Temperament and play interaction behavior across infancy

Temporal stability and convergent validity of infant temperament ratings and play interaction behaviors were examined across early to late infancy. Stability was noted for the temperament dimensions activity, rhythmicity, intensity, mood, and persistence. Stability also was noted for the infant play interaction behaviors looking, smiling, and vocalizing. In addition, convergent validity was noted for attentive-affective behaviors and comparable temperament ratings; for example, gaze aversion and nondistractability, and distress brow behavior and negative mood. Generally easier temperament infants were noted to vocalize more and to cry less frequently during their play interactions.     

Vocal and facial expression matching in infants of mothers with depressive symptoms

This study investigated vocal and facial expression matching in 24 10-month-old infants. Half of the mothers had reported depressive symptoms [i.e., elevated scores on the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Index (CES-D)] during the previous week. Infants were tested using a two-screen preference procedure in which they were presented side-by-side videos of different facial expressions modeled by one female reciting a children's story. A centrally located speaker was used to present a vocal expression soundtrack that matched one of the facial expressions. Separate analyses of variances (ANOVAs) were conducted to analyze the proportion total matching and proportion total looking to the happy and sad expressions. Infants of mothers who reported depressive symptoms displayed less accurate matching of the happy facial and vocal expressions and looked more to sad facial expressions compared to infants of mothers who had not reported depressive symptoms above the normal range. Infants' performance on the expression matching task appears to be related to their primary caregivers' reports of depressive symptoms during the previous week. However, other factors that may be related to the group differences also need to be considered. For example, maternal reports of depressive symptoms may be a marker for other underlying factors that may have affected their infants' performance. © 1997 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health     

Mothers with Depressive Symptoms Touching Newborns

Previous research has demonstrated the positive effects of early contact on mother–infant touching behaviours. The present study investigated whether the type of maternal touching, shortly after birth, is also determined by the mother's mood state. Mothers with depressive symptoms were compared to non-depressive mothers 1 day after delivery on how they touched their newborns following an initial feeding. The results were counter-intuitive in that no differences were found between mothers with depressive symptoms and non-depressive mothers in type of maternal touching. However, mothers with depressive symptoms talked to their infants less often and talked on the phone more often. In addition, mothers with depressive symptoms showed more neutral and negative facial expressions and fewer positive and more neutral vocal expressions.     

Altering withdrawn and intrusive interaction behaviors of depressed mothers

Interaction coaching was given to 44 depressed mothers who had either a withdrawn or intrusive interaction style with their infants. The intrusive and withdrawn mothers were given instructions either to imitate their infants' behavior or to keep their infants' attention. The results suggested that the specific type of interaction coaching for the specific type of depressed mother (imitation for the intrusive mothers and attention-getting for the withdrawn mothers) significantly improved their interaction behaviors with their infants.     

Teenage parenting in different cultures,family constellations,and caregiving environments: Effects on infant development

Teenage parenting was investigated in different ethnic groups (Cuban and American Black), family constellations (single-parent, nuclear, and extended families), and primary caregiving arrangements (mother versus other). One hundred sixty-four infants born to a representative sample of teenage mothers were observed during interactions with their mothers and were given developmental assessments when they were 12, 18, and 24 months of age. Being a Cuban mother, living in a nuclear family, and being a secondary caregiver were each associated independently with stronger social support systems and more positive child-rearing attitudes and mother-infant play interactions. Despite these early advantages, maternal stimulation and infant performance decreased over the second year of life irrespective of ethnic group, family constellation, and caregiving arrangements.     

Making meaning of parenting from the perspective of alienated parents

More than 13% of parents identify as being alienated by at least one of their children. Parental alienation often occurs after divorce when one parent (un)intentionally persuades his or her children to distance themselves from or reject the other parent. This study, couched in relational dialectics theory, explores the meaning of parenting from the perspective of 40 alienated parents. This analysis yielded two competing discourses: the culturally dominant discourse of parental norms (DPN) and the culturally marginalized discourse of parental victimization (DPV). Throughout the narrative interviews, the DPV resisted the DPN in four ways (diachronic separation, entertaining, countering, and negating). This study's findings provide insights into the perspective of the alienated parents, advance what we know about family distancing, and provide practical implications.     

Risky decision-making in children with and without ADHD: A prospective study

Learning from past decisions can enhance successful decision-making. It is unclear whether difficulties in learning from experience may contribute to risky decision-making, which may be altered among individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This study follows 192 children with and without ADHD aged 5 to 10 years for approximately 2.5 years and examines their risky decision-making using the Balloon Emotional Learning Task (BELT), a computerized assessment of sequential risky decision-making in which participants pump up a series of virtual balloons for points. The BELT contains three task conditions: one with a variable explosion point, one with a stable and early explosion point, and one with a stable and late explosion point. These conditions may be learned via experience on the task. Contrary to expectations, ADHD status was not found to be related to greater risk-taking on the BELT, and among younger children ADHD status is in fact associated with reduced risk-taking. In addition, the typically-developing children without ADHD showed significant learning-related gains on both stable task conditions. However, the children with ADHD demonstrated learning on the condition with a stable and early explosion point, but not on the condition with the stable and late explosion point, in which more pumps are required before learning when the balloon will explode. Learning during decision-making may be more difficult for children with ADHD. Because adapting to changing environmental demands requires the use of feedback to guide future behavior, negative outcomes associated with childhood ADHD may partially reflect difficulties in learning from experience.     

Enhanced memory for emotional pictures: A product of increased attention to affective stimuli?

The current experiment addressed the question, is enhanced memory for emotional pictures due to increased attention to affective stimuli? Participants viewed pairs of pictures (emotional-neutral or neutral-neutral) whilst their eye movements were recorded; participants had to decide which picture out of each pair they preferred. There was increased attention to positive pictures and decreased attention to negative images during picture viewing. Despite this, when a recognition test was given 1 week later, memory enhancements were found for negative pictures only. Moreover, although there was a general correlation between total inspection time and memory performance, this reliability was clear only for neutral pictures, and not for emotional images. The results suggest that memory advantages for emotional pictures can occur without increased attention to such images.     

The relationship between learning goal orientation,goal setting,and performance: a longitudinal study

In an educational setting, we examined the relationship of learning goal orientation with goal setting and performance over time. At the first time point, we assessed levels of trait learning goal orientation and asked participants to set performance goals. At each follow‐up time point, we reported to participants their current course grade and allowed them to revise their goals. Learning goal orientation was associated with both setting higher goals and maintaining higher performance over time. Additionally, the relationship of learning goal orientation and performance was found to be mediated by goal setting.