Infants' response to a mobile phone modified still-face paradigm: Links to maternal behaviors and beliefs regarding technoference.

Interruptions to parent-child interactions due to technology, or "technoference," have been correlated with a host of negative child developmental outcomes. Yet, the influence of technoference on parent-infant interactions and infant behaviors has received less attention and more experimental work is warranted. For this study, parent-infant dyads (n = 227) completed a modified still-face paradigm (SFP) using a mobile phone during the still-face phase. Infant responses were coded for positive and negative affect, object and parent orientation, self-comforting, and escape behaviors during the task. Results showed a robust still-face effect, with infants displaying increased negative affect, decreased positive affect, increased self-comforting, object orientation, and escape behaviors during the "still-face" or phone distracted phase of the paradigm and frequently failing to return to baseline during the reunion phase. Older infants (older than 9 months) likewise demonstrated higher levels of negative affect across all three phases of the paradigm relative to younger infants (less than 9 months). Parent reports of technoference behavior were related to increased object orientation for younger infants. Parental technoference behaviors were also linked to more escape behaviors for younger infants and decreased object orientation in older infants during the still-face portion of the SFP. Higher levels of technoference also appear to attenuate the negative emotional response of infants during still face. Results are discussed in relation to infants' increasing exposure to digital technology in the context of early relationships.

Does marital conflict predict infants' physiological regulation? A short-term prospective study.

Prior research has linked marital conflict to children's internalizing/externalizing disorders, insecure attachment, and poor emotional regulation (e.g., Cummings & Davies, 2010; Cummings, Iannotti, & Zahn-Waxler, 1985). Although investigators have examined the impact of marital discord on older children (e.g., Crockenberg & Langrock, 2001), few have explored direct links in infancy (e.g., Cowan & Cowan, 1999). This study extends earlier work by examining linkages between marital functioning (conflict and harmony) and infants' cardiac vagal tone and developmental status across 2 time points using a cross-lag approach. Differential findings were found for boys and girls, with concurrent linkages between marital love and vagal tone at 6 months for boys and girls but only for boys at 12 months. In addition, marital conflict at 6 months predicted lower cardiac vagal tone in girls at 12 months but not boys. Finally, infants' developmental status at 6 months was found to predict marital conflict at 12 months. Higher scores on the Psychomotor Development Index (PDI) predicted greater marital conflict whereas higher scores on the Mental Development Index (MDI) predicted lower conflict. These findings are discussed in the context of the emotional security hypothesis and the spillover framework as well as differential susceptibilities to early developmental contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record

"Be still my beating heart": linkages between mother-infant co-regulation and brief bradycardia at the onset of arm-restraint in 6-month-old infants.

This study examined linkages between 6-month-old infants' (n = 101) orienting response, measured physiologically by brief bradycardia or heart deceleration at the onset of a frustration task (maternal arm-restraint) and mother-infant co-regulation measured during a 15-min unstructured free play episode. Given the socially disruptive nature of the frustration task, we suspected that infants who experienced more positive co-regulated interactions including symmetrical (both partners actively engaged and attending to each other) or asymmetrical (one partner actively engaged while partner attends to the other) with mothers would be more likely to display an orienting response (bradycardia) during the onset of the arm-restraint procedure than infants who experience unilateral (one partner focused on other but the other focused on self), unengaged (neither partner attending to the other) or disruptive interactions. Findings indicate that dyads that experienced more asymmetrical co-regulation had infants who were more likely to experience bradycardia while unengaged interactions predicted the absence of bradycardia. These findings suggest that mother-infant co-regulation may help establish expectations about social interactions and that when these relational expectancies are violated infants are more likely to exhibit bradycardia at the onset of a socially disruptive task. Alternative explanations are also considered.

Does Brief Bradycardia at the Onset of Arm-Restraint Predict Infants' Emotional Reactivity During Restraint?

Using electrocardiogram data with 78 six-month-old infants, this study examined the presence or absence of brief orienting bradycardia during the onset of maternal arm-restraint and subsequent differences between infants on behavioral organization during restraint. Results showed that 45 of the infants exhibited brief episodes of bradycardia at the onset of arm-restraint. Group comparisons showed infants exhibiting bradycardia to have greater emotional reactivity during the arm-restraint protocol, which included a shorter latency to cry, decreased orientation toward mother, increased escape attempts during restraint, greater intensity of crying, and longer duration of crying than non-bradycardiac infants. These findings suggest that bradycardia at the outset of a mild perturbation episode may signal infants' attention to the emotional content of novel dyadic interactions and the disruption of expectancies in ongoing interactions, leading them to become distressed more quickly, turn their attention away from mom, and attempt to escape the restraint with greater vigor.

Predicting preschoolers' social-cognitive play behavior: attachment, peers, temperament, and physiological regulation.

