It's You and Me: Infants' cross-modal communicative signals and mother-infant interactive behavior predict infant regulatory patterns in the still-face paradigm at 3 months.

Infant regulatory behavior develops since birth and impacts their early social interactions. Infants differ in the relative coherence and incoherence of their cross-modal communicative signals during en-face infant-caregiver interactions. We expand this research by evaluating whether different infant regulatory patterns observed during the Face-to-Face Still-Face (FFSF) at 3 months are associated with the coherence or incoherence of infants' cross-modal communicative behaviors during en-face interactions or with multiple dimensions of mother-infant interactive behavior during free-play.

Attachment and mother-infant interactions in dyads with infants born full-term, moderate-to-late preterm, and very-to-extreme preterm.

Background: The impact of prematurity status on attachment quality remains indeterminate. Some studies found no differences between infants born preterm (PT) and infants born full-term (FT), while other investigations present opposite results.

Aims: We aim to contribute to this body of research by studying mother-infant interactive behaviors and quality of attachment in 3 independent samples: Full-Term (FT), Moderate-to-Late Preterm (MLPT) and Very-to-Extreme Preterm (VEPT).

Predicting attachment in Portuguese infants born very or extremely preterm: Understanding the roles of infant regulatory behavior, maternal sensitivity, and risk factors.

A growing body of research shows that early attachment relationships are foundational for children's later developmental and psychosocial outcomes. However, findings are mixed regarding whether preterm birth predicts later attachment, but insecurity is generally more prevalent among infants at higher medical and/or social/familial risk. This longitudinal study aimed to identify specific relational, familial/demographic, and perinatal predictors of attachment in a sample of 63 Portuguese infants born very or extremely preterm (VEPT, <32 gestational weeks) and their mothers from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds.

The impact of low birthweight in infant patterns of regulatory behavior, mother-infant quality of interaction, and attachment.

It remains unclear whether infants born preterm are more likely to develop an insecure attachment with their mothers. In this study, instead of using gestational age criteria, we observe attachment in infants born with very low birthweight. Although the collinearity between gestational age and birthweight is high, infants born with very low birthweight for their gestational age tend to stay more days in NICU and to have more comorbidities than other infants with the same gestational age.