Sensitive, stimulating caregiving predicts cognitive and behavioral resilience in neurodevelopmentally at-risk infants

Although neurodevelopmental impairment is a risk factor for poor cognitive and behavioral outcomes, associations between early and later functioning are only moderate in magnitude, and it is likely that other factors intervene to modify this trajectory. The current study tested the hypothesis that sensitive, stimulating caregiving would promote positive behavioral and cognitive outcomes among children who were at risk based on the results of a neurodevelopmental screener and a temperament inventory. The sample comprised 1,720 infants and toddlers from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being, a longitudinal study of children who were involved with child welfare services. Children were first assessed between 3 and 24 months of age and subsequently 18 months later. Children who experienced improvements in the amount of sensitive, stimulating caregiving they received had positive cognitive and behavioral outcomes 18 months later, despite early levels of neurodevelopmental risk. The association between changes in caregiving quality and changes in children's functioning was stronger for children who were removed from the care of their biological parents before the follow-up assessment than for children who remained in the care of biological parents, suggesting a causal role for caregiving quality on children's outcomes.     

Convergence between attachment classifications and natural reunion behavior among children and parents in a child care setting

The current study examined the convergence between young children's attachment classifications in the laboratory-based Strange Situation Procedure and children's and parents' behaviors during naturalistic reunions after a day in child care. Fifty-eight parent-child dyads participated in this study. Children's attachment security assessed from the Strange Situation Procedure was significantly associated with ratings of children's security, avoidance, and delight toward their parents during the natural reunion episodes, and with parents' responsiveness during the natural reunion episodes. These findings suggest that natural reunions at the end of the day in child care reflect the quality of attachment relationships between young children and their parents.     

Older single mothers assisted by sperm donation and their children

BACKGROUND: Knowledge about the lives of single women who choose to become mothers by sperm donation is very limited. METHODS: This study comprises 62 families headed by formally single women who, following their decision to give birth to a child with the aid of sperm donation, by means of insemination or in vitro fertilization (IVF), used the services of one sperm bank in Israel. RESULTS: The findings of the study, based on the reports obtained from the mothers in face-to-face interviews by structured questionnaires with closed-ended scales and single item open questions, present a complex picture of formally single-mother families assisted by sperm donation. They shed light on socio-demographic and conception related information of the mothers in the sample, on mothers' and children's health, on the children's socio-emotional development and mother-child relationship and on the mothers' difficulties and needs encountered in their function as single parents. CONCLUSIONS: Although the currently young children's socio-emotional development seems to be within the normal range, the mean age of 43 years at first birth of the mothers, the fact that about one-fifth of them gave birth to twins, the health condition of some of the mothers and children, and the difficulties they encounter, may raise some concerns.     

Neurocognitive development of young children with sickle cell disease through three years of age

OBJECTIVE: To determine (1) the neurocognitive development of children with sickle cell disease (SCD) from 6 months through 36 months of age, (2) the independent and combined contributions of biomedical risk and parenting risk to child neurocognitive functioning, and (3) the independent and combined contributions of biomedical risk, parent cognitive processes, and family functioning to parent adjustment. METHOD: The study sample included 89 African American children and their parents served through the Duke University-University of North Carolina Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center. Measures of cognitive and psychomotor development were obtained at 6, 12, 24, and 36 months of age, and parents completed self-report measures of the cognitive processes of daily stress and attributional style, psychological adjustment, and family functioning. RESULTS: There was no significant decrease in psychomotor functioning (PDI) over time but cognitive functioning (MDI) declined, with a significant decrease occurring between the 12- and 24-month assessment points. At 24 months, poorer cognitive functioning was associated with parenting risk, in terms of a learned-helplessness attributional style, and biomedical risk, in terms of HbSS phenotype. Levels of psychological distress within the clinical range were reported by 24% of the parents, and poorer parent adjustment was associated with high levels of daily stress, less knowledge about child development, lower expectations of efficacy, and HbSC phenotype. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that young children with SCD are at risk for neurocognitive impairment and provide support for the initiation of early intervention studies to promote neurocognitive development.     

