Trajectories of Maternal Behavior, Infant's Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia, and Emotional Recovery Following the Still Face Paradigm.

The development of emotion regulation is integral to children's socioemotional adjustment. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) reflects parasympathetic regulation of cardiac arousal and is thought to be an indicator of emotion regulation. However, it is unclear how RSA is associated with positive maternal behaviors and infant emotional recovery in real time over the course of a recovery period following a social stressor.

Biological and social cascades of prenatal contextual risk and maternal psychological distress to early-childhood adjustment.

In the peripartum, putative mechanisms in the transmission of prenatal contextual risk and maternal psychological distress include biological and social processes. In this study, path analyses were used to test unique, cascading pathways of prenatal contextual risk and pre- and postnatal maternal psychological distress through social mediators (parenting) and biological mediators (infant stress physiology) on infant temperament and toddler adjustment. The sample is comprised of racially and ethnically diverse first-time mothers ( = 200) living in low-income contexts (< 200% poverty) who were followed from pregnancy to 18-36 months postpartum.

Preliminary Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Perinatal Mindfulness-Based Well-Being and Parenting Programs for Low-Income New Mothers.

Objectives: This study examined specificity in the effects of three perinatal mindfulness-based prevention programs that differed in their timing (prenatal, postpartum) and target (maternal well-being, parenting). Effects on maternal mental health (depression, anxiety, resilience), mindfulness, and observed parenting, as well as observed, physiological, and mother-report indicators of infant self-regulation, were examined.

Methods: The programs were evaluated in a racially and ethnically diverse sample of first-time mothers ( = 188) living in low-income contexts using intention-to-treat analysis.

Maternal mental health mediates the effects of pandemic-related stressors on adolescent psychopathology during COVID-19.

Background: This study examined whether COVID-19-related maternal mental health changes contributed to changes in adolescent psychopathology.

Methods: A community sample of 226 adolescents (12 years old before COVID-19) and their mothers were asked to complete COVID-19 surveys early in the pandemic (April-May 2020, adolescents 14 years) and approximately 6 months later (November 2020-January 2021). Surveys assessed pandemic-related stressors (health, financial, social, school, environment) and mental health.

Maternal Mental Health and Child Adjustment Problems in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Families Experiencing Economic Disadvantage.

Parents living in low-income contexts shouldered disproportionate hardships during the COVID-19 pandemic with consequences to maternal mental health and child adjustment. The current study uses a sample of first-time mothers (N = 147) of young toddlers, all living in low-income contexts, to examine the roles of pre-pandemic and COVID-19-specific risk and individual resilience factors in the prediction of changes to maternal mental health coinciding with the onset of the pandemic. Maternal mental health symptoms, in turn, were examined as predictors of child adjustment problems across 6 months of the pandemic and as a potential mechanism conferring pandemic risks to children.

Temperament as a moderator of the association of cumulative risk with preadolescent appraisal and coping style.

Background: Children exposed to cumulative risk (CR) are more likely to have poor physical and psychological health across the lifespan. CR may contribute to children's adjustment, in part through its effects on appraisal and coping. Further, child temperament may alter the effects of CR on appraisal and coping.

An empirical test of the model of socialization of emotion: Maternal and child contributors to preschoolers' emotion knowledge and adjustment.

This study tested child characteristics (temperamental executive control and negative reactivity) and maternal characteristics (parenting behaviors and maternal depressive symptoms) as predictors of a mother's emotion-related socialization behaviors (ERSBs). Further, parenting behaviors and ERSBs were examined as predictors of children's emotion knowledge, social competence, and adjustment problems. ERSBs and children's emotion knowledge were tested as mediators of the effects of child and parent characteristics on adjustment.

Pathways from early adversity to later adjustment: Tests of the additive and bidirectional effects of executive control and diurnal cortisol in early childhood.

Additive and bidirectional effects of executive control and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis regulation on children's adjustment were examined, along with the effects of low income and cumulative risk on executive control and the HPA axis. The study utilized longitudinal data from a community sample of preschool age children (N = 306, 36-39 months at Time 1) whose families were recruited to overrepresent low-income contexts. We tested the effects of low income and cumulative risk on levels and growth of executive control and HPA axis regulation (diurnal cortisol level), the bidirectional effects of executive control and the HPA axis on each other, and their additive effects on children's adjustment problems, social competence and academic readiness.

Parenting as a moderator of the effects of cumulative risk on children's social-emotional adjustment and academic readiness.

This study examined whether parenting moderated the association between cumulative risk and preschool children's adjustment problems, social competence and academic readiness. The sample consisted of 306 families representing the full range of income, with 29% at or near poverty and 28% lower income. Cumulative risk and observed maternal parenting behaviors were assessed when the children were 36-40 months, and teachers rated outcomes at 63-68 months.

Parenting matters: Moderation of biological and community risk for obesity.

