Identifying early signs of aggression: psychometric properties of the Cardiff infant contentiousness scale

Our aim was to develop an age-appropriate measure of early manifestations of aggression. We constructed a questionnaire about normative developmental milestones into which a set of items measuring infants' use of physical force against people and expressed anger were included. These items comprise the Cardiff Infant Contentiousness Scale (CICS). Evidence for the reliability and validity of the CICS is provided from analyses of a sample of N=310 British infants, assessed at a mean age of 6 months as part of a larger longitudinal study of the development of aggression. The informants' CICS ratings demonstrated reasonable levels of internal consistency and interrater agreement. Informants' ratings were validated by observations of infants' distress in response to restraint in a car seat. Longitudinal analyses revealed that contentiousness was stable over time and that contentiousness at 6 months predicted infants' later use of force with peers. When used in the company of other methods, the simple four-item CICS scale could serve as a useful screen for early manifestations of aggressiveness in human infants.     

Characteristics that help mothers maintain their infants'' focus of attention

Disadvantaged mothers' use of interactive strategies which maintained their infants' focus of attention were examined at 6, 12, and 24 months to evaluate for patterns in this interactive strategy and determine if patterns could be predicted from early infant and maternal characteristics. Four distinct clusters were identified with mothers in each cluster increasing in their use of maintaining over time but differing in the age at which the increase occurred. While infants' biologic risk was unrelated to cluster membership, more positive scores on mothers' perceptions of child rearing history, child rearing attitudes, self-esteem, and social support when the infants were 6 months old were reported by mothers who displayed a pattern of high levels and steady increase in maintaining. More negative scores on these characteristics were reported by mothers who displayed low levels of maintaining and delays in increasing this interactive strategy. Results are discussed in light of disadvantaged mothers' ability to adapt to their infants' changing needs and early identification of mothers' who may have greater difficulty in the adaptational process.     

Seven‐year‐olds’ aggressive choices in a computer game can be predicted in infancy

Concerns about the relationship between computer games and children's aggression have been expressed for decades, but it is not yet clear whether the content of such games evokes aggression or a prior history of aggression promotes children's interest in aggressive games. Two hundred and sixty‐six 7‐year‐old children from a nationally representative longitudinal sample in the UK played a novel computer game (CAMGAME) in which the child's avatar encountered a series of social challenges that might evoke aggressive, prosocial or neutral behaviour. Aggressive choices during the game were predicted by well‐known risk factors for aggressive conduct problems and the children's own early angry aggressiveness as infants. These findings suggest that children who are predisposed to aggression bring those tendencies to virtual as well as real environments.     

祖辈共同看护背景下母亲和祖辈将心比心、母子依恋与婴幼儿认知的关系:一个有调节的中介模型

本研究探究了祖辈将心比心、母亲将心比心、母子依恋与婴幼儿认知之间的关系,并提出了一个有调节的中介模型。对37名婴幼儿（平均年龄18.24 ±3.34个月）及其母亲和祖母进行研究,研究工具包括将心比心编码方案、依恋行为Q分类和贝利婴幼儿发展量表（第二版）。结果表明：（1）母亲将心比心与母子依恋、婴幼儿认知呈显著正相关,母子依恋与婴幼儿认知呈显著正相关;（2）母子依恋在母亲将心比心与婴幼儿认知发展之间存在中介效应,且该中介过程的前半路径受到祖辈将心比心的调节。当祖辈将心比心水平较高时,母亲将心比心对母子依恋存在显著的正向预测作用。本文是在中国特殊的社会背景下开展的研究,结果为祖辈共同看护这一普遍现象对婴幼儿发展的影响提供了证据支持。     

Language experiences and vocabulary development in Dominican and Mexican infants across the first 2 years

We longitudinally investigated parental language context and infants' language experiences in relation to Dominican American and Mexican American infants' vocabularies. Mothers provided information on parental language context, comprising measures of parents' language background (i.e., childhood language) and current language use during interviews at infants' birth. Infants' language experiences were measured at ages 14 months and 2 years through mothers' reports of mothers' and fathers' engagement in English and Spanish literacy activities with infants and mothers' English and Spanish utterances during videotaped mother-infant interactions. Infants' vocabulary development at 14 months and 2 years was examined using standardized vocabulary checklists in English and Spanish. Both parental language context and infants' language experiences predicted infants' vocabularies in each language at both ages. Furthermore, language experiences mediated associations between parental language context and infants' vocabularies. However, the specific mediation mechanisms varied by language.     

