Depression in mothers is consistently associated with reduced caregiving sensitivity and greater infant negative affect expression. The current article examined the real-time behavioral mechanisms underlying these associations using Granger causality time series analyses in a sample of mothers (N = 194; 86.60% White) at elevated risk for…

Background: The low expression polymorphism of the MAOA gene in interaction with adverse environments (G × E) is associated with antisocial behaviour disorders. These have their origins in early life, but it is not known whether MAOA G × E occurs in infants. We therefore examined whether MAOA G × E predicts infant anger proneness, a temperamental…

This study examined the relation of infant emotional responses of anger and sadness to cortisol response in 2 goal blockage situations. One goal blockage with 4-month-old infants (N=56) involved a contingency learning procedure where infants' learned response was no longer effective in reinstating an event. The other goal blockage with 6-month-old…

Concerning the issues of emotional development, general agreement can only be reached on the definition of "emotional" behavior. Behavior is emotional when it varies from an individual's behavioral baseline by the addition of three components: (1) an action component, (2) an arousal component, and (3) a subjective "feeling" component. In all areas…

Investigated emotional and facial expressivity in infants who failed to thrive and normal infants who were videotaped in social and cognitive contexts. Although differences in emotional expressivity were not found, infants who failed to thrive displayed more negative effects and used their lower faces less often to express emotion. (Author/BB)