Toward a multi-level approach to the study of the intergenerational transmission of trauma: Current findings and future directions.

A central goal in the field of developmental psychopathology is to evaluate the complex, dynamic transactions occurring among biological, psychological, and broader social-cultural contexts that predict adaptive and maladaptive outcomes across ontogeny. Here, I briefly review research on the effects of a history of childhood maltreatment on parental, child, and dyadic functioning, along with more recent studies on the intergenerational transmission of trauma. Because the experience and sequelae of child maltreatment and the intergenerational transmission of trauma are embedded in complex biopsychosocial contexts, this research is best conceptualized in a developmental psychopathology framework.

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.

The association of maternal-infant interactive behavior, dyadic frontal alpha asymmetry, and maternal anxiety in a smartphone-adapted still face paradigm.

Mother-infant interactions form a strong basis for emotion regulation development in infants. These interactions can be affected by various factors, including maternal postnatal anxiety. Electroencephalography (EEG) hyperscanning allows for simultaneous assessment of mother-infant brain-to-behavior association during stressful events, such as the still-face paradigm (SFP).

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.

Risk, Emotional Support, Child Abuse Potential, and Parenting During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated mitigation efforts created stress that threatened parent and child well-being. Conditions that increase stress within families heighten the likelihood of child abuse, but social support can mitigate the impact. This short-term investigation considered whether cumulative risk, COVID-19 specific risk, and emotional support (one aspect of social support), were associated with child abuse potential during the pandemic.

Cross-modal coherence and incoherence of early infant interactive behavior: links to attachment in infants born very preterm or full-term.

Infants exhibit flexibly organized configurations of facial, vocal, affective, and motor behavior during caregiver-infant interactions that convey convergent messages about their internal states and desires. Prior work documents that greater cross-modal discrepancy at 4 months predicts disorganized attachment. Here, we evaluated whether: very preterm (VPT) or full-term (FT) status predicts cross-modal coherence or incoherence in infants' behavior with the caregiver at 3 months; and, regardless of prematurity, whether cross-modal interactive coherence or incoherence predicts 12-month attachment.

Household Chaos and Early Childhood Behavior Problems: The Moderating Role of Mother-Child Reciprocity in Lower-Income Families.

Objective: The study examined whether mother-child reciprocity across increasingly challenging contexts moderated the association between household chaos and early childhood behavior problems.

Background: Living in a chaotic household is associated with behavioral dysregulation in childhood. An important goal in discordant household contexts is to establish positive aspects of relationships that are associated with more favorable developmental outcomes.

Maternal caregiving representations of the infant in the first year of life: Associations with prenatal and concurrent reflective functioning.

Few studies have examined whether maternal caregiving representations are associated with maternal reflective functioning (MRF), especially when MRF is evaluated longitudinally beginning in pregnancy. This study addresses this gap by evaluating whether prenatal and postnatal MRF are associated with mothers' caregiving representations assessed at 7 months postpartum, and by exploring theoretically unexpected MRF scores in each of the representational categories. Forty-seven mothers were recruited during their last trimester of pregnancy from an obstetrics clinic at a university hospital located in a large mid-western city in the United States.

School support, chaos, routines, and parents' mental health during COVID-19 remote schooling.

Remote schooling due to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) created profound challenges for families. In this investigation, we examined parents' depression and anxiety during remote schooling and their associations with parents' reports of school support. We also evaluated indirect and interactive (i.

A self-comfort oriented pattern of regulatory behavior and avoidant attachment are more likely among infants born moderate-to-late preterm.

Infants born preterm (<37 gestational weeks, GW) are at increased risk for regulatory difficulties and insecure attachment. However, the association between infants' regulatory behavior patterns and their later attachment organization is understudied in the preterm population. We addressed this gap by utilizing a Portuguese sample of 202 mother-infant dyads.

Patterns of regulatory behavior in the still-face paradigm at 3 months: A comparison of Brazilian and Portuguese infants.

Three infant regulatory behavior patterns have been identified during the Face-to-Face Still-Face paradigm (FFSF) in prior research samples: a Social-Positive Oriented pattern (i.e., infants exhibit predominantly positive social engagement), a Distressed-Inconsolable pattern (i.

Predicting Patterns of Regulatory Behavior in the Still-Face Paradigm at 3 Months.

The current study addressed two aims: (1) to describe different patterns of infant regulatory behavior during the Face-to-Face Still-Face (FFSF) paradigm at 3 months of age and (2) to identify specific, independent predictors of these patterns from an a priori set of demographic, infant (e.g., temperament), and maternal (e.

Emerging patterns of infant regulatory behavior in the Still-Face paradigm at 3 and 9 months predict mother-infant attachment at 12 months.

Prior research described three stable patterns of organized behavior employed by infants to manage stressful interactive situations with their mothers in the Face-to-Face Still-Face paradigm (FFSF) at 3 and 9 months postpartum.  The current longitudinal study expands this research by examining the extent to which these patterns predict infants' later attachment quality. For that purpose, 108 full-term infants and their mothers participated in the FFSF at 3 and 9 months, and in the Strange Situation at 12 months.

Using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model to assess maternal and infant contributions to mother-infant affective exchanges during the Still-Face Paradigm.

This study describes maternal and infant contributions to dyadic affective exchanges during the Still-Face Paradigm (SFP) in an understudied mostly low-income sample. One hundred eleven mothers and their 7-month-old infants were videotaped during the SFP to analyze how a social stressor affects mother-infant positive and negative affective exchanges during interaction. The SFP includes 3 episodes: baseline, maternal still-face, and reunion.