Mothers' insightfulness regarding their infants' internal experience: relations with maternal sensitivity and infant attachment

This study examined the associations among mothers' insightfulness into their infants' internal experience, mothers' sensitivity to their infants' signals, and infants' security of attachment to their mothers. The insightfulness of 129 mothers of 12-month-old infants was assessed by showing mothers 3 videotaped segments of observations of their infants and themselves and interviewing them regarding their infants' and their own thoughts and feelings. Interviews were classified into 1 insightful and 3 noninsightful categories. Mothers' sensitivity was assessed during play sessions at home and at the laboratory, and infant-mother attachment was assessed with the Strange Situation. Mothers classified as positively insightful were rated as more sensitive and were more likely to have securely attached children than were mothers not classified as positively insightful. Insightfulness also accounted for variance in attachment beyond the variance explained by maternal sensitivity. These findings add an important dimension to research on caregiving, suggesting that mothers' seeking of explanations for the motives underlying their infants' behavior is related to both maternal sensitivity and infant attachment.     

When infants take mothers' advice: 18-month-olds integrate perceptual and social information to guide motor action

The social cognition and perception-action literatures are largely separate, both conceptually and empirically. However, both areas of research emphasize infants' emerging abilities to use available information--social and perceptual information, respectively--for making decisions about action. Borrowing methods from both research traditions, this study examined whether 18-month-old infants incorporate both social and perceptual information in their motor decisions. The infants' task was to determine whether to walk down slopes of varying risk levels as their mothers encouraged or discouraged walking. First, a psychophysical procedure was used to determine slopes that were safe, borderline, and risky for individual infants. Next, during a series of test trials, infants received mothers' advice about whether to walk. Infants used social information selectively: They ignored encouraging advice to walk down risky slopes and discouraging advice to avoid safe slopes, but they deferred to mothers' advice at borderline slopes. Findings indicate that 18-month-old infants correctly weigh competing sources of information when making decisions about motor action and that they rely on social information only when perceptual information is inadequate or uncertain.     

Maternal anxiety and depression and development of prematurely born infants in the first year of life

The purpose of this study was: (a) to assess and to compare anxiety and depression symptoms in mothers of preterm neonates during hospitalization in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, after discharge, and at the end of the infants' first year of life; and (b) to assess the child's development at 12 months of chronological corrected age (CCA). Thirty-six mothers, with no psychiatric antecedents assessed with the SCID-NP, were evaluated by STAI and BDI. The infants were assessed with Bayley-II Scales. There was a significant decrease in clinical symptoms of state-anxiety in mothers (p = .008), comparing the period during hospitalization and after discharge of the infants. Clinical symptoms of anxiety and depression were observed in 20% of the mothers at the end of the infants' first year of age. The majority of the infants exhibited normal development on Bayley-II at 12 months CCA; however, 25% of the infants displayed cognitive problems and 40% motor problems. The mothers' anxiety and depression symptoms decreased at the end of the first year of life of the pre-term infants and the children showed predominately normal development at this phase.     

Perturbation of Japanese mother-infant habitual interactions in the double video paradigm and relationship to maternal playfulness

Double video paradigm (DVP) studies have found contradictory evidence regarding the young infants' ability to discriminate their mother's 'replay' image from 'live'. This study examined the hypothesis that 4-month-old infants whose mothers showed high-levels-of-playful-behavior are more likely to discriminate social contingency in the DVP. We also examined the relationships between the infants' DVP behaviors and mothers' free-play behaviors at home with their 3-month-old infants. The results supported our hypothesis. Further, when the mothers' behaviors were reduced to playful companion (PC) and sensitive support (SS) by a principal component analysis, the level of PC was closely related to the infants' detection of social contingency, but SS was not. The different functions of mothers' 'playfulness' and 'sensitivity' in communication with their infants are discussed.     

Genetic and caregiving-based contributions to infant attachment: unique associations with distress reactivity and attachment security

In the longitudinal study reported here, we examined genetic and caregiving-based contributions to individual differences in infant attachment classifications. For 154 mother-infant pairs, we rated mothers' responsiveness to their 6-month-old infants during naturalistic interactions and classified infants' attachment organization at 12 and 18 months using the Strange Situation procedure. These infants were later genotyped with respect to the serotonin-transporter-linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR). Maternal responsiveness uniquely predicted infants' attachment security. Infants' 5-HTTLPR variation uniquely predicted their subtype of attachment security at 12 months and their subtype of attachment insecurity at 12 and 18 months. The short allele for 5-HTTLPR was associated with attachment classifications characterized by higher emotional distress. These findings suggest that 5-HTTLPR variation contributes to infants' emotional reactivity and that the degree to which caregivers are responsive influences how effectively infants use their caregivers for emotion regulation. Theoretical implications for the study of genetic and caregiving influences are discussed.     

