Parenting Stress Undermines Mother-Child Brain-to-Brain Synchrony: A Hyperscanning Study.

Synchrony refers to the coordinated interplay of behavioural and physiological signals that reflect the bi-directional attunement of one partner to the other's psychophysiological, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral state. In mother-child relationships, a synchronous pattern of interaction indicates parental sensitivity. Parenting stress has been shown to undermine mother-child behavioural synchrony. However, it has yet to be discerned whether parenting stress affects brain-to-brain synchrony during everyday joint activities. Here, we show that greater parenting stress is associated with less brain-to-brain synchrony in the medial left cluster of the prefrontal cortex when mother and child engage in a typical dyadic task of watching animation videos together. This brain region overlaps with the inferior frontal gyrus, the frontal eye field, and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which are implicated in inference of mental states and social cognition. Our result demonstrates the adverse effect of parenting stress on mother-child attunement that is evident at a brain-to-brain level. Mother-child brain-to-brain asynchrony may underlie the robust association between parenting stress and poor dyadic co-regulation. We anticipate our study to form the foundation for future investigations into mechanisms by which parenting stress impairs the mother-child relationship.

Impact of dysfunctional maternal personality traits on risk of offspring depression, anxiety and self-harm at age 18 years: a population-based longitudinal study.

BACKGROUND: The impact of underlying parental psychological vulnerability on the future mental health of offspring is not fully understood. Using a prospective cohort design, we investigated the association between dysfunctional parental personality traits and risks of offspring self-harm, depression and anxiety. METHODS: The association between dysfunctional parental personality traits (monotony avoidance, impulsivity, anger, suspicion, and detachment), measured in both mothers and fathers when offspring were age 9 years, and risk of offspring depression, anxiety and self-harm at age 18 years, was investigated in a population-based cohort (ALSPAC) from over 8000 parents and children. RESULTS: Higher levels of dysfunctional maternal, but not paternal, personality traits were associated with an increased risk of self-harm, depression, and anxiety in offspring. Maternal associations were best explained by the accumulation of dysfunctional traits. Associations were strongest for offspring depression: Offspring of mothers with three or more dysfunctional personality traits were 2.27 (1.45-3.54, p < 0.001) times as likely to be depressed, compared with offspring of mothers with no dysfunctional personality traits, independently of maternal depression and other variables. CONCLUSIONS: The accumulation of dysfunctional maternal personality traits is associated with the risk of self-harm, depression, anxiety in offspring independently of maternal depression and other confounding variables. The absence of associations for equivalent paternal traits makes a genetic explanation for the findings unlikely. Further research is required to elucidate the underlying mechanism. Mothers with high levels of dysfunctional personality traits may benefit from additional support to reduce the risk of adverse psychological outcomes occurring in their offspring.

Through babies' eyes: Practical and theoretical considerations of using wearable technology to measure parent-infant behaviour from the mothers' and infants' view points.

AIMS: To explore the utility of first-person viewpoint cameras at home, for recording mother and infant behaviour, and for reducing problems associated with participant reactivity, which represent a fundamental bias in observational research. METHODS: We compared footage recording the same play interactions from a traditional third-person point of view (3rd PC) and using cameras worn on headbands (first-person cameras [1st PCs]) to record first-person points of view of mother and infant simultaneously. In addition, we left the dyads alone with the 1st PCs for a number of days to record natural mother-child behaviour at home. Fifteen mothers with infants (3-12 months of age) provided a total of 14h of footage at home alone with the 1st PCs. RESULTS: Codings of maternal behaviour from footage of the same scenario captured from 1st PCs and 3rd PCs showed high concordance (kappa >0.8). Footage captured by the 1st PCs also showed strong inter-rater reliability (kappa=0.9). Data from 1st PCs during sessions recorded alone at home captured more 'negative' maternal behaviours per min than observations using 1st PCs whilst a researcher was present (mean difference=0.90 (95% CI 0.5-1.2, p<0.001 representing 1.5 SDs). CONCLUSION: 1st PCs offer a number of practical advantages and can reliably record maternal and infant behaviour. This approach can also record a higher frequency of less socially desirable maternal behaviours. It is unclear whether this difference is due to lack of need of the presence of researcher or the increased duration of recordings. This finding is potentially important for research questions aiming to capture more ecologically valid behaviours and reduce demand characteristics.

