Interventions to foster connections and interactions.

Background: The Special Issue articles describe six systems of parental interventions and developmental care several differences among each of the approaches. Nevertheless, on a deeper level there are profound similarities shared across the six systems. These similarities are at the heart of developmental care in general and parental interventions in particular.

Effects of a video-feedback intervention on parenting behavior and state anxiety in mothers of children with neurodevelopmental disabilities.

Neurodevelopmental disability (ND) poses a significant challenge to infants' socio-emotional and cognitive development, as well as to caregiving dynamics, such as parental sensitivity and mother-infant interaction. Prior research highlights the crucial role of early parenting support interventions in enhancing parental behaviors, serving as a protective developmental factor for children at risk for or diagnosed with ND. This single-cohort, multicentric study aims to evaluate the efficacy of early video-feedback intervention (VFI) in improving maternal parenting behaviors.

Neurophysiological evidence of motor contribution to vicarious affective touch.

Understanding observed interpersonal touch, particularly the so-called affective touch targeting the CT fibers, is essential for social interactions. Research has documented that observing other people being touched activates the same cortical areas involved in direct tactile experiences. However, observing interpersonal touch also activates an inner simulation of the movements in the observer's motor system.

Recommendations for data collection in cohort studies of preterm born individuals - The RECAP Preterm Core Dataset.

Background: Preterm birth (before 37 completed weeks of gestation) is associated with an increased risk of adverse health and developmental outcomes relative to birth at term. Existing guidelines for data collection in cohort studies of individuals born preterm are either limited in scope, have not been developed using formal consensus methodology, or did not involve a range of stakeholders in their development. Recommendations meeting these criteria would facilitate data pooling and harmonisation across studies.

Stroking in early mother-infant exchanges: The role of maternal tactile biography and interoceptive sensibility.

Caress-like is a crucial component of caregiving and a key factor in mother-infant interactions. Mother's experience of touch during her own childhood (i.e.

Maternal Wellbeing Five Years after a Very Preterm Delivery: Prevalence and Influencing Factors in a European Cohort.

(1) Background: Mothers of very preterm (VPT) infants may experience psychological symptoms compromising long-term emotional wellbeing. This study describes the emotional wellbeing of mothers of five-year-old children born VPT. We assess the association between sociodemographic, perinatal and neonatal characteristics, and the child's health and development at five years old and maternal emotional wellbeing.

Severity of developmental delay and parenting behavior in toddlers with neurodevelopmental disabilities.

Introduction: The presence of a neurodevelopmental disability (ND) represents an adverse condition for child's development and parent-child relationship, and it is reasonable to assume that the severity of delay may influence parenting behavior. Previous research, however, did not specifically address this issue.

Methods: This cross-sectional study compared parental behaviors of mothers of toddlers with moderate/severe or mild/borderline developmental delay and mothers of toddlers with typical development, while considering maternal emotional states.

Skin-to-Skin Care and Spontaneous Touch by Fathers in Full-Term Infants: A Systematic Review.

A series of studies have shown that mothers' early tactile behaviors have positive effects, both on full-term and preterm infants, and on mothers alike. Regarding fathers, research has focused mostly on paternal skin-to-skin care with preterm infants and has overlooked the tactile behavior effects with full-term newborns on infants' outcomes and on fathers themselves. The current systematic review considered the evidence regarding paternal tactile behaviors with full-term infants, including skin-to-skin care (SSC) and spontaneous touch (ST), during parent-infant interactions, and differentiated biophysiological, behavioral and psychological variables both in fathers and in infants.

Infants' sex affects neural responses to affective touch in early infancy.

Social touch is closely related to the establishment and maintenance of social bonds in humans, and the sensory brain circuit for gentle brushing is already active soon after birth. Brain development is known to be sexually dimorphic, but the potential effect of sex on brain activation to gentle touch remains unknown. Here, we examined brain activation to gentle skin stroking, a tactile stimulation that resembles affective or social touch, in term-born neonates.

A contribution to the Italian validation of the Parenting Interaction with Children: Checklist of Observations Linked to Outcome (PICCOLO).

Introduction: PICCOLO (Parenting Interactions with Children: Checklist of Observations Linked to Outcomes) is an observational instrument designed to assess four domains of parenting interactions that promote early child development (Affection, Responsiveness, Encouragement, and Teaching). Although PICCOLO has been validated in the United States for children as young as 4 months of age, the current focus is on parents with children aged between 10 and 47 months. This study contributes to the validation of the Italian translation of the PICCOLO by testing its psychometric properties and examining whether factors such as the child's age and child's sex are related to the four domains of parenting interactions.

Exploring maternal touch in the infant's first 18 months of Life: A study on an Italian sample.

Affective touch is a crucial component of caregiving in early life and constitutes a key factor with a significant impact on infant later-life outcomes. The Parent-Infant Caregiving Touch Scale (PICTS) allows to quantify and qualify the caregiver's self-perception of touch in the first months of an infant's life. In the current study, we contributed to validation of the PICTS in the Italian language in order to explore whether early maternal touch would be associated with maternal emotional state, maternal history of affective touch experiences throughout the lifespan, and infants' sex and age.

