Maternal depressive symptoms and infants' emotional reactivity: The moderating role of mothers' prenatal cry processing.

Exposure to maternal depressive symptoms (MDS) may have a pertinent role in shaping children's emotional development. However, little is known about how these processes emerge in the early postpartum period. The current study examined the direct and interactive associations between MDS and cry-processing cognitions in the prediction of infant negative emotionality and affective concern. Participants were 130 mother-child dyads (50% female) assessed at three time points. During the second trimester of pregnancy, expectant mothers completed a procedure to assess responses to video clips of distressed infants and reported about MDS. Mothers also reported about MDS at 1- and 3-months postpartum. At age 3 months, infants' negative emotionality and affective concern responses were observed and rated. We found no direct associations between MDS and both measures of infant emotional reactivity. However, MDS interacted with cry-processing cognitions to predict affective concern and negative emotionality. Overall, MDS were related to increased affective concern and decreased negative emotionality when mothers held cognitions that were more focused on their own emotions in the face of the infant's cry rather than the infant's emotional state and needs. Clinical implications for early screening and intervention are discussed.

Trajectories and Associations Between Maternal Depressive Symptoms, Household Chaos and Children's Adjustment through the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Four-Wave Longitudinal Study.

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health measures have adversely affected the lives of people worldwide, raising concern over the pandemic's mental health consequences. Guided by a systemic model of family functioning during the COVID-19 pandemic (Prime et al., 2020), the current study aimed to examine how caregiver well-being (i.e., maternal depressive symptoms) and family organization (i.e., household chaos) are related to longitudinal trajectories of children's emotional and behavioral problems. Data were collected at four time points during and after home lockdown periods. Mothers of children (N = 230; 55% male) between the ages of two to five years were asked to complete questionnaires via an Israeli online research platform. Results indicated that emotional and behavioral problems, household chaos, and maternal depressive symptoms were the highest during the first lockdown assessment and dropped in the post-lockdown periods. Multilevel models further revealed that at the between-participants level, maternal depressive symptoms and household chaos positively predicted children's emotional and behavioral problems. At the within-participants level, household chaos fluctuations positively predicted fluctuations in child behavioral but not emotional problems. Our findings suggest that lockdowns have adverse effects on both maternal and child mental health. Screening for depressive symptoms among mothers of young children and maintaining household structure are important targets for future interventions to assist parents in navigating the multiple challenges brought upon by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Screen media exposure and behavioral adjustment in early childhood during and after COVID-19 home lockdown periods.

There is ample evidence that young children's screen media use has sharply increased since the outbreak of the novel 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19). However, the long-term impact of these changes on children's adjustment is currently unclear. The goals of the current study were to assess longitudinal trajectories of young children's screen media exposure through a series of national COVID-19 home lockdowns and to examine the predictive associations between different aspects of media exposure and post-lockdown behavioral adjustment. Data were collected at four timepoints during and after home lockdown periods in Israel. Longitudinal data measuring various aspects of media use, behavioral conduct and emotional problems were gathered from a sample of 313 Israeli children (54% females) between the ages two to five years (Mage at T1 = 3.6), by surveying their mothers at 5 points in time. Child overall screen time use, exposure to background television, use of media to regulate child distress and maternal mobile device use all changed throughout the lockdown periods. Moreover, during lockdowns children's behavior problems were concurrently and positively correlated with screen time, use of media to regulate child distress, and exposure to background television. However, these were not longitudinally related to child behavior problems in the post-lockdown period. Possible implications for family media use during a public health crisis are discussed.

Mother-infant emotional availability through the COVID-19 pandemic: Examining continuity, stability, and bidirectional associations.

The COVID-19 pandemic may impact the development of infants' social communication patterns with their caregivers. The current study examined continuity, stability, and bidirectional associations in maternal and infant dyadic Emotional Availability (EA) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants were 110 Israeli mother-infant dyads (51% girls) that were assessed prior to (Mage = 3.5 months) and during (Mage = 12.4 months) the pandemic. At both time points, mother-infant interactions were observed during play (nonstressful context) and tasks designed to elicit infant frustration (stressful context). Maternal and child EA were coded offline. Maternal EA demonstrated no significant mean-level changes from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic, whereas infant responsiveness and involvement increased over time. Stability and bidirectional associations in EA differed by context and were evident only in the stressful context. Mothers' perceived levels of social support further moderated these associations. Specifically, infants' pre-pandemic responsiveness and involvement predicted maternal EA during the pandemic only when mothers reported low levels of social support. Our findings suggest that maternal and child EA were not adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, patterns of EA demonstrated moderate-to-no stability over time, suggesting considerable individual differences in trajectories of EA.

Maternal anxiety and toddler depressive/anxiety behaviors: The direct and moderating role of children's focused attention.

Attention mechanisms have a pertinent role in shaping developmental pathways to anxiety and depressive disorders. The current study examined the direct and interactive associations between maternal anxiety symptoms, children's focused attention, and children's anxiety and depression behaviors in early toddlerhood. Participants were 150 mother-child dyads (50 % female) that were assessed at two time points. At 12 months of child age, mothers reported about their anxiety symptoms and children's focused attention. Children's focused attention was also observed and rated from an individual play task. At 18 months of age, mothers reported about children's anxiety and depression behaviors. Focused attention predicted child anxiety and depressive behaviors, with different patterns of associations between observed and reported measures of attention. There was also a significant interaction between maternal anxiety symptoms and observed children's focused attention. A positive association between maternal anxiety symptoms and child anxiety and depression symptoms was evident only for children with above-average levels of observed focused attention during play. Results suggest that different aspects of focused attention play a role in maternal reported anxiety and depression behaviors in early development and may modulate the intergenerational transmission of anxiety.

Neonatal Risk, Maternal Sensitive-Responsiveness and Infants' Joint Attention: Moderation by Stressful Contexts.

Neonatal risk factors have been associated with atypical development in various areas of social communication, including joint attention (JA), but little is known about factors in the early caregiving environment that can modify the negative implications of neonatal risk. The present study examines the links between neonatal risk and infants' JA, while considering the mediating role of maternal sensitive-responsiveness and the moderating roles of stressful contexts. One hundred and eighty-two families with infants (50% female) born in a wide range of gestational ages and birthweights participated in the study. Neonatal risk was assessed shortly after birth using three indicators: birthweight, gestational age, and degree of medical risk. At age 6 months, maternal sensitive-responsiveness to infants' foci of attention was rated and maternal anxiety and household chaos were measured. Infants' JA behaviors were assessed at age 12 months. A moderated-mediation model revealed that maternal anxiety symptoms and household chaos moderated the links between neonatal risk, maternal sensitive-responsiveness, and infants' responding to JA. Specifically, neonatal risk was related to less maternal sensitive-responsiveness only when maternal anxiety symptoms were above average levels, but not when anxiety symptoms were low. Moreover, maternal sensitive-responsiveness was positively related to infants' responding to JA behaviors when household chaos was low but not when it was high. These findings highlight the complex nature of the links between infants' early biological risk and caregiving environments in the development of social communication skills.