Effect of maternal zinc supplementation on the cardiometabolic profile of Peruvian children: results from a randomized clinical trial.

Zinc is an essential micronutrient for the development of the fetal renal, cardiovascular and metabolic systems; however, there is limited evidence of its effects on the postnatal cardiometabolic function. In this study, we evaluated the effect of maternal zinc supplementation during pregnancy on the cardiometabolic profile of the offspring in childhood. A total of 242 pregnant women were randomly assigned to receive a daily supplement containing iron+folic acid with or without zinc. A follow-up study was conducted when children of participating mothers were 4.5 years of age to evaluate their cardiometabolic profile, including anthropometric measures of body size and composition, blood pressure, lipid profile and insulin resistance. No difference in measures of child cardiometabolic risk depending on whether mothers received supplemental zinc during pregnancy. Our results do not support the hypothesis that maternal zinc supplementation reduces the risk of offspring cardiometabolic disease.

Categorizing the cries of infants with ASD versus typically developing infants: A study of adult accuracy and reaction time.

BACKGROUND: The cries of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) contain atypical acoustic features. The cries of typically developing infants elicit automatic adult responses, but little is known about how the atypical cries of children with ASD affect the speed with which adults process them. METHOD: We used a reaction time (RT) categorical task to analyze adults' categorization of typically developing cries, atypical (ASD) cries, mammalian animal cries, and environmental noise control sounds. 40 nonparent women (M age = 27 years) were instructed to categorize acoustic stimuli as human infant cries or non-human sounds as quickly as possible. RESULTS: The RTs for correctly categorizing the cries of children with ASD (M = 831ms, SEM = 27) were slower than RTs for typically developing child cries (M = 680ms, SEM = 6) as well as mammalian animal cries (801ms, SEM = 11) and environmental noise control sounds (M = 692ms, SEM = 10). CONCLUSIONS: This difference may reflect difficulties in adults' perceiving and processing atypical cries of children with ASD, and the findings may have implications for the parent-child relationship and for the quality of care children with ASD receive.

Immediate and selective maternal brain responses to own infant faces.

Infant faces elicit caregiving in adults. In previous research on brain responses to images of infant faces, the faces were unknown to participants. This study investigated EEG in primiparous mothers of 3- to 6-month-old infants viewing their own infant's face compared to an unfamiliar but appearance-matched infant's face. Spectral power was calculated and compared, and power at three EEG bands (delta, theta, and gamma) was found to differ between faces. Brain responses among primiparous mothers distinguish images of their own versus unfamiliar infants.

Consistency of maternal cognitions and principles across the first five months following preterm and term deliveries.

The aims of this study were to examine and compare the development of parenting cognitions and principles in mothers following preterm and term deliveries. Parenting cognitions about child development, including thinking that is restricted to single causes and single outcomes (categorical thinking) and thinking that takes into account multiple perspectives (perspectivist thinking), have been shown to relate to child outcomes. Parenting principles about using routines (structure) or infant cues (attunement) to guide daily caregiving have been shown to relate to caregiving practices. We investigated the continuity and stability of parenting cognitions and principles in the days following birth to 5 months postpartum for mothers of infants born term and preterm. All parenting cognitions were stable across time. Categorical thinking increased at a group level across time in mothers of preterm, but not term, infants. Perspectivist thinking increased at a group level for first-time mothers (regardless of birth status) and tended to be lower in mothers of preterm infants. Structure at birth did not predict later structure (and so was unstable) in mothers of preterm, but not term, infants and neither group changed in mean level across time. Attunement was consistent across time in both groups of mothers. These results indicate that prematurity has multiple, diverse effects on parenting beliefs, which may in turn influence maternal behavior and child outcomes.

