Co-regulation, relationship quality, and infant distress vocalizations observed during mother-infant interactions: Influences of maternal depression and different contexts.

Mother-infant interactions are co-regulated and provide the foundation for mother-infant relationship quality. The implications of maternal depression and contextual demands (i.e., reinstating the interaction following maternal unavailability and vocalized infant distress) on observationally coded co-regulation in mother-infant dyads (n = 40) at 4-months was investigated. Associations among co-regulation patterns and mother-infant relationship quality was also examined. Dyads participated in Still-Face (SF) and Separation (SP) procedures, with periods of maternal emotional and physical unavailability. Co-regulation was captured using the Revised Relational Coding System. Relationship quality was examined using the Emotional Availability Scales. Dyads in the depressed group had significantly more unilateral exchanges than the non-depressed group following the SF and SP perturbations. The depressed group also had significantly more distress vocalizations during the SP perturbation than the non-depressed group. Co-regulation in the depressed group was less disrupted by the SF perturbation. Positive relationship quality dimensions (maternal sensitivity, structuring, and infant responsiveness) were associated with more symmetrical and less unilateral co-regulation regardless of the interaction period. There were also context-specific results pertaining to patterns of co-regulation and associated maternal hostility and infant responsiveness. Results highlight co-regulatory differences in depressed mothers and their infants and how these differences are exacerbated by contextual demands.

Do you see what I see? Exploring maternal and child perceptions of children's anxiety longitudinally.

The goals of this study were to investigate (a) the dyadic relations of mothers' and children's perceptions of children's anxiety symptoms across development, (b) whether maternal perceptions of children's anxiety serve as a mediator of the association between maternal anxiety and child anxiety, and (c) whether sensitive/structured parenting moderates these processes. Participants were 180 mother-child dyads (96 female) recruited from Quebec, Canada, and assessed in preschool, middle childhood, and early adolescence. Mothers and children completed questionnaires on children's anxiety, and mothers additionally completed a questionnaire on their own anxiety. Maternal sensitivity/structuring was assessed from an observed interaction task. Results from an actor-partner interdependence model suggest (a) maternal perceptions of children's anxiety in middle childhood predict children's self-perceptions in adolescence, but not vice versa; (b) maternal perceptions in middle childhood mediate the link between maternal anxiety in early childhood and child self-perceptions of anxiety in adolescence; and (c) the indirect effect of maternal perceptions is moderated by maternal sensitivity/structuring such that mothers who perceived more anxiety in their children and who were observed to show lower levels of sensitivity/structuring in middle childhood tended to have children who perceived more anxiety in adolescence. Findings suggest that maternal awareness of children's anxiety may be one mechanism, in the presence of relationships characterized by lower levels of sensitivity, through which anxiety risk is transferred from parent to child over time. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Specialized and versatile antisocial behavioral profiles in preschoolers: Associations with persistent behavioral problems.

This study investigated specialized and versatile antisocial patterns in preschoolers and examined the link between these patterns and the risk of developing chronic antisocial behaviors throughout childhood. A total of 556 children (50.6% boys, 88% White) participated in this three-wave longitudinal study at 3-5, 6-8, and 10-12 years old. A latent transition analysis revealed that most preschoolers (89.5%) who adopt several subtypes of antisocial behaviors simultaneously exhibit stable and severe antisocial behaviors throughout childhood. In contrast, most preschoolers (60%) who favor one specific subtype of antisocial behaviors desist from such behaviors between preschool and preadolescence. Importantly, aggression accompanied by other subtypes of antisocial behaviors predicted chronicity better than aggression alone, casting doubt on the notion that aggression is the strongest predictor of chronicity.

An intensive longitudinal investigation of maternal and infant touching patterns across context and throughout the first 9-months of life.

