Perceived autonomy during childbirth predicts mothers' parental self-efficacy: A prospective cohort study.

Experience during childbirth is an important predictor of mothers' later well-being. Using the framework of Self-Determination Theory and, we hypothesized that the degree to which women felt autonomy over their choices during childbirth would be reflected in their later confidence as parents, termed Parental Self-Efficacy (PSE). We assessed PSE as well as depressive symptoms before birth (T1, approximately 36 weeks pregnant) and after birth (T2, approximately 5 weeks postpartum). Perceptions of autonomy during childbirth were measured at T2 using the Perceived Control in Childbirth scale. Using hierarchical linear regression, we found that mothers' perceived autonomy during childbirth predicted their postpartum PSE, controlling for prenatal PSE, pre- and postnatal depression, number of childbirth interventions, and overall birth satisfaction. These data suggest that care providers' support for women's autonomy in childbirth impacts how women feel about themselves as mothers in the postpartum months.

Basic psychological needs: A framework for understanding childbirth satisfaction.

Women often report being dissatisfied with their childbirth experience, which in turn predicts negative outcomes for themselves and their children. Currently, there is no consensus as to what constitutes a satisfying or positive birth experience. We posit that a useful framework for addressing this question already exists in the form of Basic Psychological Needs Theory, a subtheory of Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, Can. Psychol., 49, 2008, 182). Specifically, we argue that the degree to which maternity care practitioners support or frustrate women's needs for relatedness, competence, and autonomy predicts their childbirth satisfaction. Using this framework provides a potentially powerful lens to better understand and improve the well-being of new mothers and their infants.

Challenging the Link Between Early Childhood Television Exposure and Later Attention Problems: A Multiverse Approach.

In 2004, Christakis and colleagues published findings that he and others used to argue for a link between early childhood television exposure and later attention problems, a claim that continues to be frequently promoted by the popular media. Using the same National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 data set (N = 2,108), we conducted two multiverse analyses to examine whether the finding reported by Christakis and colleagues was robust to different analytic choices. We evaluated 848 models, including logistic regression models, linear regression models, and two forms of propensity-score analysis. If the claim were true, we would expect most of the justifiable analyses to produce significant results in the predicted direction. However, only 166 models (19.6%) yielded a statistically significant relationship, and most of these employed questionable analytic choices. We concluded that these data do not provide compelling evidence of a harmful effect of TV exposure on attention.

Coincidence or cascade? The temporal relation between locomotor behaviors and the emergence of stranger anxiety.

Two infant milestones, self-propelled locomotion and stranger anxiety, tend to emerge at a similar age in development. An adaptive relation may exist in which the onset of one influences the development of the other in individual children. We examine whether these milestones systematically co-occur and whether one reliably precedes the other. In the current study, 104 parents completed weekly online surveys between 6 and 12 months, noting milestones as they occurred. Onset ages for locomotor behaviors were correlated with onset of stranger anxiety over and above a milestone in a third domain, namely consonant-vowel babbling. These data suggest that infants' earliest locomotor behaviors may play a role in galvanizing the development of stranger anxiety.

Playdates: A Win-Win-Win Strategy for Recruitment of Infant Participants.

High-quality developmental science requires a reliable and representative stream of participants, yet recruiting infants at a satisfactory rate can be challenging. We recently developed a new recruitment technique: we invite parents to sign up for no-strings-attached playdates in our laboratory, where we provide toys, free coffee, and students to help entertain the children. We have consistently hosted 2-3 new parents per week via playdates. Approximately 88% of attending parents agreed to be contacted later about research, and 81% of those contacted returned for research appointments. This method has doubled the number of participants we run per week, improved our rapport with the local community, and provided an enhanced educational opportunity for students in our laboratory. We hope others find it similarly transformative.

Child-directed action promotes 2-year-olds' imitation.

Children are voracious learners and adults are ubiquitous teachers. This project investigated whether the special infant-directed action modifications parents use when teaching their children (called "motionese" by Brand et al., Developmental Science, 2002, Vol. 5, pp. 72-83) improves 2-year-olds' imitation. Children saw an adult perform a series of acts on four novel objects using either an infant-directed style (including larger range of motion and enhanced boundary marking) or an adult-directed style. Children's imitation of the acts was higher in the infant-directed condition relative to the adult-directed condition, and both types of demonstration increased imitation relative to baseline (no demonstration). We propose that motionese provides information about actions, objects, and intentionality, thereby enhancing toddlers' observational learning.

Infants prefer motionese to adult-directed action.

In two studies, we investigated infants' preference for infant-directed (ID) action or 'motionese' (Brand, Baldwin & Ashburn, 2002) relative to adult-directed (AD) action. In Study 1, full-featured videos were shown to 32 6- to 8-month-olds, who demonstrated a strong preference for ID action. In Study 2, infants at 6-8 months (n= 28) and 11-13 months (n= 24) were shown either standard ID and AD clips, or clips in which demonstrators' faces were blurred to obscure emotional and eye-gaze information. Across both ages, infants showed evidence of preferring ID to AD action, even when faces were blurred. Infants did not have a preference for still-frame images of the demonstrators, indicating that the ID preference arose from action characteristics, not demonstrators' general appearance. These results suggest that motionese enhances infants' attention to action, possibly supporting infants' learning.

Acoustic Packaging of Action Sequences by Infants.

This study investigated whether acoustic input, in the form of infant-directed speech, influenced infants' segmenting of action sequences. Thirty-two 7.5- to 11.5-month-old infants were familiarized with video sequences made up of short action clips. Narration coincided with portions of the action stream to package certain pairs of clips together. At test, packaged and nonpackaged pairs of actions were presented side by side in silence. Narration heard during familiarization influenced how infants viewed the action units, such that at test, infants older than 9.5 months (but not younger) looked longer at the nonpackaged than the packaged action sequences. The role of infant-directed speech as well as other types of acoustic input in assisting infants' processing of action is discussed.