Correction to: Emotion Regulation via the Autonomic Nervous System in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

This erratum reports an error in Musser, E. D., Backs, R. W., Schmitt, C. F., Ablow, J. C., Measelle, J. R., & Nigg, J. T. (2011). Emotion regulation via the autonomic nervous system in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

The eye of the begetter: predicting infant attachment disorganization from women's prenatal interpretations of infant facial expressions.

Infant-caregiver attachment disorganization has been linked to many long-term negative psychosocial outcomes. While various prevention programs appear to be effective in preventing disorganized attachment, methods currently used to identify those at risk are unfortunately either overly general or impractical. The current investigation tested whether women's prenatal biases in identifying infant expressions of emotion--tendencies previously shown to relate to some of the maternal variables associated with infant attachment, including maternal traumatization, trauma symptoms, and maternal sensitivity--could predict infant attachment classification at 18 months postpartum. Logistic regression analyses revealed that together with women's adult history of high betrayal traumatization, response concordance with a normative reference sample in labeling infant expressions as negatively valenced, and the number of infant facial expressions that participants classified as "sad" and "angry" predicted subsequent infant attachment security versus disorganization. Implications for screening and prevention are discussed.

In an idealized world: can discrepancies across self-reported parental care and high betrayal trauma during childhood predict infant attachment avoidance in the next generation?

Adult caregivers' idealization of their parents as assessed by the Adult Attachment Interview is a risk factor for the intergenerational transmission of the insecure-avoidant attachment style. This study evaluated a briefer screening approach for identifying parental idealization, testing the utility of prenatal maternal self-report measures of recalled betrayal trauma and parental care in childhood to predict observationally assessed infant attachment avoidance with 58 mother-infant dyads 18 months postpartum. In a logistic regression that controlled for maternal demographics, prenatal psychopathology, and postnatal sensitivity, the interaction between women's self-reported childhood high betrayal trauma and the level of care provided to them by their parents was the only significant predictor of 18-month infant security versus avoidance. Results suggest that betrayal trauma and recalled parental care in childhood can provide a means of identifying caregivers whose infant children are at risk for avoidant attachment, potentially providing an efficient means for scientific studies and clinical intervention aimed at preventing the intergenerational transmission of attachment problems.

Emotion regulation via the autonomic nervous system in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Despite growing interest in conceptualizing ADHD as involving disrupted emotion regulation, few studies have examined the physiological mechanisms related to emotion regulation in children with this disorder. This study examined parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system reactivity via measures of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP) in children with ADHD (n=32) and typically developing controls (n=34), using a novel emotion task with four conditions: negative induction, negative suppression, positive induction, and positive suppression of affect. Both groups showed strong task-response effects in RSA. However, typically developing children showed systematic variation in parasympathetic activity (RSA) depending on both emotion valence (more activation for negative emotion, reduced activation for positive emotion) and task demand (more activation for suppression than induction). In contrast, children with ADHD displayed a stable pattern of elevated parasympathetic activity (RSA) across all task conditions compared to baseline. No group differences in sympathetic activity (PEP) were observed. It is concluded ADHD in childhood is associated with abnormal parasympathetic mechanisms involved in emotion regulation.