Late-preterm birth, maternal symptomatology, and infant negativity

The present study examined infant negativity and maternal symptomatology by term status in a predominately low-income, rural sample of 132 infants (66 late-preterm) and their mothers. Late-preterm and term infants were group-matched by race, income, and maternal age. Maternal depression and anxiety symptoms were measured with the Brief Symptom Inventory 18 (BSI-18) when infants were 2 and 6 months of age. Also at 6 months, infant negativity was assessed by global observer ratings, maternal ratings, and microanalytic behavioral coding of fear and frustration. Results indicate that after controlling for infant age, late-preterm status predicted higher ratings of infant negativity by mothers, but not by global observers or microanalytic coding, despite a positive association in negativity across the three measures. Further, mothers of late-preterm infants reported more elevated and chronic co-morbid symptoms of depression and anxiety, which in turn, was related to concurrent maternal ratings of their infant’s negativity. Mothers response to late-preterm birth and partiality in the assessment of their infant’s temperament is discussed

Opportunities for the Primary Prevention of Obesity during Infancy

Are chubby babies healthy babies? Whereas most seem well during infancy, evidence is increasing that heavier babies have a poorer long-term health trajectory than their trimmer counterparts. Data have emerged over the past 2 decades that early life growth patterns and behaviors play an important role in the etiology of obesity, yet there has been very little focus on the primary prevention of obesity during infancy by the medical, behavioral health, and public health communities. A recent report from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) highlighted the need for very early intervention when it revealed that between 2003 and 2006, a staggering 24.4% of children aged 2 to 5 years already were overweight or obese (body mass index [BMI; calculated as the weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared] 85th–94th and ≥95th percentiles, respectively) [1]. NHANES data also have described obesity (weight-for-length/height ≥95th percentile) among infants younger than 2 years ( Fig. 1). Between the late 1970s and 2000, the prevalence of obesity among infants 6 to 23 months old increased by more than 60% [2]. Reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance System [3] and a Massachusetts Health Maintenance Organization [4] similarly showed significant increases in the prevalence of overweight for infants and toddlers for all age groups since the 1980

The epidemiology of observed temperament: Factor structure and demographic group differences

This study investigated the factor structure of observational indicators of children’s temperament that were collected across the first three years of life in the Family Life Project (N = 1205) sample. A four-factor model (activity level, fear, anger, regulation), which corresponded broadly to Rothbart’s distinction between reactivity and regulation, provided an acceptable fit the observed data. Tests of measurement invariance demonstrated that a majority of the observational indicators exhibited comparable measurement properties for male vs. female, black vs. white, and poor vs. not-poor children, which improved the generalizability of these results. Unadjusted demographic group comparisons revealed small to moderate sized differences (Cohen ds = |.23 – .42|) in temperamental reactivity and moderate to large sized differences (Cohen ds = −.64 – −.97) in regulation. Collectively, demographic variables explained more of the variation in regulation (R2 = .25) than in reactivity (R2 = .02 – .06). Follow-up analyses demonstrated that race differences were substantially diminished in magnitude and better accounted for by poverty. These results help to validate the distinction between temperamental reactivity and regulation using observational indicators

Agree or agree to disagree? Assessing the convergence between parents and observers on infant temperament

The assessment of infant temperament has been typically accomplished with parent questionnaires. When compared with temperament behaviours observed in the laboratory, parents and observers generally do not agree, leading some researchers to question the validity of parent report. This paper reports on a representative sample of infants whose families resided in non-metropolitan counties and whose temperament was measured in three ways: (1) standard parent report (Infant Behavior Questionnaire); (2) observer ratings across two lengthy home visits; and (3) observer coding of second-by-second reactions to specific emotion-eliciting tasks. In order to account for both trait and method variance, structural equation modelling was applied to a sample of 955 infants (M age = 7.3 months) using variables from the three methods that reflected the dimensions of positivity and negativity. Although models based solely on method factors and trait factors fit the data well, results indicated that a model that included method and trait factors provided the best fit. Results also indicated that parents and observers (either across the home visit or to specific tasks) converge, to a degree, on ratings of the positivity dimension but diverge on the negativity dimension

Interparental aggression, attention skills, and early childhood behavior problems

The current study explored longitudinal associations between interparental aggression, the development of child attention skills, and early childhood behavior problems in a diverse sample of 636 families living in predominately low-income, nonmetropolitan communities. The results of latent-variable, cross-lagged longitudinal models revealed that maternal-reported interparental aggression in infancy predicted reduced observed attention skills in toddlerhood; no association was observed, however, between attention in infancy and interparental aggression during the toddler years. Further, reduced toddler attention and high interparental aggression were both associated with increased risk for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms and conduct problems at 3 years of age. Processes largely operated in similar ways regardless of child gender or low-income status, although a few differences were observed. Overall, the results suggest that interparental aggression undermines attention development, putting children’s early behavioral adjustment at risk

Interparental aggression and infant patterns of adrenocortical and behavioral stress responses

Drawing on emotional security theory, this study examined linkages between interparental aggression, infant self-regulatory behaviors, and patterns of physiological and behavioral stress responses in a diverse sample of 735 infants residing in predominately low-income, nonmetropolitan communities. Latent profile analysis revealed four classes of adrenocortical and behavioral stress response patterns at 7-months of age, using assessments of behavioral and cortisol reactivity to an emotion eliciting challenge, as well as global ratings of the child’s negative affect and basal cortisol levels. The addition of covariates within the latent profile model suggested that children with more violence in the home and who used less caregiver-oriented regulation strategies were more likely to exhibit a pattern of high cortisol reactivity with moderate signs of distress rather than the average stress response, suggesting possible patterns of adaptation in violent households

Emotional reactivity and parenting sensitivity interact to predict cortisol output in toddlers.

Cortisol output in response to emotion induction procedures was examined at child age 24 months in a prospective longitudinal sample of 1,292 children and families in predominantly low-income and non-urban communities in two regions of high poverty in the US. Multilevel analysis indicated that observed emotional reactivity to a mask presentation but not a toy removal procedure interacted with sensitive parenting to predict cortisol levels in children. For children experiencing high levels of sensitive parenting, cortisol output was high among children exhibiting high emotional reactivity and low among children exhibiting low emotional reactivity. For children experiencing low levels of sensitive parenting, cortisol output was unrelated to emotional reactivity

Greater fear reactivity and psychophysiological hyperactivity among infants with later conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits

Approximately one-third of children who meet criteria for conduct problems (CP) are also characterized by elevated callous-unemotional (CU) traits. This subgroup is at elevated risk for more pervasive and extreme levels of later antisocial behavior and has been characterized by a fearlessness temperament and blunted stress psychophysiology at older ages. The objective of this study is to examine group differences in fear reactivity and stress psychophysiology in infancy among children classified as having CP with CU (CP+CU), CP without CU (CP-only), or no CP in later childhood