Prelinguistic intersubjective and socio-communicative skills in infants with neurodevelopmental disabilities aged 0-36 months: A new assessment and parent support tool.

Background: Although children with neurodevelopmental disability (NDD) present with several deficits, they partially share developmental impairments in prelinguistic intersubjective and socio-communicative skills, which are not easily assessed by conventional tests during the first years of life.

Aim: The current paper presents a new procedure to assess the prelinguistic intersubjective and socio-communicative skills of NDD children aged 0-36 months. A specific observation form template, called the Observation of Prelinguistic Intersubjective and Socio-Communicative Skills (OPISCoS) form, has been designed to systematically detect infant skills during daily routines (e.

Mother and father interaction with their 3-month-old infants: Similarities and differences in parenting behaviour in well-resourced parents.

Infancy is characterized by intensive parenting which may affect later child development. However, little is known about similarities and differences in maternal and paternal parenting behaviour, as the majority of the studies have mainly focused on mothers. The present study investigated similarities and differences in mothers' and fathers' parenting behaviour during parent-infant interaction in 56 mothers and 56 fathers of 3-months-old infants in a good-resourced sample.

The role of experience in parenting beliefs of British and Italian women during pregnancy.

To understand the role of experience in parenting beliefs about caring for infants, we examined the parenting beliefs of pregnant women who were expecting their first child with those of pregnant women who already had at least one other child. A culturally diverse sample of 550 British and Italian women completed self-report measures evaluating their beliefs about the value of attunement and structure in caregiving, parenting self-efficacy, and home chaos. Psychometric evaluation confirmed the two-factor structure of the Baby Care Questionnaire (BCQ) for measuring attunement and structure but did not support configural invariance across the different samples.

Tactile Biography Questionnaire: A contribution to its validation in an Italian sample.

As the interest in the beneficial effects of positive touch experiences is rapidly growing, having reliable and valid tools to its assessment is essential. The Tactile Biography Questionnaire (TBQ) allows to quantify individual differences in affective touch experiences throughout life. The aim of this article is to present a contribution to its validation in the Italian population.

Serotonin transporter gene methylation and emotional regulation in preschool children born preterm: A longitudinal evaluation of the role of negative emotionality in infancy.

The aim of the study was to assess the contribution of negative emotionality at 3 months (T1) and serotonin transporter gene (SLC6A4) DNA methylation at 4.5 years of age (T2) to emotion regulation in pre-schoolers born very preterm and full-term. Forty one children (n = 21 born very preterm, n = 20 born full-term) participated in the study.

Psychosocial Difficulties in Preschool-Age Children with Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome: An Exploratory Study.

Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome (BWS) is a rare overgrowth disease and is not usually associated with intellectual delay. Living with a chronic illness condition such as BWS, however, might affect emotional-behavioral functioning and psychosocial development. To investigate this issue, parents of 30 children with BWS between 1.

Air pollution and neurodevelopmental skills in preschool- and school-aged children: A systematic review.

Early life exposure to air pollution has been associated with neurodevelopmental disorders. Emerging evidence are highlighting a possible impact of air pollution on typically developing children. Thirty papers were included in this review to systematically evaluate the association between air pollutants exposure in prenatal and/or postnatal periods and specific neurodevelopmental skills (i.

Monochorionic Twins and the Early Mother-Infant Relationship: An Exploratory Observational Study of Mother-Infant Interaction in the Post-Partum Period.

The extraordinary increase in twin rates and specifically monochorionic twin pregnancies represents a major public health issue due to the associated increased risks for the mother, the child and their relationship. The aim of the present study was to examine the quality of mothers' behaviour during mother-infant interaction in the early postpartum period by comparing mothers of twins and mothers of singletons during face-to-face interaction with their infants. Demographic and clinical information was collected by trained research psychologists from the mothers' and the childrens' clinical records and from interviews with the mothers.

The role of maternal touch in the association between SLC6A4 methylation and stress response in very preterm infants.

Very preterm (VPT) infants requiring hospitalization in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) are exposed to several stressful procedural experiences. One consequence of NICU-related stress is a birth-to-discharge increased serotonin transporter gene (SLC6A4) methylation that has been associated with poorer stress regulation at 3 months of age. Maternal touch is thought to support infants' stress response, but its role in moderating the effects of SLC6A4 methylation changes is unknown.

Exploring the Contribution of Proximal Family Risk Factors on DNA Methylation in Children with a History of Maltreatment: A Preliminary Study.

The cumulative effects of proximal family risk factors have been associated with a high number of adverse outcomes in childhood maltreatment, and DNA methylation of the serotonin transporter gene () has been associated with child maltreatment. However, the relationships between proximal family risk factors and methylation remains unexplored. We examined the association among cumulative family risk factors, maltreatment experiences and DNA methylation in the gene in a sample of 33 child victims of maltreatment.