Latinx adolescents' daily family assistance and emotional well-being before and amid the COVID-19 pandemic: A pilot measurement burst study.

This study examined Latinx adolescents' daily family assistance (assistance day, assistance time, language brokering) in relation to their daily affect and investigated whether the associations changed following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Two waves of 14-day daily diary data collected from 13 18-year-old Latinx adolescents (ndays = 284; 77% Mexican American, 77% female) before and amid the pandemic were analyzed using multilevel modeling. Three main findings emerged: (1) assisting the family on a given day was associated with higher levels of same-day positive affect both before and during COVID-19, and with lower levels of negative affect during COVID-19; (2) longer than usual family assistance time was associated with higher levels of same-day positive affect and lower levels of negative affect only during COVID-19; (3) language brokering on a given day was associated with higher levels of same-day positive affect both before and during COVID-19. These findings suggest a positive link between daily family assistance and Latinx youth's daily emotional well-being, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Family Minds: A randomized controlled trial of a group intervention to improve foster parents' reflective functioning.

Family Minds is a brief group psychoeducational parenting intervention designed to increase the reflective functioning (RF) and mentalization skills of foster parents. RF is important for foster parents who have to build relationships with children whose adverse experiences increase their risk for psychosocial challenges. A randomized controlled trial (RCT) for Family Minds was conducted in Texas with 89 foster parents. The main aims of this study were to examine whether the intervention could significantly increase the RF/mentalization skills of the foster parents and decrease their parenting stress. After 6 weeks, compared with the control group, intervention foster parents improved their RF via a lowering of pre-mentalizing and also significantly decreased parenting stress related to parent-child dysfunctional interactions. Other measures of RF and parenting stress showed no significant differences between groups. Foster child behavior was not significantly different between groups, although data at 6 months showed a possible lowering of internalizing symptoms for children of intervention parents. This RCT provides some encouraging evidence that Family Minds may increase RF in foster parents, improve parental sensitivity and their ability to emotionally regulate, decrease parenting stress related to challenging interactions with their foster children, and possibly decrease children's internalizing behavior.

Adverse Childhood Experience histories in foster parents: Connections to foster children's emotional and behavioral difficulties.

BACKGROUND: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are known risk factors for negative health and behavioral outcomes, including caregiving. Foster parents are key to supporting foster children, yet there is limited research on their ACE history and how it might relate to their foster children's behavior. OBJECTIVE: This study addressed three research questions: (1) What are ACE totals in this sample of foster parents and how do they compare with the original CDC-Kaiser study? (2) Does foster parents' ACE exposure relate to foster child behavior? (3) Is the relation between foster parents' ACEs and children's challenging behaviors different based on the specific ACE? PARTICIPANTS & SETTING: Participants were 89 foster parents (age M = 43.3 years) and 50 of their foster children (age M = 10 years) in central Texas. Children have been in their current placements for an average of 11 months (range 1 month to 4.7 years). METHODS: Foster parents completed demographics, the ACE Questionnaire (Felitti et al., 1998) and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997). RESULTS: Results showed over 40 % of foster parents in this sample reported 2+ ACEs and 20 % reported 4+ ACEs. Foster parents' total ACEs related to foster children's emotional problems (ß = .27, p = .02), conduct problems (ß = .28, p = .01), and hyperactivity-inattention (ß = .25, p = .03). Certain ACEs related more strongly to child outcomes than others. CONCLUSIONS: Foster parents may have a higher ACE exposure than the general population. Foster parents' ACEs were associated with foster children's challenging behaviors. Future research should investigate the mechanism of this connection.

Not just about food: attachments representations and maternal feeding practices in infancy.

The present study examined maternal attachment contributions on infant feeding behavior. Feeding is central for the development of the caregiver-infant relationship with lasting effects for children's health and self-regulation. Caregivers need to be attuned during feeding, so caregivers' attachment likely influences their feeding practices. While pregnant, 116 mothers were administered the Adult Attachment Interview. They completed an assessment of infant temperament at 6 weeks. At 8 months, mother-infant dyads were videotaped during feeding and mothers completed a depression assessment. Mothers classified as preoccupied showed higher levels of feeding conflict and control and less dyadic reciprocity compared with dismissing or secure. Regression analyses revealed that both involving anger and passivity predicted control. Maternal depression moderated the effect that both involving anger and passivity had on control. Maternal unresolved trauma increased the risk that mother-infant dyads showed controlling behaviors during feeding, though was not related to conflict or attunement.

