Mind-mindedness and styles of interaction of young fathers with their infants at three months: a pilot study.

BACKGROUND: Fatherhood at a young age can be characterized by a multiproblematic background with several risk factors that can negatively affect father-child relationships, the father's well-being and child's social-emotional development. METHODS: This pilot study evaluated paternal interaction styles and mentalization in a sample of 22 young fathers and their 3-month-old infants and compared these variables with those of 22 adolescent and young mothers (the fathers' partners). Parent-infant interaction were codified with Care-Index to evaluate styles of interaction and with Mind-Mindedness system to evaluate mentalization. RESULTS: The results showed that young fathers had high scores in controlling behaviors and low scores in sensitivity, placing them in a risk range. The young father's interaction profile did not differ from the young mother's interaction profile. Infants had high scores in passive behaviors and low scores in cooperative behaviors, placing them in a high-risk range. Moreover, young fathers had more nonattuned mind-related comments than their partners. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that low responsiveness and low mind-mindedness characterize the quality of adolescent and young father-infant interactions, highlighting the value of providing early intervention to support the father-child relationship, enhancing the father's sensitivity and his ability to keep the infant in mind.

Defensive activation to (un)predictable interoceptive threat: The NPU respiratory threat test (NPUr).

Potentially life-threatening interoceptive sensations easily engage the behavioral defensive system. Resulting fear and anxiety toward interoceptive threat are functionally distinct states that are hypothesized to play a prominent role in the etiology of panic disorder. The present study aimed to investigate whether fear- and anxiety-potentiated startle responses occur to predictable and unpredictable interoceptive threat, respectively. Therefore, we modified the NPU threat test (Schmitz & Grillon, ) and replaced the aversive electrocutaneous stimulus with an aversive interoceptive stimulus (a breathing occlusion, making it briefly impossible to breathe). Healthy participants (N = 48) underwent three instructed conditions. A visual cue signaled the occlusion in the predictable condition (P), whereas another cue was unrelated to the occurrence of the occlusion in the unpredictable condition (U). The safe condition (N) also had a visual cue, but no occlusion. Both fear- and anxiety-potentiated startle blink responses were observed in response to predictable and unpredictable respiratory threat, respectively. The current study presents and validates the NPU respiratory threat test (NPUr) as an ecologically valid paradigm to study both anxiety and fear in response to a panic-relevant interoceptive threat. The paradigm allows future testing of contextual generalization, investigation of different clinical groups, and more explicit comparisons of defensive responding to interoceptive versus exteroceptive threats.