Infants' vagal regulation in the still-face paradigm is related to dyadic coordination of mother-infant interaction

The authors investigated relations between mother-infant dyadic coordination and infants' physiological responses. Mothers (N=73) and 3-month-old male and female infants were observed in the still-face paradigm, and mothers' and infants' affective states were coded at 1-s intervals. Synchrony and levels of matching between mother-infant affective states were computed, and infants' heart rate and vagal tone were measured. Infants showed increased negative affect and heart rate and decreased vagal tone during mothers' still-face, indicating physiological regulation of distress. Infants who did not suppress vagal tone during the still-face (nonsuppressors) showed less positive affect, higher reactivity and vagal suppression in normal play and reunion episodes, and lower synchrony in normal play with mothers. The results indicate that infants' physiological regulation in social interaction differs in relation to dyadic coordination of affective behaviors.     

Previous manipulative experience in relation to infants' processing of mothers' presentations of objects

Recent work by the present author has identified a sequence of events during joint play of mother and infant which may lead infants to process mothers' presentations of objects in a particular way. This sequence of events implies a special form of detection of discrepancy by infants. The present report is an attempt to determine whether a plausible alternative hypothesis, which also happens to be more parsimonious, can account for previously reported findings which are consistent with the discrepancy hypothesis. The alternative hypothesis states that infants' processing of objects either during mothers' presentations or during infants' independently initiated manipulations is determined by the duration of time infants previously devoted to manipulating the object. The findings contradict this alternative hypothesis, and in so doing, lend further support to the discrepancy hypothesis originally proposed.     

Precursors to aggression are evident by 6 months of age

We tested the hypothesis that developmental precursors to aggression are apparent in infancy. Up to three informants rated 301 firstborn infants for early signs of anger, hitting and biting; 279 (93%) were assessed again as toddlers. Informants' ratings were validated by direct observation at both ages. The precursor behaviours were significantly associated with known risk factors for high levels of aggressiveness. Individual differences were stable from early infancy to the third year and predicted broader conduct problems. These findings suggest that some individuals set forth on the trajectory to high levels of aggression by 6 months of age. The findings have implications for developmental studies of aggression, clinical prevention and intervention strategies, and theoretical considerations regarding the detection of precursors in different domains of development.     

Maternal soothing and infant stress responses: soothing, crying and adrenocortical activity during inoculation

The relation between maternal soothing and infant stress response during inoculation was examined in a sample of 37 mothers and their 3-month-old infants. The mothers' soothing and the infants' cry vocalizations and the mothers' and the infants' salivary cortisol level pre- and post-injection were analysed. There was a positive relation between infants' cry vocalization post-injection and maternal soothing pre- and post-injection. The sample was divided in two sub-groups depending on whether the mothers evidenced most soothing of the infants in the period before (Preparatory group; n=20) or after (Contingent group; n=17) the syringe injection. In the Preparatory group, the duration of infant cry vocalizations was related to amount of maternal soothing before and after the injection, while cry vocalizations in the Contingent group was related to amount of maternal soothing after the injection. The Contingent infants responded to the injection with a significant increase in cortisol, while there was no increase in the Preparatory infants. The Preparatory infants evidenced significantly longer duration of looking at the target stimuli in a visual marking task, suggesting greater difficulties in disengaging attention. These findings indicate that 3-month-olds' stress responses and their mothers' situational behaviour are mutually regulated.     

父母述情困难与儿童行为问题:父母心境的中介作用

采用整群抽样法选取438名学前儿童及其家长为被试, 通过量表考察父母述情困难、心境与儿童问题行为之间的关系。结果发现:(1)父亲述情困难与儿童焦虑害羞行为显著正相关, 父亲情绪愉悦在其述情困难与儿童焦虑害羞行为之间具有完全中介作用;(2)母亲述情困难与儿童愤怒攻击、焦虑害羞行为显著正相关, 同时母亲的情绪波动在其述情困难与儿童愤怒攻击行为之间起着部分中介作用。研究结果说明述情困难风险较高的父亲, 其情绪愉悦水平也相对较低, 进而导致儿童表现出更多焦虑害羞行为;述情困难风险较高的母亲, 一方面会直接导致儿童表现出较多愤怒攻击与焦虑害羞行为, 另一方面又会通过其情绪波动增加儿童出现愤怒攻击行为的风险。     

