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.

: The Role of Parental Ability to Support and Promote Child Resilient Behaviors During the COVID-19 Emergency.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to lockdown in many countries and Italy was the first one interested in Europe. The lockdown strategy is an essential step to curb the exponential rise of COVID-19 cases, but it is very demanding for the population involved and especially for children and their families. The aims of the present study are: (a) to explore the psychometric properties of the questionnaire, a new tool to evaluate parents' ability to support and promote child resilient behaviors, (b) to investigate the relation between parents' resilience and their ability to support and promote child resilient behaviors with child resilience and child stress-related behaviors assessed during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Stress symptoms and resilience factors in children with neurodevelopmental disabilities and their parents during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objective: This study examined the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Italy by specifically looking at the psychosocial response of children/adolescents with neurodevelopmental disabilities (NDD) and their parents, and explored which factors could potentially contribute to increasing or mitigating stress-related behaviors in children/adolescents as well as their parents' stress.

Method: An online anonymous survey was designed to investigate family demographic characteristics, COVID-19 outbreak and restriction-related variables, children/adolescents' behavioral regulation problems, parental stress, and resilience. Data were collected from 1,472 parents (83.

Neuroimaging and DNA Methylation: An Innovative Approach to Study the Effects of Early Life Stress on Developmental Plasticity.

DNA methylation plays a key role in neural cell fate and provides a molecular link between early life stress and later-life behavioral phenotypes. Here, studies that combine neuroimaging methods and DNA methylation analysis in pediatric population with a history of adverse experiences were systematically reviewed focusing on: targeted genes and neural correlates; statistical models used to examine the link between DNA methylation and neuroimaging data also considering early life stress and behavioral outcomes. We identified 8 studies that report associations between DNA methylation and brain structure/functions in infants, school age children and adolescents faced with early life stress condition (e.

Mother-Infant Interaction Kinect Analysis (MIIKA): An automatic kinematic-based methodology for the investigation of interpersonal distance during early exchanges.

Interpersonal distance is a core aspect of mother-child interaction. While conventional measures based on human coders do not fully capture the dynamics of this feature, computational methods provide automatic measures which can detect even small changes and more accurate estimates both spatially and temporally. Using RGB-D sensors (Microsoft Kinect V2), the present study describes a setup to automatically examine interpersonal distance during mother-child interactions, termed Mother-Infant Interaction Kinect Analysis (MIIKA).

Attachment-related dimensions in the epigenetic era: A systematic review of the human research.

In recent years, an increasing number of studies documented potential links between parental care and epigenetic mechanisms. The present systematic review focuses on the potential association and interrelationship between attachment-related dimensions and DNA methylation in human studies. We performed a literature review using electronic databases such as PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and EBSCOhost.

Glucocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C1) methylation during the first thousand days: Environmental exposures and developmental outcomes.

The first 1000 days from conception are a sensitive period for human development programming. During this period, environmental exposures may result in long-lasting epigenetic imprints that contribute to future developmental trajectories. The present review reports on the effects of adverse and protective environmental conditions occurring during the first 1000 days on glucocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C1) regulation in humans.

Reliability and Validity of the Arabic Version of the Parental Stressor Scale and Nurse Parental Support Tool: Opening Up Research on Parental Needs in Neonatal Intensive Care Units in Egypt.

Background: The admission of a newborn infant to a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) due to preterm birth or high-risk conditions, such as perinatal injury, sepsis, hypoxia, congenital malformation, or brain injury, is a stressful experience for mothers. There is currently a lack of research on maternal perceived stress and support in Egyptian NICUs and no validated Arabic tool to investigate this further.

Purpose: To determine the reliability and validity of the Arabic language versions of the Parental Stressor Scale: NICU (PSS:NICU) and the Nurse Parental Support Tool (NPST).

Barriers and Facilitators to Conducting Kangaroo Mother Care in Italian Neonatal Intensive Care Units.

Purpose: This work aimed to investigate obstacles and facilitators for carrying out Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) across Italian NICUs.

Design And Methods: A survey that investigated Unit's characteristics, policies toward parents and KMC practice and policies was carried out. Data from 86 NICUs (80.

Early Parenting Intervention - Biobehavioral Outcomes in infants with Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (EPI-BOND): study protocol for an Italian multicentre randomised controlled trial.

Introduction: Neurodevelopmental disability (ND) represents an adverse condition for infants' socio-emotional and behavioural development as well as for caregiving (eg, parental sensitivity) and mother-infant interaction. Adverse exposures are associated with altered neuroendocrine hormones concentrations (eg, oxytocin and cortisol) and epigenetic regulation (eg, methylation of stress-related genes), which in turn may contribute to less-than-optimal mother-infant interaction. Parental sensitivity is a protective factor for childrens' development and early parental interventions (eg, video-feedback intervention) can promote parental caregiving and better developmental outcomes in children.

Early parenting intervention promotes 24-month psychomotor development in preterm children.

Aim: Although parenting is key to promoting healthy development of at-risk preterm infants, parents have often restricted access to neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). This study aimed to assess the effect of an early parenting intervention on the psychomotor outcome in preterm children at 24 months of corrected age.

Methods: Forty-two preterm children and their parents were consecutively recruited at a level III NICU in Northern Italy and randomly allocated to early intervention (two educational peer-group sessions and four individual infant observation sessions) or care as usual (no educational or infant observation sessions).

The body comes first. Embodied reparation and the co-creation of infant bodily-self.

During infancy relational experiences of body-to-body exchanges (i.e., embodied interactions) contribute to the infant's bodily perception.

Understanding the role and function of maternal touch in children with neurodevelopmental disabilities.

