Responding to distressed infants: Does mothers’ positive versus negative affect matter for infants' behavior and physiology?

How mothers respond to infants’ distress has implications for infants’ development of self-regulation and social competence. In a sample of 35 mothers and their 4- to 8-month-old infants, we induced infant distress using an arm restraint task and compared infants’ observed affect and physiological responses under two conditions, when mothers were instructed to respond with: 1) positive affect and 2) negative affect. Based on theoretical and empirical support, we empirically evaluated two opposing hypotheses. Based on the Mutual Regulation Model and work on affect matching, we predicted that when mothers respond with negative affect versus positive affect, distressed infants’ duration of negative affect would be smaller, negative affect would be less intense, and respiratory sinus arrythmia (RSA) withdrawal would be lower. Based on social referencing theory and research, we expected that when mothers respond with positive affect versus negative affect, distressed infants’ duration of negative affect would be smaller, negative affect would be less intense, and RSA withdrawal would be lower. We found that when mothers responded to their distressed infants with negative affect versus positive affect, infants spent significantly more time in negative affect, their intensity of expressed negative affect was greater, and their RSA withdrawal was greater, suggesting that mothers’ display of mild positive affect when infants are distressed may be helpful for infants. The current findings add to accumulating evidence that mothers’ positive relative to negative affective response to their infants’ distress can produce observable differences in infants’ duration and intensity of negative affect, as well as their physiology. Findings have the potential to inform future research that investigates how mothers can most effectively reduce their infants’ distress and intervention that targets the moment-to-moment behaviors in mother-infant reciprocal interactions.     

Sensitive caregiving and reward responsivity: A novel mechanism linking parenting and executive functions development in early childhood

Sensitive caregiving is an essential aspect of positive parenting that influences executive functions development, but the mechanisms underlying this association are less clear. Using data from the Family Life Project, a large prospective longitudinal sample of 1292 families residing in rural, predominately low-income communities, the current study examined whether sensitive caregiving impacts executive functions development by shaping behavioral reward processing systems in early postnatal life. Results indicated that higher levels of sensitive caregiving during infancy were associated with heightened reward responsivity at age 4, which in turn predicted superior executive functions ability at age 5. Notably, children's reward responsivity partially mediated the relationship between sensitive caregiving in infancy and executive functions ability at school entry. These findings add to prior work on early experience and children's executive functions and highlight caregiver scaffolding of developing reward processing systems as a potential foundational mechanism for supporting adaptive behavior and self-regulation across the lifespan.     

Immoral,infectious, or both? How disgust sensitivity predicts judgments of violations against COVID-19 mitigation actions

Violations against mitigation actions to prevent the spreading of the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing COVID-19, such as not wearing a mask or not practicing social distancing, were seen as immoral and could also increase the likelihood of spreading the virus. In two studies (N1 = 318, N2 = 293), we found that moral and pathogen disgust sensitivity differentially predicted perceptions of such COVID-19 violations against mitigation actions, framed as a moral, pathogen, or on a good-bad dimension, albeit in a less specific way than initially hypothesized (e.g., regarding the pathogenic framed violations, not only pathogen but also moral disgust was associated with higher perceptions of infectiousness). These results suggest that individual differences, especially in pathogen disgust (and, more inconsistently, moral disgust), are important when evaluating violations against mitigation actions. Further research on the role of moral disgust is needed.     

Assessing the Child's Cognitive Home Environment Through Parental Report; Reliability and Validity

In a series of investigations with poor minority families, we examined the reliability and validity of the StimQ, an office-based interview of children's cognitive home environment. Researchers and practitioners alike recognize the importance of assessing meaningful dimensions of children's early experiences, particularly in families where children may be at risk for later cognitive delay. To date, methodological approaches to the study of parenting have most often relied on home visits and/or labour-intensive observations and coding. Our findings suggest that valid and reliable data about the cognitive environments of poor children can be obtained through maternal report, thereby offering applied scientists a useful alternative to assessing children's early experiences. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Preterm birth and maternal sensitivity: Findings from a non-western country

IntroductionAlthough there are several studies on maternal sensitivity of preterm-born children conducted in Western countries, the factors affecting the sensitivity of mothers of preterm infants have not been investigated outside the Western context.ObjectivesThis study aimed to compare maternal sensitivity of preterm children at 18 months of corrected age with their healthy term-born peers and explore the factors associated with maternal sensitivity in a middle-income non-Western country. Moreover, the associations of maternal sensitivity with socio-demographic factors, maternal depression, and social-emotional competency and behavior problems of infants were investigated.MethodsIn total, 70 (40 preterm-born and 30 term-born) mother-child dyads participated in this study. An observation-based measurement tool, Maternal Sensitivity Scale, was used to assess maternal sensitivity. Social-emotional competency and behavior problems of infants were evaluated via The Turkish version of the Brief Infant-Toddler Social Emotional Assessment. Maternal depressive symptoms were assessed via the Beck Depression Inventory. In addition, a demographic information form was filled out by the mothers.ResultsMaternal sensitivity scores of preterm infants were significantly lower compared to term infants. Depressive symptoms scores and employment status of mothers, socio-economic status (SES), gestational age, breastfeeding duration, and behavior problems of children were the factors related to maternal sensitivity scores. In hierarchical regression analysis, SES and gestational age were the strongest predictors of maternal sensitivity. After controlling SES and gestational age, maternal depressive symptoms scores negatively predicted maternal sensitivity scores.ConclusionThis study pointed out the factors associated with the maternal sensitivity of preterm infants outside the Western context. Interventions to improve sensitive parenting behaviors of preterm infants are needed, especially in socio-economically disadvantaged groups.     

