Prior research indicates that being reared in stressful environments is associated with earlier onset of menarche in girls. In this research, we examined (a) whether these effects are driven by exposure to certain dimensions of stress (harshness or unpredictability) during the first 5 years of life and (b) whether the negative effects of stress on the timing of menarche are buffered by secure i...

The attachment and the caregiving system are complementary systems which are active simultaneously in infant and mother interactions. This ensures the infant survival and optimal social, emotional, and cognitive development. In this brief review we first define the characteristics of these two behavioral systems and the theory that links them, according to what Bowlby called the "attachment-car...

In a longitudinal study, internationally adopted children (N = 146) placed before 6 months of age were followed from infancy to age 7. Results showed that girls were better adjusted than boys, except in cognitive development, and that easy temperament was associated with higher levels of social, cognitive, and personality development and fewer behavior problems. Higher quality of child-mother r...

This longitudinal study examined the extent to which dimensions of infant negative temperament in the first year predicted IQ at age 3, and whether these associations depended on the quality of the infant–mother attachment relationship. In a sample of 63 infant–mother dyads, mothers completed Rothbart's (1981) IBQ when infants were 4 and 12 months, mothers and infants participated in Ainsworth ...

The mother-infant dyad is crucial to early development in a variety of species. The complexity of social groupings in nonhuman primates makes this relationship resilient as well as susceptible to early challenges associated with environmental chaos. Quantitative behavior observations of bonnet monkey mother-infant interactions were collected from 28 mother-infant dyads between one and twelve mo...

PURPOSE This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a mother/infant-toddler health program developed to enhance parenting knowledge, behavior and confidence in low income mothers and home environment. METHODS A one-group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design was used. Sixty-nine dyads of mothers and infant-toddlers (aged 0-36 months) were provided with weekly intervention f...

This study investigates the influence of infant irritability, maternal responsiveness, and social support on the development of secure and anxious infant-mother attachments at 1 year. Infant irritability was assessed during the neonatal period using the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale, maternal responsiveness to crying was measured during observations at 3 months, and social support was ba...

This study investigated trajectories of maternal parenting behavior across the infants' first 18 months of life in relation to maternal depression. Furthermore, predictors of the quality of the mother-infant relationship at 18 months were examined. Participants consisted of three types of mother-infant dyads: mothers with comorbid depression and anxiety (n=19), mothers with depression (n=7) and...

BACKGROUND Children with cleft lip and palate are at risk for psychological problems. Difficulties in mother-child interactions may be relevant, and could be affected by the timing of lip repair. METHOD We assessed cognitive development, behaviour problems, and attachment in 94 infants with cleft lip (with and without cleft palate) and 96 non-affected control infants at 18 months; mother-infa...

Genetic variation at a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the mu-opioid receptor gene (OPRM1) of both humans and rhesus macaques Macaca mulatta has been associated with differential affinity to the endogenous ligand beta-endorphin as well as alterations in pain sensitivity, drug and alcohol dependence, and social behaviors. The new study by Higham et al. (2011) presented in the current iss...