Emotional Availability as a Moderator of Stress for Young Children and Parents in Two Diverse Early Head Start Samples.

Positive parent-child relationship quality is critical for buffering children from the effects of stress on development. It is thus vital to develop interventions that target parent-child relationship quality for families experiencing stress. We examined the moderating role of parent-child relationship quality (as measured by parental emotional availability [EA]) in the intergenerational association between parental adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and their young children's hair cortisol concentrations (HCCs)-a physiological marker of cumulative hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA)-axis activity.

Characterizing Family Contextual Factors and Relationships with Child Behavior and Sleep Across the Buffering Toxic Stress Consortium.

The Buffering Toxic Stress (BTS) consortium included six sites in locations that varied widely in racial/ethnic composition and population density. Each site tested a promising parent-child intervention designed to supplement Early Head Start (EHS) services and prevent "toxic stress." To better understand family risk in a large and diverse EHS sample, studies gathered extensive data on family risk exposure, including demographic risk factors (single mother, unemployed, less than high school education or its equivalent, and neighborhood safety), income-to-needs ratio, household resource constraints, perceptions of economic hardship and pressure, caregiver mental health, and caregiver-reported dysfunctional parent-child interactions.

Parental buffering in the context of poverty: positive parenting behaviors differentiate young children's stress reactivity profiles.

Experiencing poverty increases vulnerability for dysregulated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functioning and compromises long-term health. Positive parenting buffers children from HPA axis reactivity, yet this has primarily been documented among families not experiencing poverty. We tested the theorized power of positive parenting in 124 parent-child dyads recruited from Early Head Start (Mage = 25.

Stress and parenting during the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: Stress and compromised parenting often place children at risk of abuse and neglect. Child maltreatment has generally been viewed as a highly individualistic problem by focusing on stressors and parenting behaviors that impact individual families. However, because of the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), families across the world are experiencing a new range of stressors that threaten their health, safety, and economic well-being.

Looking back and moving forward: Evaluating and advancing translation from animal models to human studies of early life stress and DNA methylation.

Advances in epigenetic methodologies have deepened theoretical explanations of mechanisms linking early life stress (ELS) and disease outcomes and suggest promising targets for intervention. To date, however, human studies have not capitalized on the richness of diverse animal models to derive and systematically evaluate specific and testable hypotheses. To promote cross-species dialog and scientific advance, here we provide a classification scheme to systematically evaluate the match between characteristics of human and animal studies of ELS and DNA methylation.

The effects of economic and sociocultural stressors on the well-being of children of Latino immigrants living in poverty.

Objective: This article explored whether preschoolers' physical (body mass index [BMI] and salivary cortisol levels) and psychological (internalizing/externalizing behaviors) well-being were predicted by economic hardship, as has been previously documented, and further, whether parental immigration-related stress and/or acculturation level moderated this relationship in low-income Latino families.

Method: The sample for the current study included 71 children of Latino immigrants (M = 4.46 years, SD = .

Self-Regulation and Economic Stress in Children of Hispanic Immigrants and Their Peers: Better Regulation at a Cost?

Research Findings: Although there is a well-established relationship between economic stress and children's self-regulation, few studies have examined this relationship in children of Hispanic immigrants (COHIs), a rapidly growing population. In a sample of preschool children ( = 165), we examined whether economic stress predicted teacher evaluations of children's self-regulation, whether economic stress predicted children's physiological reactivity (via cortisol levels), and whether economic stress had a similar effect on self-regulation and children's cortisol for COHI versus nonimmigrant children. Greater economic stress was associated with poorer child self-regulation and heightened physiological reactivity across a challenging classroom task for the sample as a whole.

The Impact of Program Structure on Cortisol Patterning in Children Attending Out-of-Home Child Care.

Full-day center-based child care has repeatedly been associated with rising levels of cortisol, a hormone that helps the body manage challenge, across the day at child care. This article presents findings from two studies examining the relationship between child care program structure (number of days per week, and hours per day) and cortisol production across the day. Study 1 presents findings comparing cortisol production in 3- to 5-year-old children enrolled in either full-day ( = 55) or half-day ( = 63) Head-Start-funded programs.

The dynamics of attention during free looking.

Simple methods to study attention dynamics in challenging research and practical applications are limited. We explored the utility of examining attention dynamics during free looking with steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs), which reflect the effects of attention on early sensory processing. This method can be used with participants who cannot follow verbal instructions and patients without voluntary motor control.

Attentional dynamics of infant visual foraging.

Young infants actively gather information about their world through visual foraging, but the dynamics of this important behavior is poorly understood, partly because developmental scientists have often equated its essential components, looking and attending. Here we describe a method for simultaneously tracking spatial attention to fixated and nonfixated locations during free looking in 12-week-old infants using steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs). Using this method, we found that the sequence of locations an infant inspects during free looking reflects a momentary bias away from locations that were recently the target of covert attention, quickly followed by the redirection of attention--in advance of gaze--to the next target of fixation.

Understanding Cortisol Reactivity across the Day at Child Care: The Potential Buffering Role of Secure Attachments to Caregivers.

Full-day center-based child care has been repeatedly associated with rising cortisol across the child care day. This study addressed the potential buffering role of attachment to mothers and lead teachers in 110 preschoolers while at child care. Using multi-level modeling and controlling for a number of child, family, and child care factors, children with more secure attachments to teachers were more likely to show falling cortisol across the child care day.

The cortisol awakening response (CAR) in 2- to 4-year-old children: effects of acute nighttime sleep restriction, wake time, and daytime napping.

The cortisol awakening response (CAR) is presumed critically important for healthy adaptation. The current literature, however, is hampered by systematic measurement difficulties relative to awakening, especially with young children. While reports suggest the CAR is smaller in children than adults, well-controlled research in early childhood is scarce.

Hypocortisolism as a potential marker of allostatic load in children: associations with family risk and internalizing disorders.

Although the majority of research attention to the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in stress-related disorders and as a marker of allostatic load has focused on overactivation of this stress system, theory and data clearly indicate that underactivation is also an important type of dysregulation. In the current study we focused on low cortisol, exploring a constellation of risk factors including stress exposure, maternal depression, and attenuated basal and stress reactive cortisol in two samples of children. The first sample was comprised of 110 preschoolers living in high-stress environments.

Double jeopardy: poorer social-emotional outcomes for children in the NICHD SECCYD experiencing home and child-care environments that confer risk.

Using data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Early Child Care Research Network (NICHD SECCYD), the authors examined whether interactions between home and child-care quality affect children's social-emotional adjustment at 24, 36, and 54 months (N = 771). Triadic splits on quality of home and child care were used to examine children in specific ecological niches, with a focus on those who experience the double jeopardy of poor quality home and child-care environments. Children in this niche exhibited the highest levels of mother-reported problem behavior and the lowest levels of prosocial behavior.

Child care setting affects salivary cortisol and antibody secretion in young children.

Elevated afternoon levels of cortisol have been found repeatedly in children during child care. However, it is unclear whether these elevations have any consequences. Because physiologic stress systems and the immune system are functionally linked, we examined the relationship between salivary cortisol concentration and antibody secretion across the day at home and in child care, and their relationships with parent-reported illnesses.