The effect of picture book reading on young children’s use of an emotion regulation strategy

This project was founded by the DFG (German Research Foundation; SCHN-415/8-1

Infants’ and young children’s sleep behavior during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic

$\textit {Theoretical background:}$ Sleep is a vital factor in early development. Altered child sleep behavior has been reported during the COVID-19 pandemic $\textbf {(Sharma et al., 2021)}$. $\it Objective:$ We describe young children’s sleep behavior during the lockdown. $\it Method:$ Caregivers of children aged 0 to 47 months ($\it N$ = 2001) living in Germany completed an online survey during the first lockdown. We then compared aspects of children’s sleep and their caregivers’ mental well-being health before and during the lockdown. We explored the factors predicting changes in time spent awake at night, a central aspect of sleep quality. $\it Results:$ Overall, caregiver-reported sleep was negatively affected. Some predictors of changes in time spent awake at night differed between infants (aged 0 – 12 months) and toddlers (aged 13 – 47 months). $\textit {Discussion and conclusion:}$ Infants’ and toddlers’ sleeping behavior was differently affected during the lockdown. Age-related differences in factors predicting changes in time spent awake at night highlight the need for developmentally sensitive sleep interventions.Schlaf bei Säuglingen und Kleinkindern in der frühen Phase der COVID-19 Pandemie $\textit {Theoretischer Hintergrund:}$ Schlaf wird weithin als wichtiger Faktor in der kindlichen Entwicklung betrachtet, der prädiktiv ist für die spätere physische Gesundheit. Während weltweiter COVID-19-Beschränkungen wurden Veränderungen des kindlichen Schlafverhaltens berichtet $\textbf {(Sharma et al., 2021)}$. $\it Fragestellung:$ In der vorliegenden Studie wurden Veränderungen im Schlafverhalten von Säuglingen und Kleinkindern während des ersten Lockdowns in Deutschland untersucht. Vermutete Einflussfaktoren (Becker & Gregory, 2020) auf die nächtliche Wachzeit wurden exploriert. $\it Methode:$ Im Rahmen einer Onlinestudie während des ersten Lockdowns wurden Bezugspersonen von Kindern im Alter zwischen 0 und 47 Monate Monaten befragt ($\it N$ = 2001). Erhoben wurden familiäre Characteristika, kindliches Schlafverhalten sowie die psychische Gesundheit der Bezugsperson. Berichte des aktuellen kindlichen Schlafverhaltens und mentaler Gesundheit wurden mit retrospektiv berichtetem Schlafverhalten und psychischer Gesundheit vor dem Lockdown verglichen. Potenzielle Prädiktoren veränderter nächtlicher Wachzeit wurden anhand von Linear Mixed Models, jeweils für Säuglinge (Altersbereich 0 – 12 Monate) und Kleinkinder (Altersbereich 13 – 47 Monate) untersucht. $\it Ergebnisse:$ Kinder zeigten laut Bezugspersonenbericht signifikante Abnahmen der Schlafquantität, der Schlafqualität und des elterlichen schlafbezogenen Verhaltens. Veränderungen der berichteten nächtlichen Wachzeit wurden für Säuglinge und Kleinkinder durch verschiedene Faktoren vorhergesagt. Während unter anderem die Arbeit im Homeoffice mit längerer nächtlicher Wachzeit bei Säuglingen assoziiert war, ergaben sich für Kleinkinder die elterliche psychische Gesundheit und ein Wechsel des Schlafortes hin zu den Eltern ("Co-Sleeping") als relevante Faktoren veränderter nächtlicher Wachzeit. $\textit {Diskussion und Schlussfolgerung:}$ Diese Ergebnisse verdeutlichen die negativen Veränderungen berichteten kindlichen Schlafs im Zusammenhang mit veränderten Alltagsbedingungen und verringertem elterlichen Wohlbefinden während des Lockdowns in Deutschland. Die altersbedingten Unterschiede potenzieller Faktoren des durch zunehmende Wachzeiten beeinträchtigten Nachtschlafes heben die Wichtigkeit alterssensitiver Interventionen zur Unterstützung junger Familien hervor

The effect of picture book reading on young children’s use of an emotion regulation strategy