Perceptions of distress in young children with autism compared to typically developing children: a cultural comparison between Japan and Italy.

This study investigates how adults in two contrasting cultures (Italian and Japanese) perceive episodes of crying of typically developing (TD) children and children with Autism Disorder (AD). Although cries of children with AD have been reported to elicit more distress in Western cultures, it is not known whether similar findings hold in Eastern cultures. In Experiment 1, we artificially modified structural parameters (fundamental frequency, duration of pauses, waveform modulation) of cries and asked Italian and Japanese adults to judge levels of expressed and felt distress in the cries. In Experiment 2, we asked Italian and Japanese adults to report these levels of distress on hearing cries of AD and TD children. In both cultures, cries with higher fundamental frequency and shorter pause durations were judged more distressing and distressed and observers perceived cries of children with AD as more distressing and distressed than cries of TD children. The similar responses in adults from two contrasting societies constitute evidence that reactions to cries of children with AD might be universal.

ASSESSMENT OF DISTRESS IN YOUNG CHILDREN: A COMPARISON OF AUTISTIC DISORDER, DEVELOPMENTAL DELAY, AND TYPICAL DEVELOPMENT.

Distress emotions in very young children are manifest in vocal, facial, and bodily cues. Moreover, children with different developmental conditions (i.e. Autistic Disorder- AD, Developmental Delay- DD, Typically Developing- TD) appear to manifest their distress emotions via different channels. To decompose channel of emotional distress display by group, we conducted a study in which video clips of crying of 18 children 18 months of age belonging to three groups (AD, DD, TD) were modified to isolate vocal, facial, or bodily cues, and 42 female adults were asked to judge the distress and typicality (expected normality) of the different stimuli. We find variation in adult judgements of distress and typicality by child group (AD, DD, TD) and by isolated cues (vocal, facial, or body). Although there is some overlap between responses to episodes of crying of children with AD and those with DD, the different cues of crying of children with AD tend to be considered more atypical and distressed than those of the other two groups (DD and TD). Early assessment of different cues of the expression of distress, and more generally of emotional expressivity in a child, may provide useful information for pediatricians and practitioners who are in contact with young children and must make clinical screening decisions. The findings also alert parents of children with AD to important aspects of their cries.

Anxiety and stress in mothers and fathers in the 24 h after their child's surgery.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Surgery in a paediatric setting stresses children and their parents. Previous studies have focused on children and the preoperative period; however, the 24 h after child surgery are highly stressful for parents as their child is still physically recovering and physician-parent communication is vital. The aims of this study are to investigate the impact of three levels of severity of paediatric surgery on mothers' and fathers' anxiety and stress and to identify factors that contribute to parental anxiety and acute stress symptoms in the first 24 h after child surgery. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 154 parents (91 mothers, 63 fathers) of children who had just undergone elective surgery for a major intervention (n = 41), minor intervention (n = 64) or day surgery (n = 49) completed questionnaires aimed at assessing levels of state anxiety and acute stress symptoms. Social network, socio-economic status and parental health locus of control were evaluated as contributors. RESULTS: Parents reported high levels of state anxiety (26% had scores on the state scale 2 standard deviations above the norm) and acute stress symptoms (28% in at least one of the four acute stress disorder symptom categories). Child's type of surgery is related to parental anxiety [F(2,134) = 38.12, P = 0.0001, eta(2) = 0.175] and acute stress symptoms [F(2,133) = 31.21, P = 0.0001, eta(2) = 0.133]. Parental state anxiety was predicted by parent's gender, trait anxiety and health external locus of control. Parent's number of acute stress symptoms was predicted by parental trait anxiety, health external locus of control, parent's level of education and the number of social contacts. CONCLUSIONS: There is a need to take into consideration parental anxiety and distress in the 24 h after child surgery. Parental well-being is related to several characteristics including the severity of child surgery; these aspects should be taken into consideration when interacting with parents in the aftermath of their child's surgery.