Parenting and psychosocial development of IVF children: a follow-up study

BACKGROUND: This report details a follow-up study of the parent-child relationship and the child's psychosocial development after IVF. The pilot study compared 31 IVF families and 31 families with a naturally conceived child when the children were aged 2 years. Twenty-seven IVF and 23 control families participated again when the children were aged 8-9 years. METHODS: Fathers and mothers completed questionnaires assessing parenting variables and the child's behaviour. For most children, behavioural ratings were also obtained from the child's teacher. RESULTS: No significant differences were found between IVF and control parents' reports of child behaviour, parenting behaviour, parenting stress and most of the parenting goals. The parenting goal adjustment was significantly more important for IVF than for control fathers; religion was more important for IVF than for naturally conceiving mothers. Teacher ratings of the child's behaviour did not differ significantly between the IVF and control groups. All couples but one had talked to other persons about the IVF conception; 75% of the IVF parents had not yet informed their children. IVF parents who had informed their child observed more (internalizing and for fathers also overall) problem behaviours in their child, compared with IVF parents who had not yet disclosed the IVF conception. CONCLUSIONS: Parenting and the children's psychosocial development do not differ significantly between IVF families and control families.     

Adult attachment style and parental responsiveness during a stressful event

Despite widespread use of self-report measures of adult attachment, relatively little research has explored the predictive utility of these measures in the domain of parent-child relationships. The present study examined the association between self-reported attachment style and parental responsiveness during a stressful event. Children and their parents were observed while children received an inoculation at a county immunization clinic. Children's reactions to the inoculation were rated and parents' responsiveness was assessed with the Emotional Availability Scales (EAS). Results revealed that children of parents scoring high on self-reported attachment avoidance were more distressed during the inoculation than children of parents scoring low on avoidance. Moreover, parents high on avoidance were less responsive when children were highly distressed, whereas this pattern was reversed among parents scoring low on avoidance. Finally, the influence of adult attachment on parental behavior and children's distress was found to be independent of children's temperament and parental personality. These findings suggest that self-report adult attachment measures may be useful in the domain of parent-child relationships.     

Impact of music therapy to promote positive parenting and child development

The effectiveness of a 10-week group music therapy program for marginalized parents and their children aged 0-5 years was examined. Musical activities were used to promote positive parent-child relationships and children's behavioral, communicative and social development. Participants were 358 parents and children from families facing social disadvantage, young parents or parents of a child with a disability. Significant improvements were found for therapist-observed parent and child behaviors, and parent-reported irritable parenting, educational activities in the home, parent mental health and child communication and social play skills. This study provides evidence of the potential effectiveness of music therapy for early intervention.     

Posttraumatic stress symptoms in parents of children with acute burns

OBJECTIVE: To develop a model of risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in parents of children with burns. METHODS: Immediately following the burn and 3 months later, parents reported on their children's and their own psychological functioning and traumatic stress responses. RESULTS: Approximately 47% of the parents reported experiencing significant posttraumatic stress symptoms 3 months after the burn. Our model indicates three independent pathways to PTSD symptoms (i.e., parent-child conflict, parents' dissociation, and children's PTSD symptoms). Additionally, parents' anxiety predicted increased parent-child conflict, conflict with extended family and size of the burn predicted parents' dissociation, and size of the burn and children's dissociation predicted children's PTSD symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that many parents of children with burns suffer from posttraumatic stress symptoms. Interventions that target factors such as family conflict, children's symptoms, and parents' acute anxiety and dissociation may diminish the risk for PTSD.     

The Impact of Previous Experience on Children's Reactions to Venepunctures

The relationship between children's previous experience with venepunctures and their responses to a subsequent blood test was studied in 47 children hospitalized for a surgical intervention. We replicated the results of earlier studies, revealing no effect of the amount of experience but a significant effect of the quality of previous experience. Children with a history of negative medical experiences were found to show higher levels of state anxiety prior to the procedure and to be more distressed and less cooperative during the procedure than children with previous positive or neutral experiences. A comparison of both groups of experienced children with inexperienced children revealed that negative past experiences are likely to sensitize the child, whereas positive or neutral past experiences do not have a significant impact on subsequent reactions. This effect occurs independently of the coping style of the child (sensitizing versus repression).     

What is remembered about early childhood events?

Almost 100 years ago, Freud identified infantile or childhood amnesia, the difficulty that most adults have remembering events from their first years of life. Recent research in cognitive psychology has in fact demonstrated a paucity of verbal memories of early life experiences. Although Freud believed that childhood memories are repressed, modern explanations for childhood amnesia focus instead on cognitive and social developmental advances of the early preschool years. According to the social interaction hypothesis, a narrative sense of self emerges as a result of parent-child conversations about the past. Implications of autobiographical memory research for models of adult attachment and psychotherapy are discussed.     

