At 24-months of age, toddlers (N=62) and their mothers were observed in a free-play session to determine the contribution of (a) maternal sensory sensitivity to positive and negative infant facial expressions as measured in a signal detection task at 6 months, (b) maternal behavior and affect, infant behavior and affect, and dyadic interaction at 9 months, and (c) infant attachment status at 12...

Distress-linked activation of the maternal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis is considered a pathway by which affect regulation impacts the fetal milieu and neurodevelopment. There is little direct evidence for this conceptual model. In 103 women [mean age 27.45 (±5.65) years] at 36-38 weeks gestation, salivary cortisol was measured before/after stress tasks; distress questionnaires wer...

BACKGROUND Sensitive and responsive maternal caregiving behavior strengthens infant self-regulatory capacities (HL), but this regulatory role may be diminished in some mothers with second-trimester prenatal exposure to depression and/ or anxiety (MDA). This study examined maternal and infant behavior during infant heel lance (HL) when mothers had or did not have MDA. Ethological methods and mic...

BACKGROUND Prematurity and perinatal insults lead to increased developmental vulnerability. The home-based Infant Behavioral Assessment and Intervention Program (IBAIP) was designed to improve development of preterm infants. In a multicenter randomized controlled trial the effect of IBAIP on mother-infant interaction was studied as a secondary outcome. METHOD Mother-infant interaction was ass...

In the present study we examined key issues regarding infant behavior in the still-face paradigm (SFP) in terms of individual variations, stability, and predictors. The sample consisted of 115 mothers and infants, with assessments at ages 3 and 6 months, including observations of maternal and infant behavior in the SFP, and parent reports of infant temperament. Both robust patterns and individu...

This study examined the contributions of infant temperament and marital relationship quality to the quality of the early coparenting relationship for couples parenting 3.5-month-old infants. Marital quality was assessed observationally during the third trimester of pregnancy. When infants were 3.5 months old, infant temperamental characteristics (fussiness and unadaptability) were rated by pare...

Three-month-old infants were carried by their mothers in a soft infant carrier designed for infants being faced inward or faced outward. A within subjects comparison of these two positions revealed that when the infants were carried facing-in, they spent significantly more time sleeping and were rarely actively awake and looking at the environment. In contrast, the infants were more active in t...