Adolescence is a challenging and sensitive developmental period in which mothers and adolescents may be vulnerable to internalizing symptoms. The current study aimed to understand how patterns of changes in mother-adolescent perceived parenting (i.e., mother-adolescent perceived parenting transition profiles) corresponded with trajectories of…

Our primary objective was to examine the extent to which moment-to-moment associations between preschool-aged children's behavior and maternal emotional support differed for mothers showing different levels of parasympathetic engagement. We used behavioral observations of maternal and child behavior and maternal changes in cardiac vagal tone…

This study examined the stability of three patterns of infant regulatory behavior identified in the face-to-face still-face (FFSF) paradigm at 3 and 9 months--social-positive oriented, distressed-inconsolable, and self-comfort oriented--and whether variations in infants' heart-rate were correlated with them. Although some studies have examined the…

This study examined interparental conflict as a linear and curvilinear predictor of subsequent changes in adolescents' negative emotional reactivity and cortisol functioning during family conflict and, in turn, their psychological difficulties. In addition, adolescents' negative emotional reactivity and cortisol functioning during family conflict…

Children learn the words of their native language(s) from interactions with their caregivers. Although previous research has found that the language children hear during those interactions predicts vocabulary outcomes, few studies have investigated how qualitative features of social interactions work together to affect children's vocabulary…

Fragmented sleep is common in infancy. Although night awakening is known to decrease with age, in some infants night awakening is more persistent and continues into older ages. However, the influence of fragmented sleep on development is poorly known. In the present study, the longitudinal relationship between fragmented sleep and psychomotor…

Prosocial behavior in early childhood is a precursor to later adaptive social functioning. This investigation leveraged mother-reported, physiological, and observational data to examine children's prosocial development from age 2 to age 4 (N = 125). Maternal emotion socialization (ES) strategies and children's parasympathetic regulation have each…

Using a longitudinal, prospective adoption design, the authors of this study examined the effects of the environment (adoptive parents' depressive symptoms and responsiveness) and genetic liability of maternal depression (inferred by birth mothers' major depressive disorder [MDD]) on the development of fussiness in adopted children between 9 and…

This study used data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development's Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development to examine relations between parenting, self-control, and externalizing behavior from infancy through 5th grade. Results indicate that self-control measured during middle childhood mediates relations between…

Thirty-eight infants at age one were seen with their mothers in a strange situation test. On the basis of reunion behavior in this situation, each infant was rated for security of attachment to the mother. Maternal behaviors were observed in a mother-child free-play setting when the infants were 21 months old. (JMB)

Assessed behavior-state matching and synchrony in interactions in 48 depressed and nondepressed mother-infant dyads when infants were 3 months old. Depressed mothers and their infants matched negative behavior states more often and positive behavior states less often than did nondepressed dyads. (RH)

Examined the evidence for the reciprocity of negative affect between mothers and young children in disciplinary encounters. Although children responded contingently and reciprocally to maternal negativity, they also reacted negatively to maternal positive affect. (SH)

Links between neonatal biological rhythms and the emergence of interaction rhythms were examined in 3 groups (N=71): high-risk preterms (HR; birth weight less than 1,000 g), low-risk preterms (LR; birth weight=1,700-1,850 g), and full-term (FT) infants. Once a week for premature infants and on the 2nd day for FT infants, sleep-wake cyclicity was…

Tests three previously untested hypotheses central to the theory of Brazelton and colleagues about the sequential structure of mother-infant face-to-face interaction. Results show that with some revision the hypotheses describe the structure of mother-infant face-to-face interaction from three to nine months of age. (Author/RH)

Temperament is examined from a longitudinal, within-individual perspective in order to investigate short-term change and patterns of temperament changes. For 100 consectutive days five mothers completed a temperament survey, reporting on their own and their two-year-old children's behavior. Patterns of change were identified for both mothers and…