'Pulling the world in and pushing it away': participating bodies and the concept of coping.

In her lead article in this special issue, Monica Greco (2018) offers the concept of participating bodies as a 'possibility of conceiving bodies themselves-and bodily events such as disease/illness-as expressing values and perhaps even socially meaningful "preferences"'. Such a position seeks to avoid capitulation to a) an image of bodily processes as without values or responsiveness, object rather than participant; b) an image of human agents as unitary, self-knowing, sovereign choosers-unless ill. This article will explore this perspective as applied to the idea of coping. The article will explore strategies of everyday living, through particular consideration of Lauren Berlant's reading of Two Girls, Fat and Thin by Mary Gaitskill. In her interpretation of the novel, Berlant assesses the kinds of problems for subjects and bodies that may be solved or managed through participation in or refraining from participation in thinking, food or sex. The account of coping and embodiment in Berlant's reflections will then be placed in dialogue with findings by Alexandra Michel, who watched the process of physical burnout in investment banking associates during a 13-year cultural ethnography, observing as the bankers heeded or ignored the cues their bodies gave about the limits of feasible demands. The article as a whole offers an illustration of the value of Greco's reflections for offering a fresh and valuable perspective on the concept of coping.

Fathers' attachment representations and infant feeding practices.

This study examined how fathers' adult attachment representations, assessed before the birth of their first child, predict feeding practices with their 8-month-old infants. Fathers have been underrepresented in child feeding research, particularly in longitudinal and observational studies. Feeding is a key parenting task of infancy and a growing number of studies have begun to explore the connection between attachment and parental feeding practices and behavior, revealing a clear link between mothers' adult attachment and how they feed their children. This is the first longitudinal examination of attachment as a prenatal predictor of fathers' infant feeding behavior. Participants were 118 first-time fathers and their infants. Adult Attachment Interviews were conducted in the third trimester of pregnancy, and father-infant feeding interactions were observed at home when the infant was 8-months-old. Videotaped feedings were coded using Chatoor's Feeding Scale (1997). Compared to other fathers, (1) those with secure attachment representations were more attuned to their infants during feeding, (2) those with dismissing representations were less attuned, and (3) those with unresolved trauma displayed more controlling behaviors. Fathers were more controlling with their sons than their daughters across all attachment representations. Study results suggest that father's infant feeding behaviors may influence by their own attachment representations. The links to fathers' controlling feeding practices are noteworthy because of the negative implications controlling parental feeding practices can have on child outcomes. The prediction of paternal feeding behaviors from assessments conducted prenatally has important intervention implications.

Adult attachment and birth experience: importance of a secure base and safe haven during childbirth.

OBJECTIVE: Examine connections between mothers' adult attachment and subjective birth experience in the context of parity and mode of delivery. BACKGROUND: Research has established a clear connection between adult attachment and birth experience. This study extended previous research with an in-depth self-report attachment measure examining different dimensions of mothers' attachment representations and their relation to subjective birth experience.  Interactions between mode of delivery and parity were also considered. Method: Participants were 257 mothers who gave birth 4 days to 12 months prior to the study. Mothers' mean age was 30.5 years, 61% primiparas, and 26% delivered by caesarean.  Participants completed an online survey with the Birth Experience Questionnaire, the Reciprocal Attachment Questionnaire, and demographic information. RESULTS: Hierarchical moderated regression analyses showed direct effects from adult attachment dimensions to mothers' subjective birth experiences, specifically perceived availability, feared loss, separation protest, angry withdrawal, and compulsive careseeking. Interactions emerged for parity and/or mode of delivery for overall subjective birth experience, perceived control, perceived social support, and satisfaction. CONCLUSION: Adult attachment representations related to subjective birth experience, indicating that attachment figures serve as secure bases and safe havens for mothers during childbirth. These results have implications for practitioners and provide direction for future research.

Disorganized and unresolved states in adulthood.

Fear plays a central role in attachment theory and disorganization in adulthood. Fear associated with traumatic memories interferes with resolution of trauma resulting in disorganized mental states, captured as unresolved/disorganized speech surrounding loss and/or abuse in the Adult Attachment Interview. Mothers who are unresolved experience fear stemming from traumatic memories and display frightening behavior towards their infants. Disorganization can predispose individuals to dissociative mental processes, including altered states (absorption), PTSD, and depersonalization. Social psychologists have conceptualized adult disorganization as fear of the romantic partner. Studies examining stability of adult disorganization indicate unresolved loss is more readily resolved than unresolved abuse. Understanding disorganization in adulthood, including experiences that support reparation and reorganization, is important for developing effective interventions.

