Maternal depression, parenting, and child psychological outcomes in the context of maternal pain.

Parental chronic pain is associated with adverse outcomes in children, but the mechanisms of transmission are largely untested. Mothers with chronic pain (N = 400, Mage = 40.3 years, 90.5% White) and their children (Mage = 10.33 years, 83.3% White, 50.2% female) were recruited in 2016-2018 to test longitudinal pathways of risk transmission from maternal chronic pain to children's psychological symptoms, examining roles of parenting, maternal depression, and child distress tolerance. Maternal pain was associated with positive (ß = .28) and pain-specific (ß = .10) parenting behaviors. Maternal depression was associated with lower child distress tolerance (ß = -.03), which was associated with greater child psychological symptoms (ß = -.62). Parenting and maternal pain were not prospectively associated with child outcomes. When considering the dual-generational impacts of chronic pain, physical and psychological functioning should be examined.

Supportive Emotion Socialization Mitigates Risk Between Maternal Emotion Regulation Difficulties and Preschooler Emotion Regulation.

Few studies have examined protective maternal factors that may mitigate the intergenerational transmission of risk of maternal emotion regulation difficulties on child outcomes. The current study tested whether supportive maternal emotion socialization moderated the association between maternal emotion regulation difficulties and child emotion regulation behaviors. Participants were 68 mother-preschooler (aged 36-60 months) dyads that were oversampled for maternal symptoms of borderline personality disorder, in order to achieve greater variability in the range of maternal emotion regulation difficulties. Maternal emotion regulation difficulties and supportive emotion socialization behaviors were measured using self-report questionnaires, and child emotion regulation was coded during a frustration-eliciting blocked goal task. Results partially supported study hypotheses, such that trait maternal emotion regulation difficulties were associated with child displays of sadness at low levels of supportive maternal emotion socialization, but not when mothers engaged in higher levels of supportive emotion socialization. These findings suggest that maternal emotion regulation and emotion socialization are distinctly related to child emotion expression and regulatory actions, and that adaptive maternal emotion socialization may mitigate some of the adverse transgenerational impacts of impaired emotion regulation.

The Link Between Positive and Negative Parenting Behaviors and Child Inflammation: A Systematic Review.

Children's inflammation may be an important link between parenting behaviors and health outcomes. The aims of this systematic review were to: (1) describe associations between parenting behaviors and child inflammatory markers, and (2) evaluate the relevance of existing literature to the review question. Database searches identified 19 studies that included a measure of positive or negative parenting behaviors and a marker of child inflammation, 53% of which measured parental responsiveness/warmth. Greater parental responsiveness/warmth was associated with lower levels of child pro-inflammatory markers in 60% of studies. Across studies, the association between parenting and child inflammation varied as a function of parenting construct, inflammatory measure, and sample characteristics. Studies were highly relevant, with 42% rated 5 + out of 6 for study's ability to address links between parenting behavior and child inflammation. If future research uncovers causal effects of parenting behaviors on inflammation, parenting interventions could be employed as a preventative tool.

Lessons Learned Conducting Dialectical Behavior Therapy via Telehealth in the Age of COVID-19.

Given the severity and suicide risk of patients typically treated by Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and the absence of guidelines regarding delivery of DBT via telehealth, it is crucial that the DBT treatment community gather and rapidly disseminate information about effective strategies for delivering DBT via telehealth. The current study surveyed DBT providers (N = 200) to understand challenges and lessons learned as they transitioned to conducting DBT via telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Open-ended responses to challenges and lessons-learned were coded. Most frequently noted challenges were Therapy-Interfering Behaviors and elements related to the provision of Individual Therapy and Skills Training Group. The majority of providers offered advice for implementing group skills training, avoiding or overcoming therapist burnout, and emphasized continued adherence to treatment principles, even in the context of this new treatment modality. Overall, this qualitative study marks a starting point on identifying best practices delivering DBT via telehealth for which it is anticipated that clinical recommendations in this area will evolve, informed by clinician, researcher, and consumer input.

Relations of Maternal Borderline Personality Disorder Features With Preschooler Executive Functioning and Theory of Mind.

Although children of mothers who have elevated borderline personality disorder (BPD) features are a high-risk group, there remains little research examining developmental mechanisms that place these offspring at risk for emerging psychopathology. The current study included 68 mother-preschooler dyads, in which mothers with elevated BPD features were oversampled. Preschoolers (aged 3 and 4 years) completed a battery of executive functioning (EF) and theory of mind (ToM) measures. Accounting for several covariates (family income, maternal depression, child age, and child cognitive ability), maternal BPD features were associated with preschoolers' poorer EF and, although not associated with the overall ToM measure, were associated with affect perspective taking, a component of ToM.

Enduring Association Between Parenting and Cortisol: A Meta-analysis.

Warm caregiving is associated with concurrent hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis function, although the persistence of this association over time is less established. Using longitudinal and intervention studies, this meta-analysis examined the enduring association of parental warmth (measured when children were ages < 1 through 15 years) with basal cortisol, reactivity and recovery (measured when children were ages < 1 through 25 years; k = 38; N = 6,608). These studies demonstrate no overall associations between parenting and children's HPA axis; instead there are small associations that vary based on moderators such as socioeconomic status, developmental stage, study design and stressor type, though many moderators are confounded. This first wave of studies indicates that the enduring association between parenting and cortisol is small and only understood in the context of other factors, and directly informs four sets of methodological and theoretical recommendations to strengthen this literature.