Emphasis on continuous infant sleep overnight may be driven by parental concern of risk to child mental health outcomes. The Mercy Pregnancy and Emotional Wellbeing Study (MPEWS) examined whether infant sleep at 6 and 12 months postpartum predicts anxiety disorders at 2-4 years, and whether this is moderated by maternal depression, active physical…

Maternal singing is considered vital to infant well-being. This study focuses on vocal emotion expressions in infant-directed singing among mothers in war conditions. It examines the questions: (a) how traumatic war events and mental health problems are associated with the content and valence of vocal emotion expressions and (b) how these emotion…

Infants attend daycare at an early age, which raises questions about children's sensitivity to the childcare environment and the role of different temperamental traits in their development in the early years. In a two-year longitudinal study with parent- and caregiver-reported data for Dutch children at the age of 1 and 2 years (120 children from…

Maternal touch and infants' self-regulatory behaviours were examined during a modified Still-Face with Touch (SF?+?T) procedure. Mothers and their 5½-month-old infants participated in one period of Normal interaction followed by three SF?+?T periods. Maternal functions of touch, and infants' self-regulatory behaviour, affect, and…

The importance of warm and democratic parenting styles for optimal social, emotional and cognitive outcomes in children over the age of five is well established. However, there is a dearth of literature exploring variations in parenting styles during infancy, despite many popular parenting books aimed at this period. The primary aim of this study…

This study examined parents' and toddlers' talk and viewing behaviour while co-viewing an educational infant DVD focused on teaching language. Sixty-four 12- to 25-month-old infants viewed a DVD in a laboratory with their parents. A cluster analysis on parent talk revealed three groups: High, Moderate, and Low Teaching Focus parents. The High…

This study investigated associations between mother-infant interactions and children's subsequent understanding of mind and emotion. Mothers' tendency to comment on their infants' internal world and their general sensitivity to their infants' internal states were measured through coded play interactions at 10 months. The latter measurement…

In this longitudinal study, 83 parents of infants between 3 and 12 months completed questionnaires assessing demographic information, infant temperament, and maternal depression. When these children were at least 18 months of age, parents completed follow-up questionnaires assessing toddler temperament and depression-like symptoms. We were…

In developmental research, the family has mainly been studied through dyadic interaction. Three-way interactions have received less attention, partly because of their complexity. This difficulty may be overcome by distinguishing between four hierarchically embedded functions in three-way interactions: (1) participation (inclusion of all…