Picture book reading is an enjoyable everyday activity for many young children with well-known benefits for language development. The present study investigated whether picture book reading can support young children’s social-emotional development by providing a learning opportunity for the usage of emotion regulation strategies. Three-year-old children participated in two waiting situations designed to elicit negative affect. Between these waiting situations they read a picture book. In two experimental conditions, the book depicted how a protagonist (same-aged peer or young adult, respectively) waited for a desired object and distracted herself with toys while waiting. Children in an additional control condition read a picture book that was unrelated to waiting. Use of distraction did not differ between conditions. Parents often read picture book interactively with their children. Therefore, in an additional condition (Exp. 2), the experimenter read the picture book featuring the same-aged peer protagonist in an interactive way intended to facilitate transfer. Apart from the reading style, the design was identical to experiment 1. Experiment 2 intended to test whether changes in reading style lead to differences in three-year old children’s social-emotional learning from picture books. When controlling for the children’s picture book experience, children in the experimental conditions exhibited an increase in distraction in contrast to children in the control condition. In sum, results suggest that picture book reading could be an ecologically valid and versatile method for supporting 3-year-old children in their use of an age-appropriate adaptive emotion regulation strategies such as distraction

The mental well-being of young children and families at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

During the spring of 2020, the lockdown in Europe, enacted as a countermeasure to the COVID-19 pandemic, dramatically changed the social and daily life of young families. This online study explored the potential consequences of these unprecedented circumstances for the well-being of young German families. Caregivers completed a standardized questionnaire on their positive mental well-being and open-ended questions referring to their family situation and children. Although there is an emerging body of research describing pandemic-related outcomes in older children, little is known about its impact during early development. Hence, our analyses focused on a subset of caregivers of $\it N$ = 798 children aged 0 to 23 months. Answers to open-ended questions revealed predominantly negative changes in their children and family life as a whole. During the lockdown, the well-being of the caregivers decreased. Taken together, the data show that social changes caused by the lockdown affected the well-being of young families. Potential mechanisms of stress transmission between parents and children are discussed.Der europäische Lockdown zur Bekämpfung der COVID-19 Pandemie im Frühjahr 2020 führte zu dramatischen Veränderungen im Sozialleben und im Alltag junger Familien. Die vorliegende Online-Studie untersuchte potentielle Folgen dieser Begleitumstände für das Wohlbefinden junger Familien in Deutschland. Bezugspersonen bearbeiteten einen standardisierten Fragebogen zu ihrem positiven mentalen Wohlbefinden sowie offene Fragen zur aktuellen Familiensituation und zu ihren Kindern. Während sich viele Forschungsarbeiten mit pandemie-bezogenen Folgen für ältere Kinder befassen, ist noch wenig über die Bedeutung der Pandemie in frühen Entwicklungsphasen bekannt. Die Analysen fokussieren sich daher auf eine Teilgruppe von Bezugspersonen von $\it N$ = 798 Kindern im Alter zwischen 0 und 23 Monaten. Antworten auf offene Fragen zeigten überwiegend negative Veränderungen bei Kindern und im Familienleben. Während des Lockdowns sank das Wohlbefinden der Bezugspersonen. Insgesamt zeigten die Daten, dass das Wohlbefinden junger Familien von sozialen Veränderungen im Lockdown betroffen war. Potenzielle Mechanismen der Stress-Übertragung zwischen Eltern und Kindern werden diskutiert

State-dependent memory in infants

Why do infants remember some things and not others? Human infants frequently cycle through different states such as calm attentiveness, wakeful activity, and crying. Given that cognitive processes do not occur in isolation, such fluctuations in internal state might influence memory processing. In the present experiment, declarative memory in 9-month-old infants ($\it N$ = 96) was heavily state dependent. Infants exhibited excellent retention of a deferred imitation task after a 15-min delay if their state at encoding was identical to their state at retrieval (e.g., calm). Infants failed to exhibit retention if their state at encoding was different from their state at retrieval (e.g., calm vs. animated). Infant memory processing depends on internal cues

Inter-rater reliability and acceptance of the structured diagnostic interview for regulatory problems in infancy

