregiving by their fathers, despite fathers' influence on the larger family context and child adjustment.

Leveraging machine learning to study how temperament scores predict pre-term birth status.

Background: Preterm birth (birth at <37 completed weeks gestation) is a significant public heatlh concern worldwide. Important health, and developmental consequences of preterm birth include altered temperament development, with greater dysregulation and distress proneness.

Aims: The present study leveraged advanced quantitative techniques, namely machine learning approaches, to discern the contribution of narrowly defined and broadband temperament dimensions to birth status classification (full-term vs.

Biopsychosocial predictors of rapid weight gain from birth to 6 months.

Background: Childhood obesity remains a public health crisis and identification of unique prenatal and early infancy predictors of obesity risk are critically needed.

Objectives: We test a comprehensive biopsychosocial model of the predictors of rapid weight gain (RWG) in the first 6 months of life.

Methods: Two hundred and ninety nine pregnant women and their infants participated.

Implications of childhood adversity for women's perinatal sleep quality and depressive symptoms over time: A serial mediation model.

This study sought to examine the effects of childhood adversity on the longitudinal associations between perinatal sleep quality and depressive symptoms, and to determine the prospective associations between these constructs over time. A cross-lagged autoregressive model was used to examine the longitudinal association between sleep quality and depressive symptoms at four points during the perinatal period: 18 and 32 weeks of pregnancy, and 6 and 12 weeks postpartum. Longitudinal mediation models were used to examine whether sleep quality or depressive symptoms mediated the effects of childhood adversity on these symptoms.

Interactions between poor sleep and negative social cognition pose risk for lower maternal sensitivity.

The extent to which mother and infant sleep predict maternal sensitivity as (a) main effects and (b) moderate the association between social cognition about infant crying (i.e., cry processing) and maternal sensitivity was examined in a sample of 299 mother-infant dyads (43% of mothers non-White; 50.

Component-specific developmental trajectories of ERP indices of cognitive control in early childhood.

Early childhood is characterized by robust developmental changes in cognitive control. However, our understanding of intra-individual change in neural indices of cognitive control during this period remains limited. Here, we examined developmental changes in event-related potential (ERP) indices of cognitive control from preschool through first grade, in a large and diverse sample of children (N = 257).

Racial Disparities in Neighborhood and Household Socioeconomic Disadvantage Predict Postpartum Weight Retention.

Introduction: Structural racism leads to neighborhood-level socioeconomic disadvantage, which determines adverse birth outcomes. Individual socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with compromised healthy pregnancy outcomes. This study aimed to investigate the pathways by which race, neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage, and household socioeconomic disadvantage predict subsequent maternal postpartum weight retention.

Associations among eating behaviors, food security status, and dietary intake during pregnancy.

Dietary intake of certain food groups and/or nutrients during pregnancy has been associated with maternal and infant pregnancy-related outcomes. Few studies have examined how behavioral and environmental factors interact to influence prenatal diet. We examined associations between eating behaviors (dietary restraint, emotional eating, external eating) and food security status regarding dietary intake of selected nutrients/food groups during pregnancy.

Childhood maltreatment predicts maternal sensitivity to distress: Negative attributions during the transition to parenthood.

Childhood maltreatment is a predictor of subsequent parenting behaviors; however, the mechanisms explaining this association have been understudied. The present study examined the indirect effect of childhood maltreatment on maternal sensitivity to distress via (a) emotion regulation difficulties, (b) negative attributions about infant crying, (c) minimizing attributions about infant crying, and (d) situational attributions about infant crying. The sample included 259 primiparous mothers (131 Black and 128 White) and their 6-month-old infants (52% female).

Primiparous mothers' parenting self-efficacy in managing toddler distress: Childhood nonsupportive emotion socialization, adult attachment style, and toddler temperament as antecedents.

Early maternal sensitivity to child distress is predictive of child subsequent social-emotional adjustment. A mother's global parenting self-efficacy shapes her adaptive responses to child challenging behaviors (e.g.

Racial Identification as a Protective Factor for At-Risk Parenting in Black Parents: A Longitudinal, Multi-Method Investigation.

Although considerable literature focuses on risk factors predicting parents' likelihood to engage in maltreatment, relatively less work evaluates potentially protective parental resources, particularly culturally relevant qualities. The current investigation utilized a multi-method longitudinal study to examine parents' racial identification as a possible resource, hypothesizing that Black parents with stronger racial group identification would demonstrate lower at-risk parenting, operationalized as lower child abuse risk and less negative observed parenting. In a sample of 359 mothers and fathers (half self-identified Black, half non-Hispanic White), controlling for socioeconomic status, findings partially supported the hypothesis.

Interactive effects of maternal physiological arousal and regulation on maternal sensitivity: Replication and extension in an independent sample.

This study examined the extent to which mothers' physiological arousal (i.e., skin conductance level [SCL] augmentation) and regulation (i.

Childhood Adversity Predicts Maternal Pre-Pregnancy BMI but not Gestational Weight Gain.