During the first years of life, maternal touch can serve different functions including facilitation of child's gaze orientation to faces which is a key precursor for social attention. Although children with neurodevelopmental disability (ND) may have reduced social skills, the role of maternal touch in contributing to gaze orientation to maternal face has not been explored in previous research. In the present study, we investigate the functions of maternal touch in dyads of mothers and children with ND, compared to dyads of children with typical development (TD).

Does preterm birth affect child temperament? A meta-analytic study.

The present meta-analytic study was conducted to examine differences in temperament between preterm and full-term children, considering behavior style and psychobiological approaches. Moreover, we explored the potential moderators of the associations between prematurity and temperament. A systematic literature search was performed on PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and CINAHL.

Mothers' and fathers' early tactile contact behaviors during triadic and dyadic parent-infant interactions immediately after birth and at 3-months postpartum: Implications for early care behaviors and intervention.

Mothers' and fathers' touch were investigated during their first naturalistic interaction with their newborns, and maternal touch was predicted from newborn to 3-months postpartum during the Still-Face (SF) procedure. Both parents displayed more nurturing types of touch when interacting with their infants for the first time. Maternal touch at newborn predicted maternal touch after, but not before, the SF 3-months later; more touch after birth was associated with more soothing, regulating, types of maternal touch following the SF, suggesting that the nature of these interactive contexts (post-birth, post-SF) may be parallel.

An Italian pilot study of a psycho-social intervention to support family caregivers' engagement in taking care of patients with complex care needs: the Engage-in-Caring project.

Background: The raising of disability and chronic illness burden among European population is calling for a new paradigm of care, focused on primary health care interventions. Engage-In-Caring is a novel multicomponent intervention clearly dedicated to improve family caregiver engagement in the care of patients with complex care needs, by supporting them to develop a stronger consciousness of their role, needs and skills.

Method: Engage-In-Caring intervention's efficacy and feasibility have been evaluated through a single arm pre-post observational pilot study settled in Rome.

Exploring the EEG mu rhythm associated with observation and execution of a goal-directed action in 14-month-old preterm infants.

Electroencephalographic mu rhythm desynchronization is thought to reflect Mirror Neuron System (MNS) activity and represents an important neural correlate of the coupling between action execution and perception. It is still unclear if the MNS in human ontogeny is already available at the beginning of postnatal life and how early experience impacts its development. Premature birth provides a "natural condition" for investigating the effects of early, atypical extra-uterine experience on MNS.

Functional Evaluation of Eating Difficulties Scale to predict oral motor skills in infants with neurodevelopmental disorders: a longitudinal study.

Aim: To assess the predictive validity of the Functional Evaluation of Eating Difficulties Scale (FEEDS) on long-term eating developmental outcomes in infants with neurodevelopmental disorders.

Method: In total, 144 infants (69 females, 75 males) aged 0 to 12 months (mean [SD] 5.34mo [3.

Methodological Challenges in Developmental Human Behavioral Epigenetics: Insights Into Study Design.

Developmental human behavioral epigenetics (DHBE) holds potential for contributing to better understanding of how early life exposures contribute to human developmental trajectories and to inform clinical practice and early interventions. Nonetheless, DHBE research to date is challenged by two major issues: (a) the frequent use of retrospective study designs; and (b) the major focus on epigenetic variations associated with early life adversities, rather than protective care exposures. In order for DHBE research to maintain its promises, these issues need to be addressed in a systematic way according to a careful methodological planning of study design.

Telomere length and salivary cortisol stress reactivity in very preterm infants.

During the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) stay, very preterm (VPT) infants are exposed to life-saving yet pain-inducing skin-breaking procedures (i.e., NICU pain-related stress) which contribute to the programming of hypo-responsive HPA axis development during the first months of life.

The dual nature of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis regulation in dyads of very preterm infants and their mothers.

The co-regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in mother-infant dyads is thought to be key for infant and child development. Nonetheless, previous literature presents some inconsistencies that might at least partially be due to the presence of risk conditions and the use of different statistical approaches to measure HPA axis co-regulation. Very preterm (VPT) birth represents one of these risk conditions as the early foundation of mother-infant interaction is disrupted.

Very preterm birth is associated with PLAGL1 gene hypomethylation at birth and discharge.

Aim: Recent findings show that DNA methylation is susceptible to very preterm (VPT) birth and to the experience of the early stay in the neonatal intensive care unit. The aim of the study was to compare PLAGL1 methylation between VPT and full-term (FT) infants at birth as well as between VPT infants at discharge and FT infants at birth.

Methods: DNA was collected from cord blood of 56 VPT and 27 FT infants at birth and from peripheral blood in VPT infants at neonatal intensive care unit discharge.

NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale: 1-month normative data and variation from birth to 1 month.

BackgroundThe Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Network Neurobehavioral Scale (NNNS) is a standardized method for infant neurobehavioral assessment. Normative values are available for newborns, but the NNNS is not always feasible at birth. Unfortunately, 1-month NNNS normative data are lacking.

The Face-to-Face Still-Face (FFSF) Paradigm in Clinical Settings: Socio-Emotional Regulation Assessment and Parental Support With Infants With Neurodevelopmental Disabilities.

The Face-to-Face Still-Face (FFSF) paradigm is a well-acknowledged procedure to assess socio-emotional regulation in healthy and at-risk infants. Although it was developed mainly for research purposes, the FFSF paradigm has potential clinical implications for the assessment of socio-emotional regulation of infants with neurodevelopmental disabilities (ND) and to supporting parenting. The present paper describes the application of the FFSF paradigm as an evaluation and intervention tool in clinical practice with infants with ND and their parents.