Fathers' play with their Down Syndrome children.

BACKGROUND: In children with Down Syndrome (DS), as in other groups of special needs children, development depends crucially on the degree to which parents provide appropriate stimulation and effective support. The majority of recent studies investigating interactions between parents and children with DS have been conducted on mothers. METHOD: Through observation of child solitary play, child collaborative play with their father, and father play with their child, the current study focused on paternal contributions to child play in association with the effective quality of father-child interactions. A total of 19 children (M chronological age = 35.32 months, SD = 10.35; M mental age = 19.58, SD = 5.43) with DS and their fathers participated in the study. Two 10-min sessions, of child solitary play and collaborative play with their father, were videorecorded. A coding system for exploratory and symbolic play was applied to both sessions, and the Emotional Availability (EA) Scales were independently applied to the collaborative play session as a measure of the effective quality of the father-child interaction. RESULTS: Children showed more symbolic play during collaborative sessions compared with solitary sessions. Bivariate correlations showed positive associations between father play and child exploratory and symbolic play. Cluster analysis identified dyads in low, medium and high EA groups, which differed in terms of each partner's play. Specifically, both fathers and children of high EA dyads were more likely to show more symbolic play and less exploratory play than those with low EA dyads. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings enrich the theoretical perspective that dyadic interactions based on emotional involvement may lead to enhanced cognitive functioning in children with DS.

Three-month-old infants' categorization of animals and vehicles based on static and dynamic attributes.

Three-month-old infants' categorization of animals and vehicles based on static and dynamic attributes was investigated using a multiple-exemplar habituation-test paradigm. Half of the infants viewed static color images of animals and vehicles, and the other half viewed dynamic point-light displays of the same animals and vehicles. Following habituation, infants viewed a novel exemplar from the habituation category and an exemplar from a novel category. Regardless of whether they viewed static or dynamic displays, infants showed habituation to varying exemplars from the same category, generalized habituation to a novel exemplar from the habituation category, dishabituated to an exemplar from a novel category, and showed a significant novelty preference for a novel-category exemplar. These findings suggest that infants categorize animals and vehicles using either static or dynamic information.

Growth and development in term infants fed long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids: a double-masked, randomized, parallel, prospective, multivariate study.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effects of dietary intake of the long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, arachidonic acid (AA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) on multiple indices of infant growth and development. DESIGN: A double-masked, randomized, parallel trial was conducted with term infants fed formulas with or without AA+DHA for 1 year (N = 239). Reference groups of breastfed infants (N = 165) weaned to formulas with and without AA+DHA were also studied. Infants in the formula groups were randomized at

Maternal responsiveness and children's achievement of language milestones.

This prospective longitudinal study examined the contribution of dimensions of maternal responsiveness (descriptions, play, imitations) to the timing of five milestones in children's (N = 40) early expressive language: first imitations, first words, 50 words in expressive language, combinatorial speech, and the use of language to talk about the past. Events-History Analysis, a statistical technique that estimates the extent to which predictors influence the timing of events, was used. At 9 and 13 months, maternal responsiveness and children's activities (e.g., vocalizations, play) were coded from videotaped interactions of mother-child free play; information about children's language acquisition was obtained through biweekly interviews with mothers from 9 through 21 months. Maternal responsiveness at both ages predicted the timing of children's achieving language milestones over and above children's observed behaviors. Responsiveness at 13 months was a stronger predictor of the timing of language milestones than was responsiveness at 9 months, and certain dimensions of responsiveness were more predictive than others. The multidimensional nature of maternal responsiveness and specificity in mother-child language relations are discussed.