$\textbf {Background:}$ Regulatory problems such as excessive crying, sleeping–and feeding difficulties in infancy are some of the earliest precursors of later mental health difficulties emerging throughout the lifespan. In the present study, the inter rater reliability and acceptance of a structured computer assisted diagnostic interview for regulatory problems (Baby DIPS) was investigated. $\textbf {Methods:}$ Using a community sample, 132 mothers of infants aged between 3 and 18 months (mean age = 10 months) were interviewed with the Baby DIPS regarding current and former (combined = lifetime) regulatory problems. Severity of the symptoms was also rated. The interviews were conducted face to face at a psychology department at the university (51.5 %), the mother’s home (23.5 %), or via telephone (25.0 %). Inter rater reliability was assessed with Cohen’s kappa $\textit {(k)}$. A sample of 48 mothers and their interviewers filled in acceptance questionnaires after the interview. $\textbf {Results:}$ Good to excellent inter rater reliability on the levels of current and lifetime regulatory problems ($\it k$ = 0.77–0.98) were found. High inter rater agreement was also found for ratings of severity ($\it ICC$ = 0.86–0.97). Participants and interviewers’ overall acceptance ratings of the computer assisted interview were favourable. Acceptance scores did not differ between interviews that revealed one or more clinically relevant regulatory problem(s) compared to those that revealed no regulatory problems. $\textbf {Conclusions:}$ The Baby DIPS was found to be a reliable instrument for the assessment of current and lifetime problems in crying and sleeping behaviours. The computer assisted version of the Baby DIPS was well accepted by interviewers and mothers. The Baby DIPS appears to be well suited for research and clinical use to identify infant regulatory problems

A new 3-day standardized eyeblink conditioning protocol to assess extinction learning from infancy to adulthood

Associative learning can be observed from the neonatal period onward, providing opportunities to examine changes in basic learning and memory abilities. One method that is suitable to study associative learning is classical eyeblink conditioning (EBC) which is dependent on the cerebellum. Extinction learning can be systematically investigated in this paradigm by varying the context during learning and extinction. Because of methodological difficulties and ethical challenges, no studies have compared extinction learning using EBC across human development. Our goal was to test feasibility of a 3-day delay EBC paradigm that can be used from infancy to adulthood. Acceptance/safety was tested especially for infancy by investigating attrition rates and parental report on infant wellbeing. On a paradigm side, we tested if the paradigm leads to successful acquisition and extinction. An air puff served as unconditional stimulus (US) and a tone as conditional stimulus (CS). On day 1 during acquisition, participants received 36 US–CS pairings in context A. On day 2, participants received 12 acquisition trials in context A to consolidate association learning, followed by 48 extinction trials (tone alone presentations) in context B. Renewal was assessed on day 3 and incorporated 12 CS alone trials presented in both the acquisition context and the extinction context. Eyeblink responses were videotaped and coded offline. The protocol was tested with 12–36-months-old infants ($\it N$ = 72), adolescents ($\it N$ = 8), and adults ($\it N$ = 8). Concerning the acceptance/safety side, attrition ranged from 21 to 58% in infant samples due to the complex preparation of the children for the paradigm. However, attrition is equal to or lower than other infant learning paradigms. Parents of infant samples were very interested in the paradigm and reported low levels of infant stress, exhaustion, and negative feelings during the sessions. Data quality was very high, and no participant had to be excluded because of insufficient data. Concerning the paradigm side, participants showed successful acquisition and extinction as a group. The procedure is ethically sound, feasible, tolerated by many infants, and acceptable among parents. The data show successful acquisition and extinction rates, making the paradigm a valuable tool for investigating developmental changes in extinction learning over the lifespan

The course of maternal repetitive negative thinking at the transition to motherhood and early mother-infant interactions

Potential long-term associations between repetitive negative thinking and mother-infant interactions have received little attention. The current longitudinal study including $\it N$ = 62 mother-infant dyads investigated both maternal and infant behavior in face-to-face interactions as a function of pre- and postnatal maternal repetitive negative thinking when infants were aged around 4 months. We hypothesised that mothers with a strong tendency to engage in repetitive negative thinking would react less contingently to their infants' behavior compared to mothers with a weak tendency to engage in repetitive negative thinking. Furthermore, we hypothesised that infants of mothers high in repetitive negative thinking would differ from infants of mothers low in repetitive negative thinking in their reactions in the still-face task. Contrary to expectations, there was no difference in maternal contingency between mothers high versus low in repetitive negative thinking. However, infant behavior in the still-face task differed as a function of maternal repetitive negative thinking status. Specifically, infants of mothers high in repetitive negative thinking spent more time with object/environment engagement than infants of mothers who were low in repetitive negative thinking, and they also protested less frequently. These findings are discussed in terms of their relevance for the intergenerational transmission of mental disorders