Touch is a central component of mothers' and infants' everyday interactions and the formation of a healthy mother-infant relationship. Twelve mothers and their full-term infants from the Midwest, USA participated in the present study, which examined the quality and quantity of their touching behaviors longitudinally at 1-, 3-, 5-, 7-, and 9-months postpartum and within two normative interaction contexts (face-to-face, floor play). Findings revealed that mothers' and infants' individual touch patterns, varied according to context, infant age (time), and the specific type of touch examined. At 1-month postpartum, dyads coordinated their touch via behavioral matching and were especially reliant on rudimentary types of touch with soothing and regulatory properties (static/motionless touch, stroking). As infants aged to 9-months, dyads transitioned to a more complex form of tactile synchrony characterized by the parallel use of complementary types of touch (grasp, poke, pull). This evolution of tactile synchrony may reflect infants' growing behavioral repertoire and increased capacity to use more refined forms of touch. To our knowledge, this study was the first of its kind, uniquely contributing to the scant knowledge about the development of mother-infant touch and synchrony and offering direct implications for early care practices and infant health and well-being.

The longitudinal effects of maternal parenting practices on children's body mass index z-scores are lagged and differential.

BACKGROUND: The longitudinal relation between parenting practices and styles with children's body mass index z-scores (zBMI) is poorly understood. Previous studies suggest the relationship may be complex, but small samples and short follow-ups diminish the strength of the evidence. The objectives of this study were to investigate whether the relationship is bidirectional, time-varying, and lagged using data from a large, representative birth cohort of Quebec children. METHODS: Data were from the Québec Longitudinal Study of Child Development (QLSCD), a prospective birth cohort (n = 1,602). The mothers' interactions with their children (at ages 6, 8, 10, and 12 years) were utilized in factor analysis to identify three latent parenting practices (disciplinarian, lenient, and responsive). The parenting practices were analyzed with K-means clustering to identify the parenting styles. The temporal and bidirectional relationships were assessed in a cross-lagged path analysis using a structural equation modelling framework. Mixed models controlling for age, sex, income, mother's education, and whether the participant was first-born were estimated. Missing data were handled with full information maximum likelihood. RESULTS: From the linear mixed models, greater lenient and responsive parenting practices were associated with higher zBMI (B = 0.03, p < 0.05) two years later. However, there was no evidence that the relationship was bidirectional nor that parenting style was predictive of children's zBMI. CONCLUSION: While mothers' parenting practices were unaffected by their children's zBMI, parental practices were predictive of future zBMI among their prepubertal children. More in-depth exploration of parenting practices and their potential impact on pediatric weight is needed.

Relationship Quality and Mental Health Implications for Adolescents during the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Longitudinal Study.

Although parent-adolescent and peer-adolescent relationship quality are critical for adolescent wellbeing during typical stressful life events, the unique features of the COVID-19 pandemic put into question whether strong parent-adolescent and peer-adolescent relationship quality functioned as protective factors of adolescent mental health in this context. The current longitudinal study examined a community sample of adolescents across 3 time points, each 6 months apart (Time 1: Fall, 2019; n = 163, 50.9% male; mean age = 15.75 years, SD = 1.02). Results showed that increases in depression symptoms, perceived stress, and emotion dysregulation from Fall 2019 to Fall 2020 were predicted by changes in parent, but not peer relationship quality. The current study demonstrates that adolescent-parent relationship quality may be protective against mental health difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic, while adolescent-peer relationship quality may not. Identifying protective factors that may play a role in mitigating the impact of the pandemic, and other such widespread health crises, on youth mental health is critical in reducing the long-term psychological harm of the viral outbreak, as well as promoting adolescent wellbeing and resilience.

Associations between early poverty exposure and adolescent well-being: The role of childhood negative emotionality.

Using a longitudinal design (Wave 1 n = 164, Mage = 3.57 years, 54% female, predominantly White and French-speaking), the current study sought to answer two questions: 1) does poverty influence children's negative emotionality through heightened family-level, poverty-related stress? and 2) is negative emotionality, in turn, predictive of adolescent internalizing symptoms, externalizing behaviors, cognitive abilities, and physical health? Results confirmed an indirect pathway from family poverty to child emotionality through poverty-related stress. In addition, negative emotionality was associated with adolescent internalizing symptoms, attention difficulties, and physical health, but not externalizing symptoms, even when controlling for early poverty exposure.

Co-regulation and parenting stress over time in full-term, very low birthweight preterm, and psycho-socially at-risk infant-mother dyads: Implications for fostering the development of healthy relationships.

From birth, mothers and infants co-regulate their interactions that are shaped by their socio-emotional development, relationship history, current circumstances, and goals. However, few studies have longitudinally explored co-regulation in the context of medical and psycho-social risk. The present 4-wave longitudinal study sought to shed light on factors associated with co-regulation over time in infants from 6- to 48-months. The objectives were to 1) identify differences in co-regulation among low- and at-risk infant-mother dyads, 2) explore changes in co-regulation over time, and 3) explore the associations between infant-mother co-regulation and parenting stress in these low- and at-risk groups over time. Participants included three groups of infant-mother dyads (full-term [FT], n = 48; very low birthweight/preterm [VLBW/preterm] born 26-32 weeks, weighing 800-1500 g, n = 61; psycho-socially at-risk where parents had histories of socioeconomic disadvantage, n = 54) followed longitudinally at 6-, 12-, 18-, and 48-months of age. Dyads engaged in a free play in their homes that was coded for co-regulation using Fogel, de Koeyer, Secrist, Sipherd, Hafen, and Fricke's (2003) Revised Relational Coding System (RRCS), and mothers reported on their level of parenting stress. Results from MANOVAs at each time point indicated significant differences between the groups at 18-months, with psycho-socially at-risk dyads engaging in more one-sided interactions than FT and VLBW/preterm dyads, and more dysregulation and miscommunication than VLBW/preterm dyads. Multi-level models of co-regulation revealed that dyads became progressively less synchronous from 6- to 12-months, followed by greater synchrony and mutual reciprocity from 12-months onwards. Parenting stress was associated with less synchrony and less mutual reciprocity amongst the at-risk groups. Maternal education was associated with greater engagement and girls tended to engage in more synchronous interactions than boys. Our results underscore the value and implications of considering background risk and concurrent parent perceptions in the development and reciprocity of parent-infant co-regulation and their subsequent relationships from infancy onwards.

Conflict Resolution and Emotional Expression in Sibling and Mother-Adolescent Dyads: Within-Family and Across-Context Similarities.

Early adolescents (aged 12-15) were observed during dyadic conflict discussions with their siblings (n = 23) and mothers (n = 32) in their homes. The verbal conflict behaviors and affect of family members were coded continuously. Sequential analyses identified temporal associations between individuals' affect and their own and their partners' verbal conflict behaviors. In addition, within-family and across-context similarities in behavior were examined. Results revealed that while many links between emotion and behavior were consistent with previous research (e.g., attack/assert when frowning/upset, withdraw/concede when sad), several differences emerged depending on the relationship (sibling vs. mother-adolescent) and position in the family (e.g., adolescent vs. mother). Furthermore, many within-family similarities were observed in responses to emotion, while adolescents showed few similarities in their behavior across contexts. Results are discussed in relation to the developmental context of early adolescence and family systems theory.

Promoting Postsecondary Education in Low-Income Youth: The Moderating Role of Socio-Behavioral and Academic Skills in the Context of a Major Educational Reform.

Governments around the world are pressed to invest in postsecondary education. However, little research exists to document whether large-scale educational reforms aimed at increasing rates of postsecondary attendance benefit youth's developmental outcomes. This study tested whether an educational reform occurring in Québec, Canada, in the 1960s increased educational levels, and whether it benefitted some youth more than others. In the 1970's, 4109 low-income youth (50% females) aged 7-13 years old were recruited at Time 1 from first, fourth, and seventh grade classes (Mage = 10.6, SD = 2.5). Socio-behavioral characteristics and academic skills at Time 1 were examined as predictors of educational attainment at Time 2, three decades later, on 3883 of the same participants. Multinomial logistic regressions were used to examine the likelihood of youth obtaining a diploma from the newly created, accessible, and affordable colleges ("cégeps"). Low-educated groups (high school dropouts and high school graduates) presented a higher early risk profile than did college graduates. Interactions revealed that social withdrawal protected youth from disadvantaged neighborhoods, helping them graduate from college. Likeability helped academically weaker girls go beyond college and access university, and helped academically competent boys graduate from college. Aggressive behavior decreased the odds of university attendance for academically competent boys. Policies promoting higher education for disadvantaged youth should be supplemented with early interventions integrating academic and socio-behavioral objectives.

