Infants show negative changes in affect and physiology when re-experiencing a stressor, its context, and a positive event 24-h later.

Exposure to early life stress shapes further development, affects later stress reactivity, and mental health outcomes. Despite the central role of early experiences, there is little understanding of how these rapidly forgotten events gain their influence. An infant's ability to cope with everyday stressors is founded on successful co-regulation through mother-infant interaction.

Acute Maternal Stress Disrupts Infant Regulation of the Autonomic Nervous System and Behavior: A CASP Study.

Exposure to maternal stress is assumed to influence infant health and development across the lifespan. The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is especially sensitive to the effects of the early caregiving environment and linked to predictors of later mental health. Understanding how exposure to maternal stress adversely affects the developing ANS could inform prevention.

Infant affect response in the face-to-face still face among Chinese- and European American mother-infant dyads.

Early face-to-face interactions with caregivers allow infants to learn how to express and exchange emotions with others. Within the field, however, the research regarding infant regulatory processes across cultures remains limited. The Double Face-to-Face Still Face (FFSF) paradigm provided an opportunity to examine infant affect in dyadic interactions with European American (EA, n = 54) and Chinese American (CA, n = 48) infants and caregivers.

A Caretaker Acute Stress Paradigm: Effects on behavior and physiology of caretaker and infant.

While experimental stress paradigms of infants (arm restraint; the Still-Face) are powerful tools for infant research, no study has experimentally stressed mothers to observe its independent effects on infant stress regulation. Extant caretaker/maternal stress studies essentially are correlational and confounded by other conditions (e.g.

Effect of Maternal Distress on Perceptions of Infant Behavior May Differ in Chinese-American and European-American Mothers and Infants.

Objective: This study examined the associations between maternal distress (symptoms of depression and anxiety) and observer and maternal ratings of infant temperament in Chinese-American (CA) and European-American (EA) 4-month-old infants (N = 114 dyads).

Methods: Maternal distress was obtained through self-reported symptoms of depression and anxiety. Mothers reported infant temperament (distress at limitations, soothability, and fear) through the short form of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised.