Night waking, sleep-wake organization, and self-soothing in the first year of life.

Few objective data are available regarding infants' night waking behaviors and the development of self-soothing during the first year of life. This cross-sectional study examined 80 infants in one of four age groups (3, 6, 9, or 12 mo) for four nights by using videosomnography to code nighttime awakenings and parent-child interactions. A large degree of variability was observed in parents' putting the infant to bed awake or asleep and in responding to vocalizations after nighttime awakenings. Most infants woke during the night at all ages observed. Younger infants tended to require parental intervention at night to return to sleep, whereas older infants exhibited a greater proportion of self-soothing after nighttime awakenings. However, even in the 12-month-old group, 50% of infants typically required parental intervention to get back to sleep after waking. Results emphasize the individual and contextual factors that effect the development of self-soothing behavior during the first year of life.

Relationship disturbances and parent-child therapy. Sleep problems.

This article has attempted to establish the importance of considering behavioral disturbances in infancy and early childhood as disturbances of the parent-child relationship. When the psychologic and mental mechanisms of the individual infant are too immature to sustain disturbed behavior across several settings and when the behavioral disturbance seems to be specific to a particular relationship, it is more appropriate to diagnose the pathology as being in the relationship. The article has offered a diagnostic framework of relationship pathology that spans the spectrum from normal variation (relationship perturbation) to relationship behaviors that are at risk of becoming a disorder (relationship disturbance) to significant relationship disorders that most likely require a professional intervention. A multiaxial assessment protocol is recommended that evaluates primary relationships (Axis I), parent-infant interaction styles (Axis II), the parent and infant as individuals (Axis III), and more distal contextual factors that affect the relationship (Axis IV). Sleep disturbances in infancy have been used as an example to demonstrate the spectrum of relationship pathology. Additional research is needed to develop more precise, age-relevant cut points for the spectrum of relationship pathology for sleep problems and for other parent-infant relationship disturbances in the areas of feeding, excessive crying, and limit setting or tantrums. More research is also needed to define better when and how relationship pathology becomes transformed into individual pathology and how early intervention may alter the course of this trajectory.

Classification of young children's sleep problems: a pilot study.

OBJECTIVES: This study examines videotaped sleep in infancy in an attempt to predict the development of disturbed sleep during toddlerhood. In addition, a tentative classification scheme that quantifies night waking and sleep onset problems in young children is proposed. METHOD: The sleep patterns of 33 children were assessed at two points in time. At 12 months of age (time 1), sleep was videotaped on two consecutive nights. A self-soothing/signaling index for 12-month-olds was constructed. At time 2 (mean age = 39 months), a follow-up telephone interview assessed current sleep patterns and the presence or absence of sleep problems. RESULTS: The data suggest that the self-soothing/signaling index obtained at 12 months of age predicts night waking approximately 2 years later. CONCLUSIONS: The preliminary classification scheme for night waking and sleep onset problems in young children warrants further study. Night waking in toddlers might be predictable from sleep behaviors at 1 year of age.

Depressive experience and romantic relationships in young adulthood.

This study examined the associations between two factors of depressive experience (dependency and self-criticism) and satisfaction in adult romantic relationships. The Depressive Experiences Questionnaire, along with measures of attachment and relationship satisfaction, were administered to 107 men and 140 women attending local community colleges. Self-criticism was associated with global relationship distress and sexual dissatisfaction. In a combined regression equation, measures of self-criticism, attachment security, and attachment activation all contributed to predicting general relationship distress. Only scores on self-criticism predicted sexual dissatisfaction. The relationship dissatisfaction reported by those with high scores on self-criticism appears to be a relational aspect of the "destructiveness of perfectionism" described by Blatt.

Attachment and the representation of intimate relationships in adulthood.

Community college students in the United States (151 men, 217 women) described their current or most recent intimate relationship on questionnaires derived from the Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (Benjamin & Friedrich, 1991). Attachment organization was assessed by categories (secure, avoidant, or ambivalent) and by dimensions (Attachment Security x Level of Activation). Respondents with avoidant or ambivalent attachment described more hostility in their relationships than secure participants did. Avoidant participants described themselves as less submissive. Respondents with low attachment security and high attachment activation were especially likely to describe more hostile patterns of interaction. Those with greater attachment security also described more interdependence in the relationship. No interaction effects of attachment with amount of experience in close relationships were found.

Child sexual abuse and adult revictimization with women of color.

Clinical researchers examining the long-term consequences of child molestation have reported that female survivors of child sexual abuse experience a higher risk of sexual assaults as adults. However, very little literature has focused on the child and/or adult sexual victimization of women from different ethnic or cultural backgrounds. In examining the long-term consequences of child sexual abuse, this investigation examined the rates of sexual revictimization of women of color. A multiethnic (white, African-American, Latina, and Asian-American) sample of 243 women, recruited and randomly selected from a pool of volunteers from two community colleges, were administered extensive clinical interviews. Nearly two thirds of the women who reported rape as an adult had a history of child sexual abuse while approximately one third of the non-victimized women had a child sexual abuse history. Additionally, an examination of the rates of adult rape within each ethnic group revealed differences between the women with and without a history of child sexual abuse. Significant differences (i.e., higher rates of rape associated with a prior history of child sexual abuse) were found for white women, African-American women, and Latinas, but not for Asian-American women. The results of this investigation highlight the relationship between child sexual abuse and adult rape and suggest the need for researchers to take a broader cultural context in which to view sexual victimization.

Auditory evoked heart rate responses in pigtailed macaques (Macaca nemestrina) raised in isolation.

Heart rate (HR) responses evoked by 1 sec of 85-dB white noise were studied in 12 1-year-old pigtailed macaques, 6 of which were raised in social isolation and 6 with mothers and peers. Tests were given for 5 days, with 25 trials each day. Although baseline HR did not differ between groups, the pattern of change from baseline was not the same. Isolates showed only HR acceleration, returning to baseline within 10-11 sec of stimulus onset. Socially reared monkeys had a 10- to 11-sec biphasic response of acceleration followed by deceleration, with subsequent return to baseline. The same group difference in HR pattern occurred when subjects were tested with a less intense 65-dB stimulus. These findings were discussed in terms of activity, emotionality, and autonomic regulatory functions. It was concluded that early rearing experiences may affect later physiological processes involving autonomic nervous system balance. This conclusion was related to observations of persistent individual differences in HR by human children classified as inhibited.