Social media reduce users' moral sensitivity: Online shaming as a possible consequence

In this study, we propose that social media reduce users' moral sensitivity through the mediation of the perceived moral intensity of hostile comments, which leads to behavioral consequences for online shaming. Three separate studies were conducted to explore this statement. Study 1 (N = 160) compared moral sensitivity between participants in simulated social media situations and a control group. Study 2 (N = 412) tested the mediating role of perceived moral intensity through self-rated questionnaires. Study 3 (N = 295) examined the behavioral consequences of reduced moral sensitivity on online shaming by manipulating social media and perceived moral intensity. Across these three studies with their different methodologies, we found consistent support for our prediction that social media reduce users' moral sensitivity. Also, our findings shed light on perceived moral intensity as a mediator. As expected, less perceived moral intensity and less moral sensitivity (as serial mediators) induced by social media led to a higher tendency to participate in online shaming. In addition, our research suggests that the harmful effects of social media could be restricted by improving users' perceived moral intensity in the form of reminders. These findings provide novel insights into the underlying mechanism of cyberviolence on social media and also contribute to the literature on the antecedents and consequences of moral sensitivity.     

大学生恋爱状态与外表拒绝敏感性：外表吸引力自我觉知的中介作用

主要探讨大学生恋爱状态（恋爱中或单身）、个体外表吸引力自我觉知与外表拒绝敏感性之间的关系。采用恋爱状态问卷、外表拒绝敏感性量表、拒绝敏感度量表、基于外表的社会比较以及吸引力自评等测量工具,以班级为单位向随机选取的北京、四川以及安徽等地多所高校大学生进行施测,有效被试549人。结果发现：（1）大学生恋爱状态、外表吸引力自我觉知和外表拒绝敏感性之间相关显著;（2）大学生恋爱状态能够显著正向预测外表吸引力自我觉知,也能显著负向预测外表拒绝敏感性;（3）外表吸引力自我觉知在恋爱状态与外表拒绝敏感性之间具有显著的完全中介作用（间接效应值为0.47）,恋爱状态通过提升个体主观评估的外表吸引力,从而降低外表拒绝敏感性。     

Anxiety sensitivity and auditory perception of heartbeat

Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is the fear of sensations associated with autonomic arousal. AS has been associated with the development and maintenance of panic disorder. Given that panic patients often rate cardiac symptoms as the most fear-provoking feature of a panic attack, AS individuals may be especially responsive to cardiac stimuli. Consequently, we developed a signal-in-white-noise detection paradigm to examine the strategies that high and low AS individuals use to detect and discriminate normal and abnormal heartbeat sounds. Compared to low AS individuals, high AS individuals demonstrated a greater propensity to report the presence of normal, but not abnormal, heartbeat sounds. High and low AS individuals did not differ in their ability to perceive normal heartbeat sounds against a background of white noise; however, high AS individuals consistently demonstrated lower ability to discriminate abnormal heartbeats from background noise and between abnormal and normal heartbeats. AS was characterized by an elevated false alarm rate across all tasks. These results suggest that heartbeat sounds may be fear-relevant cues for AS individuals, and may affect their attention and perception in tasks involving threat signals.     

Unique contributions of anxiety sensitivity to avoidance: a prospective study in adolescents

Examination of the prospective relation between anxiety sensitivity (AS) and behavioral avoidance is largely absent from the literature. In a longitudinal study of a community sample of 2246 adolescents, participants completed the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI; Reiss, Peterson, Gursky, & McNally (1986). Behaviour Research & Therapy, 24, 1-8), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI; Spielberger (1983). STAI: Manual for the Stait-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Palo Alto: Consulting Psychologists Press), and the Fear Questionnaire (Marks & Matthews (1979). Behaviour Research & Therapy, 17, 263-267) on an annual basis. To stringently test AS's ability to prospectively predict behavioral avoidance, linear regression was used to test whether AS factors predicted variance in follow-up behavioral avoidance scores after controlling for gender, trait anxiety, panic attacks, and baseline avoidance. Results indicted that the mental and physical subscales of the ASI predicted change in behavioral avoidance. The findings of the study are consistent with the view that AS may serve as a precursor to avoidant behavior and that, regardless of whether or not acute panic has been experienced, those who fear autonomic arousal may be more likely to avoid situations in which those sensations may be present.     

Avoidance behavior in panic disorder: the moderating influence of perceived control

The relations among anxiety sensitivity, perceived control, and agoraphobia were examined in 239 patients diagnosed with panic disorder (PD). Most patients exhibited agoraphobia accompanying their PD (98% situational avoidance; 90% experiential avoidance; and 80% endorsed interoceptive fear and avoidance). Anxiety sensitivity and perceived emotional control were associated with agoraphobia, and perceived threat control was found to moderate the relationship between anxiety sensitivity and agoraphobia. Lower levels of perceived control were associated with a stronger relationship between anxiety sensitivity and agoraphobia. Results were consistent for self-reported and clinician-rated agoraphobia. Implications for the role of perceived control in agoraphobia development and treatment are discussed.