UNDERSTANDING THE CONNECTION BETWEEN ATTACHMENT TRAUMA AND MATERNAL SELF-EFFICACY IN DEPRESSED MOTHERS.

Maternal self-efficacy predicts sensitive and responsive caregiving. Low maternal self-efficacy is associated with a higher incidence of postpartum depression. Maternal self-efficacy and postpartum depression can both be buffered by social support. Maternal self-efficacy and postpartum depression have both been linked independently, albeit in separate studies, to the experience of violent trauma, childhood maltreatment, and spousal abuse. This study proposed a model in which postpartum depression mediates the relation between attachment trauma and maternal self-efficacy, with emotional support as a moderator. Participants were 278 first-time mothers of infants under 14 months. Cross-sectional data were collected online. Mothers completed questionnaires on attachment trauma, maternal self-efficacy, postpartum depression, and emotional support. A moderated mediation model was tested in a structural equation modeling framework using Mplus' estimate of indirect effects. Postpartum depression fully mediated the relation between trauma and maternal self-efficacy. Emotional support moderated only the pathway between postpartum depression and maternal self-efficacy. Attachment trauma's implications for maternal self-efficacy should be understood in the context of overall mental health. Mothers at the greatest risk for low maternal self-efficacy related to attachment trauma also are those suffering from postpartum depression. Emotional support buffered mothers from postpartum depression, though, which has implications for intervention and future research.

Disorganized attachment and defense: exploring John Bowlby's unpublished reflections.

Main and Solomon were the first to create a formal infant Strange Situation classification of attachment disorganization. Bowlby's reflections on the underlying psychological processes of such behaviors, however, began early in his career, including the term "disorganization." Most of these remained unpublished but are available through the John Bowlby Archive. Bowlby saw affective experiences as the source of the attachment behavioral system's organization and regulation, and he introduced the term "effector equipment" to describe the emergent organization of attention, expectation, affect, and behavior to orchestrate responses to the environment. In his thinking, disorganization results from threat conflict, safe haven ambiguity, and/or activation without assuagement, which interfere with coordination and integration across a behavioral system. Bowlby's unpublished writings also amplify his published work on segregated systems and defensive exclusion. Bowlby's insights are relevant today and can provide greater background and clarity to current work, as researchers and clinicians consider the origins, manifestations, and meaning of disorganization.

Disorganized attachment in infancy: a review of the phenomenon and its implications for clinicians and policy-makers.

Disorganized/Disoriented (D) attachment has seen widespread interest from policy makers, practitioners, and clinicians in recent years. However, some of this interest seems to have been based on some false assumptions that (1) attachment measures can be used as definitive assessments of the individual in forensic/child protection settings and that disorganized attachment (2) reliably indicates child maltreatment, (3) is a strong predictor of pathology, and (4) represents a fixed or static "trait" of the child, impervious to development or help. This paper summarizes the evidence showing that these four assumptions are false and misleading. The paper reviews what is known about disorganized infant attachment and clarifies the implications of the classification for clinical and welfare practice with children. In particular, the difference between disorganized attachment and attachment disorder is examined, and a strong case is made for the value of attachment theory for supportive work with families and for the development and evaluation of evidence-based caregiving interventions.

Birth and motherhood: childbirth experience and mothers' perceptions of themselves and their babies.

Childbirth is a major experience in a woman's life, but the relation between childbirth experiences and later mother-infant outcomes has been understudied. This study examined the relation between mode of delivery and subjective birth experience (e.g., perception of control, social support during labor and delivery), and mothers' descriptions of their babies and their maternal self-esteem, both powerful predictors of maternal caregiving behavior. This study had three questions: (a) Do mode of delivery and subjective birth experience predict mothers' descriptions of their babies and maternal self-esteem? (b) Are the effects of mode of delivery on mothers' descriptions and maternal self-esteem mediated by subjective birth experience? (c) Does infant age moderate any of these pathways? The sample consisted of 269 mothers of full-term, healthy infants who gave birth in the year prior to the study. Mode of delivery showed a direct effect on how mothers describe their babies, but not maternal self-esteem, which was not mediated by subjective birth experience. Subjective birth experience had direct effects on both outcomes. Infant age did not moderate any of these pathways. Results point to the subjective aspects of childbirth as important components of women's experience of labor and delivery. Implications are discussed.