Mothers' Adult Attachment Interview ratings predict preschool children's IQ following domestic violence exposure

This study examined links between mothers' Adult Attachment Interview ratings (AAI; Main, Goldwyn, & Hesse, 2003) and their preschool children's IQ among 70 families who had experienced domestic violence. As predicted, children displayed significantly stronger verbal and perceptual-organizational abilities when their mothers exhibited more secure, i.e. coherent, states of mind regarding attachment. Mothers' coherence of mind on the AAI explained 18% of the variance in children's Verbal IQ and 12% of the variance in children's Performance IQ, after controlling for maternal education. Mothers' attachment security also was related to children's total IQ score, but this association was accounted for by effects on children's Verbal IQ. Children whose mothers were rated as unclassifiable on the AAI and those whose mothers were unresolved/insecure had lower IQ scores. Although mothers who appeared more secure on the AAI were more sensitively responsive toward their children, mediational analyses suggested that there was a direct link between mothers' security and children's IQ that was not explained by sensitive parenting. This suggests that clinical interventions for children exposed to domestic violence should include helping their mothers achieve coherent ways of thinking about their own childhood experiences, including past trauma.     

Parental embodied mentalizing: how the nonverbal dance between parents and infants predicts children’s socio-emotional functioning

Parental mentalizing – the parent’s ability to envision the child’s mental states (such as desires, thoughts, or wishes) – has been argued to underlie a parent’s ability to respond sensitively to their child’s emotional needs, and thereby promote advantageous cognitive and socio-emotional development. Mentalizing is typically operationalized in terms of how parents talk to or about their infants. This work extends research on mentalizing by operationalizing parental mentalizing exclusively in terms of nonverbal, bodily based, interactive behavior, namely parental embodied mentalizing(PEM). The purpose of the current research was twofold: (1) to establish the reliability and validity of the PEM coding system; and (2) to evaluate whether such measurement predicts infant and child cognitive and socio-emotional functioning. Assessing 200 mother–infant dyads at 6 months using the coding of PEM proved both reliable and valid, including predicting child attachment security at 15 and 36 months, and language abilities, academic skills, behavior problems, and social competence at 54 months, in many cases even after taking into consideration traditional measures of parenting, namely maternal sensitivity. Conceptual, empirical, and clinical implications are discussed.     

The influence of parental distress on child depressive symptoms in juvenile rheumatic diseases: the moderating effect of illness intrusiveness

OBJECTIVE: To examine the role of children's illness-related cognitive appraisals in the parent-child adjustment relationship in a sample of children and adolescents with juvenile rheumatic disease (JRD). Specifically, we tested the moderating effect of children's perceived illness-induced barriers (i.e., illness intrusiveness) in the parent distress-child depressive symptom relationship. METHODS: Participants were 45 children and adolescents (ages 9-17) diagnosed with JRD. Children completed measures of depressive symptoms (Children's Depression Inventory), functional disability (Juvenile Arthritis and Functional Assessment Report), and illness intrusiveness (Illness Intrusiveness Scale-adapted for children); parents completed a brief measure of global distress (Brief Symptom Inventory). The pediatric rheumatologist provided functional disability ratings following a routine physical exam. RESULTS: Both increased parental distress and child illness intrusiveness were associated with greater child depressive symptoms. Direct effects were qualified by a significant Parent Distress x Illness Intrusiveness interaction. The influence of general parental distress on child depressive symptoms was enhanced under conditions of increased child-reported illness intrusiveness. CONCLUSIONS: Results support transactional conceptualizations of child adjustment to chronic illness. Findings also emphasize the need to examine the interaction of parent and child variables, particularly cognitive appraisals, in child adjustment. Results and treatment implications for children with JRD are discussed in terms of reinforcement theories of depression.     

Toward a new understanding of legacy of early attachments for future antisocial trajectories: evidence from two longitudinal studies

Early parent-child attachment has been extensively explored as a contributor to children's future adaptive or antisocial outcomes, but the specific developmental mechanisms remain to be fully understood. We examined long-term indirect developmental sequelae of early security in two longitudinal community samples followed from infancy to early school age: the Family Study (102 mothers, fathers, and infants) and the Parent-Child Study (112 mothers and infants). Constructs at multiple levels (child characteristics, parent-child security, parental discipline, and child antisocial outcomes) were assessed using a range of methods (extensive behavioral observations in a variety of settings, informants' ratings). Both studies supported the proposed model of infant attachment as a potent catalyst that moderates future developmental socialization trajectories, despite having few long-term main effects. In insecure dyads, a pattern of coercion emerged between children who were anger prone as toddlers and their parents, resulting in parents' increased power-assertive discipline. Power assertion in turn predicted children's rule-breaking conduct and a compromised capacity to delay in laboratory paradigms, as well as oppositional, disruptive, callous, and aggressive behavior rated by parents and teachers at early school age. This causal chain was absent in secure dyads, where child anger proneness was unrelated to power assertion, and power assertion was unrelated to antisocial outcomes. Early insecurity appeared to act as a catalyst for the parent-child dyad embarking on a mutually adversarial path toward antisocial outcomes, whereas security defused such a maladaptive dynamic. The possible mechanisms of those effects were proposed.     