The mental health implications of COVID-19 for adolescents: Follow-up of a four-wave longitudinal study during the pandemic.

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared a pandemic due to the global outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). While scientists have moved quickly to study the physical health implications of the disease, less attention has been paid to the negative mental health repercussions. The current study utilized a community sample of adolescents who had recently completed a 2-year, four wave study of adolescent mental health (Wave 1 n = 184, Mage = 13.9 years; 50.3% female). Participants were recontacted to assess their anxiety, depression, and emotion dysregulation symptoms during the pandemic. Latent growth modeling based on four pre-COVID time points indicated the extent to which the fifth (COVID) time point deviated from trend expectations. Results showed that (a) anxiety and depression scores were significantly higher than previous trajectories would have predicted, and (b) deviations from personal trajectories were associated with higher levels of perceived lifestyle impact due to the pandemic. Furthermore, gender-based analyses revealed that financial impacts, lifestyle impacts, and coronavirus fear were differentially associated with symptom increases for male and female participants. The current study is among the first to report that adolescent mental health trajectories have been altered in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. As physical distancing and other safety precautions may be required for several years, it is essential that we gain a deep understanding of how prevention efforts are associated with significant disruptions to youth mental health to bolster youth resilience during these unprecedented times. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Family Members' Perceptions of Their Psychological Responses One Year Following Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) Hospitalization: Qualitative Findings From the Caring Intensively Study.

Introduction: PICU hospitalization can have a profound impact on child survivors and their families. There is limited research on children's long-term recovery within the context of the family following critical illness. This study aimed to explore children's and parents' perceptions of long-term psychological and behavioral responses within the context of the family one year following PICU hospitalization. Materials and Methods: Caring Intensively is a mixed methods multi-site prospective cohort study that aims to examine children's psychological and behavioral responses over a 3-year period following PICU hospitalization. In this study, part of the qualitative arm of Caring Intensively, an interpretive descriptive design was used to explore children's recovery one year post-discharge. Purposive sampling was used to select 17 families, including 16 mothers, 6 fathers, and 9 children. Semi-structured, audio-recorded interviews were conducted. Data were analyzed iteratively using the constant comparison method. Results: Families described efforts to readapt to routine life and find a new normal following PICU hospitalization. Finding a New Normal consisted of four major themes: (1) Processing PICU Reminders and Memories, (2) Changing Perceptions of Health and Illness, (3) We Are Not the Same, and (4) Altered Relationships. Participants described significant emotional and behavioral changes during the year following discharge. The psychological impact of individual family members' experiences led to changes in their sense of self, which affected family dynamics. PICU memories and reminders impacted participants' perceptions of childhood health and illness and resulted in increased vigilance. Parents and siblings demonstrated increased concern for the child survivor's health, and the experience of long absences and new or altered caregiving roles resulted in changes in relationships and family dynamics. Conclusion: PICU hospitalization impacted the psychological well-being of all family members as they sought to re-establish a sense of normalcy one year following discharge. Parent and child experiences and responses were closely interconnected. Findings highlight the importance of increased follow-up care aimed at supporting the family's psychological recovery.

Emotion regulation from infancy to toddlerhood: Individual and group trajectories of full-term and very-low-birthweight preterm infants.

Adaptive emotion regulation begins with infants operating jointly with their parents to regulate their emotions, which fosters the development of independent regulation. Little is known about when or how this transition occurs, or the impact of factors such as parental availability or premature birth status. The current study examined the use of self-soothing, attentional distraction, and dyadic regulation in full-term and healthy very-low-birthweight (VLBW) preterm infant-mother dyads at 5 ½, 12, and 18 months of age. At 5 ½ months, dyads participated in the Still-Face procedure. At 12 and 18 months, dyads participated in two free-play interactions, a puzzle task, and an interference task. Emotion regulation behaviors were coded using two systematic, observational systems. Results indicated that infants used less self-soothing and attentional distraction and more dyadic regulation as they aged. Increased use of self-soothing at earlier ages predicted increased use of dyadic regulation at subsequent ages. Toddlers used more independent, attention-seeking, and escape behavior during periods of maternal unavailability. There were no significant differences between full-term and VLBW/preterm toddlers' emotion regulation behaviors. Results from the current study contribute to the understanding of normative development of emotion regulation and the risk associated with prematurity.