Contributions of parental limit setting, negativity, scaffolding, warmth, and responsiveness to Body Mass Index (BMI) were examined. Parenting behaviors were observed in parent-child interactions, and child BMI was assessed at 5 years of age. Mothers provided demographic information and obtained child saliva samples used to derive cortisol concentration indicators ( = 250).

A state-trait model of cortisol in early childhood: Contextual and parental predictors of stable and time-varying effects.

This study examined state-trait models of diurnal cortisol (morning level and diurnal slope), and whether income, cumulative risk and parenting behaviors predicted variance in trait and state levels of cortisol. The sample of 306 mothers and their preschool children included 29% families at or near poverty, 27% families below the median income, and the remaining families at middle and upper income. Diurnal cortisol, income, cumulative risk, and parenting were measured at 4 time points, once every 9months, starting when children were 36-40months.

Extending Models of Sensitive Parenting of Infants to Women at Risk for Perinatal Depression.

Objective: Recognizing that not all mothers at risk for depression engage in insensitive parenting, this study examined predictors of individual differences in sensitive parenting of infants by mothers with histories of depression, who are at elevated risk for depression during the perinatal period.

Design: We examined maternal personal characteristics, context, and early infant temperament as predictors of sensitive parenting. Seventy-six women with a history of major depression were followed through pregnancy and postpartum and observed during play and feeding interactions with their 12-month-old infants.

Featured Article: Community Crime Exposure and Risk for Obesity in Preschool Children: Moderation by the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal-Axis Response.

Objective: Identification of early risk factors related to obesity is critical to preventative public health efforts. In this study, we investigated links between the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA)-axis activity (diurnal cortisol pattern), geospatially operationalized exposure to neighborhood crime, and body mass index (BMI) for a sample of 5-year-old children. Greater community crime exposure and lower HPA-axis activity were hypothesized to contribute to higher BMI, with child HPA-axis moderating the association between crime exposure and BMI.

Bidirectional Relations Between Temperament and Parenting Predicting Preschool-Age Children's Adjustment.

Bidirectional associations between child temperament (fear, frustration, positive affect, effortful control) and parenting behaviors (warmth, negativity, limit setting, scaffolding, responsiveness) were examined as predictors of preschool-age children's adjustment problems and social competence. Participants were a community sample of children (N = 306; 50% female, 64% European American) and their mothers. Observational measures of child temperament and parenting were obtained using laboratory tasks at two time points (children's ages 36 and 54 months).

Appraisal and coping as mediators of the effects of cumulative risk on preadolescent adjustment.

This study examined the concurrent and longitudinal relations among cumulative risk, appraisal, coping, and adjustment. Longitudinal path models were tested in a community sample of 316 children in preadolescence to examine hypotheses that threat appraisal and avoidant coping mediate the effects of cumulative risk on child adjustment, whereas positive appraisal and active coping were hypothesized to predict better adjustment independently. Children and their mothers were assessed during in-home interviews at three time points at one-year intervals.

Income, cumulative risk, and longitudinal profiles of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity in preschool-age children.

Environmental risk predicts disrupted basal cortisol levels in preschool children. However, little is known about the stability or variability of diurnal cortisol morning levels or slope patterns over time in young children. This study used latent profile analysis to identify patterns of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity during the preschool period.

Parenting as a Moderator of the Effects of Maternal Depressive Symptoms on Preadolescent Adjustment.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether parenting moderated the association between maternal depressive symptoms and initial levels and growth of preadolescent internalizing and externalizing symptoms. This study used a community sample of preadolescent children (N = 214; 8-12 years old at Time 1), measuring maternal depressive symptoms and parenting at Time 1, and preadolescent internalizing and externalizing symptoms at each year for 3 years. After modeling latent growth curves of internalizing and externalizing symptoms, growth factors were conditioned on maternal depressive symptoms, positive (acceptance and consistent discipline) and negative (rejection and physical punishment) parenting, and the interactions of depression and parenting.

Appraisal and coping styles account for the effects of temperament on preadolescent adjustment.

Temperament, appraisal, and coping are known to underlie emotion regulation, yet less is known about how these processes relate to each other across time. We examined temperamental fear, frustration, effortful control, and impulsivity, positive and threat appraisals, and active and avoidant coping as processes underpinning the emotion regulation of pre-adolescent children managing stressful events. Appraisal and coping styles were tested as mediators of the longitudinal effects of temperamental emotionality and self-regulation on adjustment using a community sample (=316) of preadolescent children (8-12 years at T1) studied across one year.

Income and the Development of Effortful Control as Predictors of Teacher Reports of Preschool Adjustment.

This study examined the relations of income and children's effortful control to teacher reports of preschoolers' social competence and adjustment problems. This study tested whether changes in effortful control accounted for the effects of income on children's adjustment. A community sample (=306) of preschool-age children (36-40 mos.