Associations between oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) polymorphisms, childhood trauma, and parenting behavior.

Maternal oxytocin is connected to aspects of parenting including sensitivity, warmth, positive affect, and affectionate touch. Oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) polymorphisms are associated with circulating oxytocin levels, altered brain activity, and parenting behaviors. This study aimed to replicate prior work on OXTR single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) rs1042778 and rs53576 in relation to maternal sensitivity, explore associations with other aspects of parenting (i.

Maternal perinatal representations and their associations with mother-infant interaction and attachment: A longitudinal comparison of Portuguese and Brazilian dyads.

Prior research in Western countries (mostly the US, Canada and northern Europe) indicates that mothers' representations are associated with mother-infant interaction quality and their child's attachment security later in the first year. Fewer studies, however, have evaluated whether these associations hold for mother-infant dyads in other countries, such as Brazil and Portugal. Although these countries share a similar language and culture, they differ on societal dimensions that may affect parenting attitudes and mother-infant relationships, such as economic stress, social organisation, social policy, and the availability of services for young families.

Robust stability and physiological correlates of infants' patterns of regulatory behavior in the still-face paradigm at 3 and 9 months.

This study examined the stability of three patterns of infant regulatory behavior identified in the face-to-face still-face (FFSF) paradigm at 3 and 9 months-social-positive oriented, distressed-inconsolable, and self-comfort oriented-and whether variations in infants' heart-rate were correlated with them. Although some studies have examined the stability of discrete infant behaviors, none have investigated the stability of early regulatory patterns across FFSF episodes over time. Healthy full-term infants and their mothers (N = 112) were videotaped in the FFSF when infants were 3 and 9 months old.

Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS): Confirmatory factor analysis of the six behavioral clusters.

The Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) is a widely used in the neurobehavioral assessment of neonates in clinical practice and research. Lester's data reduction system for the NBAS items is the most often used in research, but the few factor analytic studies carried out with it leave gaps in its validation. The current study aimed to test and compare (a) the factorial structure of the Lester's data reduction system for the NBAS and (b) an alternative data reduction system, slightly modified from Lester's system.

Prenatal neural origins of infant motor development: Associations between fetal brain and infant motor development.

Functional circuits of the human brain emerge and change dramatically over the second half of gestation. It is possible that variation in neural functional system connectivity in utero predicts individual differences in infant behavioral development, but this possibility has yet to be examined. The current study examines the association between fetal sensorimotor brain system functional connectivity and infant postnatal motor ability.

Maternal insightfulness protects against the detrimental effects of postpartum stress on positive parenting among at-risk mother-infant dyads.

The current study evaluated whether maternal insightfulness can buffer the negative influence of postpartum stressful life events on maternal parenting behaviors. Participants were 125 mother-infant dyads (55% boys) who present a subsample of a larger longitudinal study on maternal maltreatment during childhood and its impact on peripartum maternal adjustment. Women were primarily white and middle class.

ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN EARLY MATERNAL DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOM TRAJECTORIES AND TODDLERS' FELT SECURITY AT 18 MONTHS: ARE BOYS AND GIRLS AT DIFFERENTIAL RISK?

The goal of this study was to evaluate whether there are sex differences in children's vulnerability to caregiving risk, as indexed by trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms assessed from 2 to 18 months' postpartum, and children's rated attachment security in toddlerhood, adjusting for maternal social support and demographic risk. Analyses utilized longitudinal data collected for 182 African American mother-child dyads from economically diverse backgrounds. Participants were recruited at the time of the child's birth and followed to 18 months' postpartum.

Understanding Bidirectional Mother-Infant Affective Displays across Contexts: Effects of Maternal Maltreatment History and Postpartum Depression and PTSD Symptoms.

Background: This study examined the bidirectional nature of mother-infant positive and negative emotional displays during social interactions across multiple tasks among postpartum women accounting for childhood maltreatment severity. Additionally, effects of maternal postpartum psychopathology on maternal affect and effects of task and emotional valence on dyadic emotional displays were evaluated.

Sampling And Methods: A total of 192 mother-infant dyads (51% male infants) were videotaped during free play and the Still-Face paradigm at 6 months postpartum.

Psychopathology and parenting: An examination of perceived and observed parenting in mothers with depression and PTSD.

Background: The postpartum period represents a major transition in the lives of many women, a time when women are at increased risk for the emergence of psychopathology including depression and PTSD. The current study aimed to better understand the unique contributions of clinically significant postpartum depression, PTSD, and comorbid PTSD/depression on mother-infant bonding and observed maternal parenting behaviors (i.e.

Positive predictors of quality of life for postpartum mothers with a history of childhood maltreatment.

The postpartum period brings a host of biopsychosocial, familial, and economic changes, which may be challenging for new mothers, especially those with trauma histories. Trauma-exposed women are at heightened risk for psychiatric symptomatology and reduced quality of life. The current study sought to evaluate whether a set of hypothesized promotive factors assessed during the first 18 months postpartum (positive parenting, family cohesion, and maternal resilience) are associated with life satisfaction in this population, after controlling for income and postpartum psychiatric symptoms.

The effects of parental sensitivity and involvement in caregiving on mother-infant and father-infant attachment in a Portuguese sample.

In the present longitudinal study, we investigated attachment quality in Portuguese mother-infant and in father-infant dyads, and evaluated whether attachment quality was related to parental sensitivity during parent-infant social interaction or to the amount of time each parent spent with the infant during play and in routine caregiving activities (e.g., feeding, bathing, play).