Research on children's social-cognitive play typologies (i.e., active and passive forms of solitary and social play) suggests links of early play behaviors and later social development and risk status. To date, few studies have examined simultaneously suspected links between children's social-cognitive play types and factors believed to shape these early social-play behaviors. This study examined a simultaneous model of individual (temperament, physiology) and relational variables (attachment, peer networks) believed to influence children's social-cognitive play types, including individual characteristics drawn from the Child Behavior Questionnaire which measures dimensions of shyness and impulsivity, a lab-based assessment of social withdrawal, and physiological markers linked to social regulation (cardiac vagal tone and vagal regulation). Children's attachment status to parents was gathered using Q-Sort methodology, and a measure of previous peer network size was obtained from parents' reports to examine potential links between relational history and social-cognitive play types. Predictive discriminant function analysis showed that children's (N = 54, age range 35 to 58 months) social-cognitive play was better predicted on the basis of multiple independent variables than individual, zero-order relations. When predicting children's social-cognitive play typologies, a multidimensional view which encompasses both individual characteristics and social-relational variables may best predict social -cognitive play types and help understanding of children's social trajectories.

The emergence of mother-infant co-regulation during the first year: links to infants' developmental status and attachment.

This study examined development and stability in emerging patterns of co-regulation in mother-infant dyads (n=101) over the later half of the first year of life. Links to infants' attachment and developmental status were also examined. Co-regulated patterns of interactions demonstrated significant developmental shifts over time, with mother-infant dyads becoming increasingly more symmetrical and less unilateral in their interaction. Additionally, differences in co-regulation patterns at 6 months predicted subsequent attachment status at 12 months of age. Specifically, securely attached infants engaged in higher levels of symmetrical co-regulation with mothers at 6 months of age while insecurely attached infants engaged in more unilateral patterns of interactions. Furthermore, symmetrical co-regulation at 6 months was positively linked to infants' mental development and psychomotor development at 9 months of age while asymmetrical and unilateral patterns of co-regulation at 6 months was negatively linked to infants' mental development. Findings suggest an important antecedent role of early patterns of dyadic co-regulation to later developmental status and attachment organization.

A Comparative Study of Arm-Restraint Methodology: Differential Effects of Mother and Stranger Restrainers on Infants' Distress Reactivity at 6 and 9 Months of Age.

This study examined both differential patterns and the stability of infants' (N = 70) distress reactivity across mother and stranger arm-restraint conditions when infants were 6 and 9 months of age. Reactivity measures included observational variables for the rise, intensity, and duration of infant distress as well as motor activities associated with escape behaviors. Correlation analyses revealed that infant behaviors during arm restraint were modestly stable across conditions and over time; however, mean comparisons also showed that infants' distress responses appear to be sensitive to protocol parameters (whether restrainer is mother or stranger). At 6 months of age, infants cried more during maternal restraint than with strangers and exhibited escape behaviors more frequently with mothers. Findings further indicate that infants' distress reactivity undergoes developmental alterations from 6 to 9 months of age, with infants crying more quickly, reaching peak intensity of distress faster, and displaying more distress at 9 months compared to 6 months. These changes in infants' reactivity were particularly accentuated during maternal compared to stranger restraint conditions at 9 months of age.

Coregulation in mother-infant dyads: links to infants' cardiac vagal tone.

This investigation explored links between mother-infant coregulated communication patterns and infants' emerging parasympathetic regulatory processes (cardiac vagal tone). Participants included 56 first-time mothers and their 6-mo.-old infants (31 girls, 25 boys). A 4-min. baseline EKG was gathered from the infant and an ensuing 15-min. mother-infant dyadic free-play episode was videotaped and coded using Fogel's 1994 Regional Coding System. This system was developed to describe variations in coregulated features of communication among dyads, ranging from symmetrical patterns to disruptive patterns of coregulation. Analysis suggests a positive link between infants' cardiac vagal tone and more symmetrical features of coregulated communication patterns in mother-infant dyads. Cardiac vagal tone was also negatively correlated with unilateral features of coregulation communication systems. These findings point toward the potential relation between emerging physiological regulatory abilities of infants and the more relational regulatory processes in mother-infant dyads.

First-time mothers' perceptions of efficacy during the transition to motherhood: links to infant temperament.

This investigation examined associations between pre- and postnatal reports of 1st-time mothers' depression, anxiety, and marital quality and postnatal reports of infant temperament and changes in feelings of efficacy. Maternal efficacy measured prenatally was associated with concurrent measures of depression, anxiety, marital conflict, and levels of previous child-care experience. Mothers' perception of infant temperament postnatally accounted for a significant proportion of variance in postnatal reports of maternal efficacy. Although individual differences in women's feelings of efficacy were fairly stable, significant increases in maternal efficacy were also observed over time. Findings suggest that 1st-time mothers' beliefs about their ability to perform nurturing routines may changes from a global sense of self-competence to more differentiated perceptions of nurturing efficacy.