Conflict Resolution and Emotional Expression in Mother-Preadolescent Dyads: Longitudinal Associations with Children's Socioemotional Development.

How youth learn to manage emotions during mother-child conflict influences their socioemotional development. Ninety-four mother-preadolescent (aged 9-13, 57.4% female) dyads were observed during conflict discussions and completed questionnaire measures at one prior time-point (Time 1; ages 6-10) and one subsequent time-point (Time 3; ages 11-16) to the observations (Time 2). The temporal associations between individuals' emotional expressions and their own and their partners' verbal conflict behaviors were observed. Mothers and preadolescents were more attacking and assertive when angry, and more conciliatory and avoidant when sad. Neutral affect predicted the most constructive behaviors, while positive affect promoted avoidance. The responses were similar following their partners' emotions. Maternal conflict-escalating responses to anger were associated with difficult characteristics in earlier childhood and socioemotional difficulties in adolescence. Maternal and child de-escalation following sadness predicted socioemotional adjustment in adolescence. These results demonstrate that conflict resolution between preadolescents and their mothers is influenced by the emotional climate of the interaction, and that the management of negative emotions within the dyad is tied to youth's socioemotional development.

Predicting psychosis-spectrum diagnoses in adulthood from social behaviors and neighborhood contexts in childhood.

Research showing that risk for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder with psychosis, and other psychosis-spectrum diagnoses in adulthood is multidetermined has underscored the necessity of studying the additive and interactive factors in childhood that precede and predict future disorders. In this study, risk for the development of psychosis-spectrum disorders was examined in a 2-generation, 30-year prospective longitudinal study of 3,905 urban families against a sociocultural backdrop of changing economic and social conditions. Peer nominations of aggression, withdrawal, and likeability and national census information on neighborhood-level socioeconomic disadvantage in childhood, as well as changes in neighborhood socioeconomic conditions over the lifespan, were examined as predictors of diagnoses of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other psychosis-spectrum disorders in adulthood relative to developing only nonpsychotic disorders or no psychiatric disorders. Individuals who were both highly aggressive and highly withdrawn were at greater risk for other psychosis-spectrum diagnoses when they experienced greater neighborhood disadvantage in childhood or worsening neighborhood conditions over maturation. Males who were highly aggressive but low on withdrawal were at greater risk for schizophrenia diagnoses. Childhood neighborhood disadvantage predicted both schizophrenia and bipolar diagnoses, regardless of childhood social behavior. Results provided strong support for multiple-domain models of psychopathology, and suggest that universal preventive interventions and social policies aimed at improving neighborhood conditions may be particularly important for decreasing the prevalence of psychosis-spectrum diagnoses in the future.

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. To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the full range of maternal and paternal touching behaviors during the first hour after birth. It is also one of the only investigations that considers how mothers' very first touch and physical contact relate to their later touch at 3-months. Our results uniquely contribute by revealing the nurturing and predictive quality of parents' touch, and underscore touch as a primary means of early contact and communication.

Depressed and non-depressed mothers' touching during social interactions with their infants.

Touch is a critical channel of communication used by mothers to communicate and interact with their infants and to contribute to their infants' socio-emotional development. The present study examined maternal touching in 41 mothers with and without depressive symptomatology. Mothers and their 4-month-old infants participated in the Still-Face (maternal emotional unavailability) and Separation (maternal physical unavailability) procedures. Maternal touching behaviours were video-recorded and coded using the Caregiver Infant Touch Scale (CITS). Results indicated that mothers with higher levels of depressive symptoms engaged in less touching following the perturbation period in the Still-Face procedure, whereas mothers with lower levels of depressive symptoms maintained stable levels of touching across both interaction periods. Mothers with higher levels of depressive symptoms displayed less playful/stimulating types of touching. Taken together, these results underscore the importance of touch and suggest key differences in touching behaviour between dyads with maternal depressive symptomatology and those without.