Psychopharmacologic strategies for the treatment of aggression in juveniles

Maladaptive aggression in youth is one of the most common and troublesome reasons for referrals to child psychiatrists. It has a complex relationship with psychopathology. There are several syndromes, which are primary disturbances of clustered maladaptive aggression, most notably oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder. However, problems with aggression also appear in a wide range of other disturbances, such as bipolar disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, and mood disorders. Additionally, aggression is normative, serves an adaptive purpose and can be situationally induced. These complexities need to be carefully addressed before targeting maladaptive aggression psychopharmacologically. We summarize the literature on the psychopharmacology of maladaptive aggression in youth, focusing on disorders without cognitive impairment. We delineate the subtypes of aggression which are most likely to respond to medication (reactive-affective-defensive-impulsive in their acute and chronic form) and conclude with a discussion of specific medication strategies which are supported by controlled clinical trials and clinical experience.     

Outcome of aggression affects processing and can legitimise subsequent aggression: Influence of trait aggressiveness

The present study investigated differences in processing times between positive and negative outcomes to an aggressive reaction to provocation. The effects of outcome, sex, trait aggressiveness and current mood on subsequent subject‐generated material were also examined. Fifty subjects read stories line by line on a computer screen. Reading time for the key sentence describing a positive or negative outcome to an aggressive reaction to provocation was recorded and subjects wrote a continuing sentence to half the stories. Subjects took less time to process the negative outcome. The positive outcome resulted in more subject‐generated aggression than the negative outcome. There were few sex differences but men wrote more aggressive endings than women for the stories containing physical aggression. Trait aggressiveness was correlated with producing more aggressive content in the continuing sentence for both outcomes. Feeling peaceful was correlated with producing prosocial material to neutral stories. Subjects therefore expect a negative outcome to aggressive behaviour. Reading stories which present a positive outcome to aggression increases the accessibility of aggressive cognitions. Subjects high in trait aggressiveness are not inhibited by a negative outcome. Aggr. Behav. 30:284–297, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

The impact of optimality on maternal sensitivity in mothers with substance abuse and psychiatric problems and their infants at 3 months

The main aim of this study was to investigate the predictive validity of four different optimality indexes, as well as infant perinatal status, in relation to maternal sensitivity in interaction at 3 months. The four optimality indexes comprised items related to substance abuse, psychiatric condition, relational experience and socioeconomic status (SES). Maternal sensitivity in mother-infant interaction was assessed in two different groups of mothers. One group consisted of mothers with substance abuse and psychiatric problems who underwent treatment during pregnancy. The other group of mothers had neither substance abuse nor psychiatric problems. The expectant mothers were interviewed in the third trimester of pregnancy. Medical records and meconium were obtained from the infants at birth. Three months after birth, maternal sensitivity in mother-infant interaction was assessed. Altogether 79 mother-infant dyads participated in the study. The mothers' optimality associated with relational experiences, as well as the infants' perinatal status were found to predict maternal sensitivity in mother-infant interaction at 3 months. The SES index was also significantly related to maternal sensitivity. The relation between group and maternal sensitivity was mediated by the mothers' optimality associated with relational experiences. This study points to the importance of addressing the mothers' own relational experiences and their current representations of motherhood during treatment, in order to support and enhance maternal sensitivity.     

The relations among cry characteristics, demographic variables, and developmental test scores in infants prenatally exposed to methadone

This study examined the relations among developmental test scores, infants' demographic characteristics, and cry features. Cry features were strongly related to developmental test scores at all ages, suggesting that use of the infants' cry characteristics can help to identify those infants at greatest risk for later developmental problems.     

The effects of maternal mood on mother-infant interaction

The effects of depressed mood on mother-infant interaction were studied in 30 mother-infant dyads using the Velten mood induction procedure. It was predicted that maternal depressed mood would induce dysphoria in the infants, disrupt the infants' natural responsiveness to their mothers, and interfere with the mothers' ability to manage the interaction. In addition, it was predicted that such deficits would be the result of depressed maternal mood and not simply due to any change in maternal mood. The results indicated that the infants were sensitive to depressed mood and were less contingently responsive to their mothers than were controls. Also, mothers in the depression induction condition were less successful in eliciting positive responses from their infants than were controls. These results have implications for the development of a helplessness vulnerability in infants and for the two-way direction of effect present in depressed mother-infant dyads.This research was partially funded by NIMH grant MH39283 and a Spelman-Rockefeller Seed Grant awarded to Michael O'Hara. We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Joan Blackwood, Nancy Clift, Lynda Field, Darla Hauf, Randy Ross, Jane Ugland, and Jim Vincent in the data collection. We also thank Richard R. Hurtig, John F. Knutson, Donald K. Routh, Robert A. Forsyth, and Carolyn E. Cutrona for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this article.