Introduction: Obesity and excessive weight gain during pregnancy have lasting implications for both women and infant health. Adverse childhood experiences and stressful life events have been associated with pre-pregnancy obesity and excessive gestational weight gain. However, the effect of each has been examined independently and scant work has investigated the effects of both in the same analysis.

Transactional associations between infant negative emotionality and maternal sensitivity: Maternal emotion dysregulation as a moderator.

The relations between maternal sensitivity and infant negative emotionality have been tested extensively in the previous literature. However, the extent to which these associations reflect unidirectional or bidirectional effects over time remains somewhat uncertain. Further, the possibility that maternal characteristics moderate the extent to which infant negative emotionality predicts maternal sensitivity over time has yet to be tested in cross-lag models.

Bidirectional associations between maternal controlling feeding and food responsiveness during infancy.

Parental controlling feeding styles and practices have been associated with greater food-approaching appetitive behaviors (i.e., food responsiveness) linked to childhood obesity.

Longitudinal Associations Among Food Insecurity During Pregnancy, Parental Mental Health Symptoms, Controlling Feeding Styles, and Infant Food Responsiveness.

Background: Research is needed to identify pathways by which household food insecurity (FI) contributes to parental controlling feeding styles and infant food responsiveness, 2 factors that play a role in shaping obesity risk across infancy and early childhood.

Objectives: This longitudinal study tested the hypothesis that prenatal FI would be positively associated with higher infant food responsiveness via greater parental mental health symptomatology and controlling feeding styles (pressuring, restrictive).

Methods: Participants included a community sample of 170 birth parents and their infants participating in an ongoing longitudinal study.

Women's Social Well-Being During Pregnancy: Adverse Childhood Experiences and Recent Life Events.

Background: Adverse experiences during childhood and recent stressful life events are each associated with women's reduced well-being and poorer health during pregnancy. Few studies, however, have focused upon pregnant women's social well-being, and inclusion of both independent variables in the same analysis is rare. This study focuses upon adverse experiences during childhood as well as recent life events in relationship to four aspects of social well-being: social support, couple aggression for partnered women, neighborhood safety, and food insecurity.

Origins and development of maternal self-efficacy in emotion-related parenting during the transition to parenthood: Toward an integrative process framework beyond Bandura's model.

For new mothers, coping with infant distress is challenging. Mothers' self-efficacy in emotion-related parenting plays critical roles in shaping their adaptation and children's development. Research on antecedents of maternal parenting self-efficacy has been predominantly based on the global self-efficacy theory outlined by Bandura in the 1970s.

Infant appetite and weight gain in early infancy: Moderating effects of controlling feeding styles.

Excessive infant weight gain is a strong predictor of later obesity. While controlling feeding has been linked to negative weight outcomes, research has not considered associations between infant appetite and maternal feeding simultaneously in relation to infant weight. This longitudinal study examined infant food responsiveness and slowness in eating as predictors of infant weight outcomes and tested controlling feeding styles (restrictive and pressuring) as moderators.

Maternal sleep problems, depression, and infant negative emotionality are associated with maternal feeding to soothe in early infancy.

Maternal overreliance on feeding to soothe to relieve infants' distress has been associated with higher rates of childhood obesity. Limited research has examined infant and maternal characteristics that predict maternal feeding to soothe. The goal of the present study was to examine the role of infant (temperament) and maternal (depression, sleep problems) characteristics as predictors of maternal feeding to soothe.

Autonomic profiles and self-regulation outcomes in early childhood.

This study examined autonomic profiles in preschoolers (N = 278, age = 4.7 years) and their relations to self-regulation outcomes concurrently and one year later, in kindergarten. Children's sympathetic (preejection period [PEP]) and parasympathetic activity (respiratory sinus arrythmia [RSA]) were measured at rest and during cognitive and emotional tasks.

Mothers' preparation for bias and responses to children's distress predict positive adjustment among Black children: an attachment perspective.

Traditional conceptualizations of maternal sensitivity overlook the adaptive function of some parenting behaviors. This study examined mothers' preparation for bias, suppression responses, and supportive responses to their Black children's distress as indicators of secure base provision at age five and predictors of children's age six emotional and behavioral self-regulation. Participants included 91 Black children (52% female) and their mothers.

When is Parental Suppression of Black Children's Negative Emotions Adaptive? The Role of Preparation for Racial Bias and Children's Resting Cardiac Vagal Tone.

Research demonstrates that Black parents attempt to suppress children's expressions of negative emotions (e.g., anger, fear), in part, to protect them from experiencing racial bias from authority figures.

Maternal Personality Predicts Insensitive Parenting: Effects through Causal Attributions about Infant Distress.

The association between parent personality and parenting has been established in the literature; however, the mechanisms explaining this relationship remain poorly understood. In the current study, we examined associations between maternal personality and maternal insensitive behaviors through causal attributions about infant distress. Primiparous mothers ( = 259) reported maternal personality during the third trimester of pregnancy.