How children's anxiety symptoms impact the functioning of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis over time: A cross-lagged panel approach using hierarchical linear modeling.

Anxiety symptoms in childhood and adolescence can have a long-term negative impact on mental and physical health. Although studies have shown dysregulation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis is associated with anxiety disorders, it is unclear how and in what direction children's experiences of anxiety symptoms, which include physiological and cognitive-emotional dimensions, impact the functioning of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis over time. We hypothesized that higher physiological symptoms would be contemporaneously associated with hypercortisolism, whereas cognitive-emotional symptoms would be more chronic, reflecting traitlike stability, and would predict hypocortisolism over time. One hundred twenty children from the Concordia Longitudinal Risk Research Project were followed in successive data collection waves approximately 3 years apart from childhood through midadolescence. Between ages 10-12 and 13-15, children completed self-report questionnaires of anxiety symptoms and provided salivary cortisol samples at 2-hr intervals over 2 consecutive days. The results from hierarchical linear modeling showed that higher physiological symptoms were concurrently associated with hypercortisolism, involving cortisol levels that remained elevated over the day. In contrast, longitudinal results over the 3 years between data collection waves showed that chronic worry and social concerns predicted hypocortisolism, showing a low and blunted diurnal cortisol profile. These results have implications for broadening our understanding of the links between anxiety, the stress response system, and health across the course of development.

Maternal Emotion Socialization Mediates the Relationship between Maternal and Adolescent Negative Emotionality.

Parents and children with high negative emotionality may be more likely to provide and receive non-supportive contingencies, respectively. However, no study has examined child and parent negative emotionality in the same study and explored whether the link between child and parent negative emotionality may exist in part because of parental emotion socialization. The present study was designed to explore the link between the negative emotionality of mothers and their adolescent children and the potential mechanisms for this similarity. Maternal emotion socialization was explored as a mediator between maternal and adolescent negative emotionality, and between maternal negative emotionality and adolescent internalizing symptoms. Participants were mothers (M age = 30.47) with their children at two time points: preschool (Time 1; M age = 4.55 years old) and adolescence (Time 2; M = 13.73), with 81 boys and 94 girls. Negative emotionality was measured using a questionnaire, with mothers reporting for herself and her child. Maternal emotion socialization was measured by mothers' self-report of their contingencies to their adolescent child's negative emotions: 1) Punish; 2) magnify; 3) ignore; 4) override; and 5) support. The results revealed that the maternal punishing of the adolescent's negative emotions was a mediator between concurrent mother negative emotionality and adolescent negative emotionality, such that higher mother negative emotionality was associated with more punishing, and more punishing was associated with higher adolescent negative emotionality, controlling for previous levels of maternal and child negative emotionality. Furthermore, being supportive of a child's negative emotions was negatively associated with concurrent levels of adolescent internalizing symptoms, while magnifying a child's emotions held a marginal positive association, controlling for previous levels of internalizing symptoms. The results highlight the importance of considering maternal emotion socialization strategies, even into adolescence, for a more comprehensive understanding of children's emotional well-being. The findings have implications for developing and implementing emotion-based parenting interventions.

Developmental patterns of change in mother and child emotional availability from infancy to the end of the preschool years: A four-wave longitudinal study.

In this four-wave longitudinal study, we examined intraindividual developmental patterns of change in mother-child emotional availability (EA) during infancy and the preschool years, the factors that promote or hinder it, and the longitudinal within-dyad association between maternal and child EA. Mother-infant dyads (N = 56) were observed at home when children were 6,12, 18 and 55-months-old. Multilevel growth modeling revealed that mother and child EA follow distinct trajectories across time. While maternal EA was found to be stable, a significant increase in child EA was found across the infancy years and into preschool. The results from the study also provide evidence for a sustained within-dyad relation between mother and child EA across time and suggest that mother, child, and contextual factors can create variations in the trajectories of maternal EA over time. The findings lead to a deeper understanding of the intraindividual changes that occur in mother and child EA across the infancy years and into preschool and the factors that can promote or hinder it.