母亲教养方式与儿童心理理论发展的关系

目的:考查母亲教养方式与儿童心理理论发展的关系。方法:53位儿童和他们的母亲参加了实验。儿童完成4个心理理论任务,母亲填写父母教养方式问卷,他们一起参加亲子互动游戏。亲子互动游戏被拍摄并编码。结果:母亲教养方式问卷的结果表明,母亲的严厉惩罚和儿童心理理论发展之间存在正相关(r=0·39,P<0·01);通过亲子互动游戏观察得到的结果表明,母亲的情感温暖理解和儿童心理理论发展之间存在正相关(r=0·40,P<0·01)。结论:母亲教养方式中的严厉惩罚和情感温暖理解与儿童心理理论的发展密切相关。     

The European study of assisted reproduction families: the transition to adolescence

BACKGROUND: Findings are presented of the second phase of a European longitudinal study of families created by assisted reproduction. The present investigation reports on data obtained during the child's transition to adolescence. METHODS: A total of 102 IVF families, 94 donor insemination (DI) families, 102 adoptive families, and 102 families with a naturally conceived child were compared on standardized interview and questionnaire measures of parenting and children's psychological well-being. RESULTS: The assisted reproduction families were similar to the adoptive and natural conception families for many of the measures of the quality of parent-child relationships. To the extent that differences were found between the assisted reproduction families and the other family types, these reflected mainly more positive functioning among the assisted reproduction families, with the possible exception of the overinvolvement with their children of a small proportion of assisted reproduction mothers and fathers. The assisted reproduction children were functioning well and did not differ from the adoptive or naturally conceived children on any of the measures of psychological adjustment. However, only 8.6% had been told about their genetic origins. CONCLUSIONS: IVF and DI families with an early adolescent child appear to be functioning well.     

Affect dysregulation in the mother-child relationship in the toddler years: antecedents and consequences

The purpose of this study was to examine child, maternal, and family antecedents of children's early affect dysregulation within the mother-child relationship and later cognitive and socioemotional correlates of affect dysregulation. Children's affect dysregulation at 24 and 36 months was defined in the context of mother-child interactions in semistructured play and toy cleanup. Dyads were classified as dysregulated at each age based on high negative affect. Affect dysregulation was associated with less maternal sensitivity and stimulation, more maternal depressive symptoms, and lower family income over the first 36 months of life. Children with early negative mood, lower Bayley Mental Development Index scores and insecure-avoidant (15 months) or insecure-resistant attachment classifications (36 months) were more likely to be in an affect-dysregulated group. Controlling for family and child variables, affect-dysregulated children had more problematic cognitive, social, and behavioral outcomes at 54 months, kindergarten, and first grade. The findings are discussed in terms of the early role played by parents in assisting children with affect regulation, the reciprocal nature of parent-child interactions, and the contribution of affect regulation to children's later cognitive, social, and behavioral competence.     

Mom or Dad Says I Shouldn't: Supervised and Unsupervised Children's Knowledge of Their Parents' Rules for Home Safety

Parents and their 8- to 10-year-old children completed matchedquestionnaires that inquired about what at-home problems wereimportant and worrisome, asked about what rules parents hadgenerated concerning potential problem situations, and suggestedseveral rules that parents and children might or might not adhereto, asking for acceptance or rejection of these rules. The parents'responses to a written questionnaire showed that the parentsrated emergency situations, encounters with strangers, playlocation, etc., as presenting important and worrisome problems,that they had formulated multiple rules concerning their children'sbehavior in these situations, and that they believed their childrenwere aware of these rules. However, the children's oral responsesto the questionnaire indicated clearly that children who wereleft unsupervised once, two to three times, or more than fourtimes a week, as well as children who were never left alone,were largely unaware of their parents' rules. These findingsare discussed in terms of their implications for child accidentprevention, child health, and child home security.