When COVID-19 met families living in armed-conflict zones: the importance of maternal trauma and child self-regulation

The COVID-19 outbreak began in Israel at the end of February 2020, and on March 17, 2020, a general lockdown was announced. Families were instructed to stay at home and schools and non-essential businesses were closed. Aiming to understand how families who were already living in areas of high exposure to armed conflict would be affected by another external stressful condition, data were collected before and after the outbreak. Mothers and children (aged 10–45 months) were recruited from areas with high (n = 40) and low (n = 78) exposure to armed conflict. Mothers reported on their posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and on their child's effortful control tendencies prior to the outbreak. Toward the end of the first lockdown, mothers were interviewed regarding adverse effects of the outbreak on their family. No group differences were found for maternal perceptions of adverse effects of COVID-19. However, a moderation model was revealed, indicating that maternal PTSS as well as child effortful control predicted adverse effects of COVID-19 only in the high-exposure group. Results are discussed considering cumulative stress and risk factors

Risk factors for problem behaviour : A comparison between ethnic minority and majority children living in Britain.

In this study the risk factors for problem behaviour in childhood were investigated, and differences between ethnic minority and majority children were examined. The study had two main goals. Firstly, to examine the differences in problem behaviour between ethnic minority and majority children and to explore variation in children's adjustment within the Indian group according to parental acculturation style. Secondly, to identify the risk factors for problem behaviour and to investigate the manner by which they act together in putting children at risk. The sample consisted of 125 children between the ages of 7 and 9.6 (M=8.51, SD=.62) and their parents. Fifty-nine children were English (28 boys and 31 girls) and 66 were Indian (36 boys and 30 girls). Parents and teachers completed questionnaires regarding the children's problem behaviour. Both mothers and fathers provided reports of the children's temperament, their parenting style, their use of discipline, marital satisfaction, social support and job spillover. In addition, the children's IQ was assessed, and the children also reported about their own self-worth, their parents' behaviour, the sibling relationship, and friendship quality. Finally, parent-child mutuality and parenting behaviour were coded from a videotaped parent-child interaction task. Addressing the first goal, results indicated that Indian children exhibited more internalising problems than their English peers. Furthermore, within the Indian group, children of mothers who adopted a marginalisation style of acculturation, and whose parents spoke less of their Indian language, exhibited more problem behaviours. Addressing the second goal, results supported the cumulative model, indicating that the extent of risk, rather than the specific type of risk, influenced children's behaviour. For example, 47% of the variance of total problem behaviour was accounted for by the cumulative risk index. Support was also found for some mediation effects. Specifically, parenting was revealed as one of the main mediators between risk factors and problem behaviour. Finally, moderation effects were found only for a limited number of cases, suggesting that risk factors act more in an additive than interactive manner. The findings demonstrate the importance of considering multiple risk factors when studying children's problem behaviour, and illustrate the utility of the ecological model

Risk factors for problem behaviour A comparison between ethnic minority and majority children living in Britain

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Correlates of parenting for mothers and fathers from English and Indian backgrounds

Objective: Guided by Bronfenbrenner's ecological model, we examined relations between child characteristics and contextual factors and mothering and fathering in ethnic minority and majority samples within Great Britain. Design. 125 families (59 English and 66 of Indian origin) with 81/2-year-old children participated. Parental warmth and use of harsh discipline were rated from home observations and semi-structured interviews. Mothers and fathers completed questionnaires regarding children's negative emotionality as well as reports of their marital satisfaction, job spillover, and a demographic questionnaire for the assessment of socioeconomic status (SES). Results: Children's negative emotionality was negatively linked to parental warmth and positively linked to parental use of harsh discipline. Mothers tend to be warmer to girls than to boys. At the contextual level, marital relationship quality is negatively associated with maternal and paternal use of discipline, and SES is positively linked to parental warmth. SES provides unique prediction of paternal warmth. Elevated levels of negative job spillover and lower levels of SES are linked to increased use of harsh discipline only for the English fathers, whereas paternal marital satisfaction is negatively related to paternal use of discipline only for the Indian fathers. Conclusion: Some correlates are similar, but parenting in middle childhood also varies for mothers and fathers as well as for parents from different cultural groups

Do sibling and friend relationships share the same temperamental origins? A twin study.

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Are ethnic minority adolescents at risk for problem behavior? Acculturation and intergenerational acculturation discrepancies in early adolescence

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What’s Going on in My Baby’s Mind? Mothers’ Executive Functions Contribute to Individual Differences in Maternal Mentalization During Mother-Infant Interactions

Maternal mentalization refers to a mother’s capacity to understand mental-states of herself and her child and to regard her child as a psychological agent. In mother-infant interactions, this capacity is commonly conceptualized as maternal mind-mindedness, which can be divided into two dimensions: appropriate and nonattuned interpretations of the infants’ mental-states. Appropriate mind-mindedness refers to interpretations that seem to be compatible with the infant’s behaviors, whereas the nonattuned mind-mindedness refers to noncompatible interpretations. The aim of this study was to investigate the cognitive mechanisms that contribute to mind-mindedness. Specifically, we investigated the role of executive functions in appropriate and nonattuned mind-mindedness, and the moderating roles of two infant-related factors, prematurity (as a stressful context) and child temperament (as a context of unpredictability and negative emotionality). To this end, mother-infant free play interactions were coded for mind-mindedness in a sample of 102 mothers and their 6-month-old infants (61 preterm, 41 full-term). When children were 66-months old, mothers completed cognitive tasks that assessed working memory updating, resistance to interference, response inhibition, and shifting. Appropriate mind-mindedness was positively associated with updating, and this link was stronger when infant temperament was rated as more difficult. Furthermore, among mothers of full-term infants, mothers’ resistance to interference was negatively associated with nonattuned mind-mindedness. This link was not evident in the stressful context of premature birth. Mothers’ response inhibition and shifting were not associated with either of the mind-mindedness dimensions. Implications on understanding variability in maternal mentalization during mother-infant interactions and the roles of executive functions in parenting are discussed

What's going on in my baby's mind? Mothers' executive functions contribute to individual differences in maternal mentalization during mother-infant interactions.

Maternal mentalization refers to a mother's capacity to understand mental-states of herself and her child and to regard her child as a psychological agent. In mother-infant interactions, this capacity is commonly conceptualized as maternal mind-mindedness, which can be divided into two dimensions: appropriate and nonattuned interpretations of the infants' mental-states. Appropriate mind-mindedness refers to interpretations that seem to be compatible with the infant's behaviors, whereas nonattuned mind-mindedness refers to noncompatible interpretations. The aim of this study was to investigate the cognitive mechanisms that contribute to mind-mindedness. Specifically, we investigated the role of executive functions in appropriate and nonattuned mind-mindedness, and the moderating roles of two infant-related factors, prematurity (as a stressful context) and child temperament (as a context of unpredictability and negative emotionality). To this end, mother-infant free play interactions were coded for mind-mindedness in a sample of 102 mothers and their 6-month-old infants (61 preterm, 41 full-term). When children were 66-months old, mothers completed cognitive tasks that assessed working memory updating, resistance to interference, response inhibition, and shifting. Appropriate mind-mindedness was positively associated with updating, and this link was stronger when infant temperament was rated as more difficult. Furthermore, among mothers of full-term infants, mothers' resistance to interference was negatively associated with nonattuned mind-mindedness. This link was not evident in the stressful context of premature birth. Mothers' response inhibition and shifting were not associated with either of the mind-mindedness dimensions. Implications on understanding variability in maternal mentalization during mother-infant interactions and the roles of executive functions in parenting are discussed