Parenting beliefs and behaviors in northern and southern groups of Italian mothers of young infants.

Similarities and differences in northern and southern Italian mothers' social and didactic parenting beliefs and behaviors, and relations between their beliefs and behaviors, are reported. Both groups of mothers reported that they engaged more in social than didactic interactions with their infants, whereas in actuality both groups engaged in didactic behaviors with their infants for longer periods of time than they engaged in social behaviors. In addition, northern mothers engaged in more social interactions with their infants than did southern mothers. No correlations between beliefs and behaviors emerged in either group. These data speak to issues of intracultural variation and cross-cultural similarities in family psychology and parenting, belief-behavior relations in parenting, and the importance of methodology (parental report or observation) in the study of parenting and family functioning.

Child language with mother and with stranger at home and in the laboratory: a methodological study.

This methodological study in 33 two-year-olds shows that child speech (total utterances, word roots, MLU) occurs at about the same level in different settings (the familiar home vs. the unfamiliar laboratory), but that children speak more and in more differentiated ways with different people (mother vs. stranger). Child speech also shows significant short-term stability. Girls use more different word roots and speak in longer utterances than do boys. In spontaneous child speech, cross-context generalizations appear warranted, but they also depend on conversational partner and gender of child.

Physiological self-regulation and information processing in infancy: cardiac vagal tone and habituation.

This study investigates the role of physiological self-regulation (cardiac vagal tone) in information processing (habituation) in 81 infants. Nucleus ambiguus vagal tone (Vna, a measure of respiratory sinus arrhythmia) was used to index cardiac vagal tone. Physiological self-regulation was operationalized as the change in Vna from a baseline period of measurement to habituation. Decreases in Vna consistently related to habituation efficiency, operationalized as accumulated looking time (ALT), in all infants twice at 2 months and twice at 5 months; however, this relation was accounted for by infants who met an habituation criterion on each task. Among habituators, shorter lookers also had greater Vna suppression during habituation. Within-age and between-age suppression of vagal tone predicted ALT, but ALT did not predict suppression of vagal tone. Physiological self-regulation provided by the vagal system appears to play a role in information processing in infancy as indexed by habituation.

The Hebrew Communicative Development Inventory: language specific properties and cross-linguistic generalizations.

Cultural, linguistic, and developmental evidence was taken into consideration in constructing the HCDI, a Hebrew adaptation of the MCDI. The HCDI was then administered to a stratified sample of Israeli mothers of 253 toddlers aged 1;6 to 2;0 (M = 1;8.18). Hebrew results are presented and compared with scores from the original MCDI sample (Fenson, Dale, Reznick, Bates, Thal & Pethick, 1994). The HCDI is a reliable and sensitive measure of lexical development and emergent grammar, capturing wide variability among Israeli toddlers. In comparison with English, the relation between vocabulary size and age, as well as the shape of the growth curves for nouns, predicate terms, and closed class words relative to size of lexicon, were strikingly similar. These results indicate that conclusions concerning cross-linguistic similarities can be best documented by using parallel methods of measurement. The HCDI results support the claim that early lexical development in Hebrew and in English follow remarkably similar development patterns, despite the typological differences between the two target languages.

Contemporary research on parenting. The case for nature and nurture.

Current findings on parental influences provide more sophisticated and less deterministic explanations than did earlier theory and research on parenting. Contemporary research approaches include (a) behavior-genetic designs, augmented with direct measures of potential environmental influences; (b) studies distinguishing among children with different genetically influenced predispositions in terms of their responses to different environmental conditions; (c) experimental and quasi-experimental studies of change in children's behavior as a result of their exposure to parents' behavior, after controlling for children's initial characteristics; and (d) research on interactions between parenting and nonfamilial environmental influences and contexts, illustrating contemporary concern with influences beyond the parent-child dyad. These approaches indicate that parental influences on child development are neither as unambiguous as earlier researchers suggested nor as insubstantial as current critics claim.