Mind-mindedness and styles of interaction of young fathers with their infants at three months: a pilot study.

Background: Fatherhood at a young age can be characterized by a multiproblematic background with several risk factors that can negatively affect father-child relationships, the father's well-being and child's social-emotional development.

Methods: This pilot study evaluated paternal interaction styles and mentalization in a sample of 22 young fathers and their 3-month-old infants and compared these variables with those of 22 adolescent and young mothers (the fathers' partners). Parent-infant interaction were codified with Care-Index to evaluate styles of interaction and with Mind-Mindedness system to evaluate mentalization.

Defensive activation to (un)predictable interoceptive threat: The NPU respiratory threat test (NPUr).

Potentially life-threatening interoceptive sensations easily engage the behavioral defensive system. Resulting fear and anxiety toward interoceptive threat are functionally distinct states that are hypothesized to play a prominent role in the etiology of panic disorder. The present study aimed to investigate whether fear- and anxiety-potentiated startle responses occur to predictable and unpredictable interoceptive threat, respectively.