Courtney A. Filippi, Elizabeth Smith, Elizabeth Redcay, Heather Hazlett, Lauren Thompson, Stacy S. Manwaring, Precilla D'Souza, Audrey Thurm
While studies have documented neural correlates of language delay in toddlers with developmental conditions, those at genetic risk for language delay, and those born premature, no studies have examined neural correlates in toddlers exhibiting early language delay without known aetiology. This study examines brain morphometry in toddlers with and without early language delay. To do so, we collected magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on toddlers with language delay (LD; n = 7, Mage = 19.67 months, 3 female, 2 Hispanic and 4 non‐caucasian) and a typically developing (TD; n = 17, Mage = 22.73 months, 8 female, 2 Hispanic and 3 non‐caucasian) comparison group. Exploratory analyses examined group differences in total brain volume, cortical thickness and cortical surface area using both a whole‐brain and region of interest (Broca's and Wernicke's areas) approach. Results showed no gross brain anatomical differences between groups. However, there were group differences in cortical surface area in the temporal cortex (including Wernicke's area and left middle temporal gyrus, hedges' g = − 0.35) and Broca's area thickness. Results are reported using multiple analytic methods, age matching and exclusion of children later diagnosed with autism. While this exploratory study has a limited sample size, it provides novel findings that can be utilised to guide hypothesis‐driven imaging studies on toddler language delay.
{"title":"Brain Morphometry of Toddlers With Language Delay: An Exploratory Study","authors":"Courtney A. Filippi, Elizabeth Smith, Elizabeth Redcay, Heather Hazlett, Lauren Thompson, Stacy S. Manwaring, Precilla D'Souza, Audrey Thurm","doi":"10.1002/icd.2558","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.2558","url":null,"abstract":"While studies have documented neural correlates of language delay in toddlers with developmental conditions, those at genetic risk for language delay, and those born premature, no studies have examined neural correlates in toddlers exhibiting early language delay without known aetiology. This study examines brain morphometry in toddlers with and without early language delay. To do so, we collected magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on toddlers with language delay (LD; <jats:italic>n</jats:italic> = 7, <jats:italic>M</jats:italic><jats:sub>age</jats:sub> = 19.67 months, 3 female, 2 Hispanic and 4 non‐caucasian) and a typically developing (TD; <jats:italic>n</jats:italic> = 17, <jats:italic>M</jats:italic><jats:sub>age</jats:sub> = 22.73 months, 8 female, 2 Hispanic and 3 non‐caucasian) comparison group. Exploratory analyses examined group differences in total brain volume, cortical thickness and cortical surface area using both a whole‐brain and region of interest (Broca's and Wernicke's areas) approach. Results showed no gross brain anatomical differences between groups. However, there were group differences in cortical surface area in the temporal cortex (including Wernicke's area and left middle temporal gyrus, hedges' <jats:italic>g</jats:italic> = − 0.35) and Broca's area thickness. Results are reported using multiple analytic methods, age matching and exclusion of children later diagnosed with autism. While this exploratory study has a limited sample size, it provides novel findings that can be utilised to guide hypothesis‐driven imaging studies on toddler language delay.","PeriodicalId":47820,"journal":{"name":"Infant and Child Development","volume":"58 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143030915","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Catherine E. Draper, Caylee J. Cook, Elizabeth A. Ankrah, Jesus A. Beltran, Franceli L. Cibrian, Kimberley D. Lakes, Hanna Mofid, Lucretia Williams, Gillian R. Hayes
To address the need for interventions targeting social emotional development and mental health of young children in South Africa, the Mazi Umntanakho (‘know your child’) digital tool was co‐designed, and piloted with caregivers and 3–5‐year‐old children involved in home visiting programmes promoting early childhood development. The aim of this study was to qualitatively evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of this tool in four urban and four rural low‐income communities, from the perspective of home visitors and caregivers. Focus groups were conducted with home visitors (n = 117) and caregivers (n = 72). Issues relating to the feasibility of implementing the tool included timing of using the tool, technical and social implementation challenges, WhatsApp as the preferred platform, and participants' recommendations for future implementation. Overall, the tool was acceptable for home visitors and caregivers and was perceived to have a positive impact on children's development, and the relationship between caregivers and children.
{"title":"Feasibility and Acceptability of the Mazi Umntanakho Digital Tool in South African Settings: A Qualitative Evaluation","authors":"Catherine E. Draper, Caylee J. Cook, Elizabeth A. Ankrah, Jesus A. Beltran, Franceli L. Cibrian, Kimberley D. Lakes, Hanna Mofid, Lucretia Williams, Gillian R. Hayes","doi":"10.1002/icd.2567","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.2567","url":null,"abstract":"To address the need for interventions targeting social emotional development and mental health of young children in South Africa, the <jats:italic>Mazi Umntanakho</jats:italic> (‘know your child’) digital tool was co‐designed, and piloted with caregivers and 3–5‐year‐old children involved in home visiting programmes promoting early childhood development. The aim of this study was to qualitatively evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of this tool in four urban and four rural low‐income communities, from the perspective of home visitors and caregivers. Focus groups were conducted with home visitors (<jats:italic>n</jats:italic> = 117) and caregivers (<jats:italic>n</jats:italic> = 72). Issues relating to the feasibility of implementing the tool included timing of using the tool, technical and social implementation challenges, WhatsApp as the preferred platform, and participants' recommendations for future implementation. Overall, the tool was acceptable for home visitors and caregivers and was perceived to have a positive impact on children's development, and the relationship between caregivers and children.","PeriodicalId":47820,"journal":{"name":"Infant and Child Development","volume":"31 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-01-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142989848","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Parent responsiveness to infants' cues may support attachment, mental health, and neurodevelopment. Across studies, parent responsiveness includes various behaviours (e.g., verbal responses, sensitivity, timeliness, physical proximity). Mixed evidence regarding associations between parent responsiveness and child development may be partially attributable to variable conceptualizations of parent responsiveness. Additionally, divergent perspectives on parent responsiveness may limit cross‐disciplinary collaborations, which are important to best support families in developing responsive parenting skills. Thus, the purpose of this systematic review of articles published from 1952 to 2022 was to establish a multidimensional definition of parent responsiveness. Inclusion criteria for the 463 articles included in this review were: (a) primary focus on behavioural parent responsiveness; (b) average infant age 6–18 months; and (c) in‐depth definition of parent responsiveness. We completed a qualitative content analysis of the definitions of parent responsiveness extracted from each included article. The resulting definition contains 15 dimensions of parent responsiveness across four levels of behaviour that comprehensively describe the complexity of parent‐infant interactions. This model is foundational for future studies of parent responsiveness, its impact on child development, and factors that influence parents' ability to respond to their infants' cues.
{"title":"Defining Parent Responsiveness: A Systematic Review‐Based Theoretical Model","authors":"Emily Campi, Elizabeth Nye, Grace T. Baranek","doi":"10.1002/icd.2565","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.2565","url":null,"abstract":"Parent responsiveness to infants' cues may support attachment, mental health, and neurodevelopment. Across studies, parent responsiveness includes various behaviours (e.g., verbal responses, sensitivity, timeliness, physical proximity). Mixed evidence regarding associations between parent responsiveness and child development may be partially attributable to variable conceptualizations of parent responsiveness. Additionally, divergent perspectives on parent responsiveness may limit cross‐disciplinary collaborations, which are important to best support families in developing responsive parenting skills. Thus, the purpose of this systematic review of articles published from 1952 to 2022 was to establish a multidimensional definition of parent responsiveness. Inclusion criteria for the 463 articles included in this review were: (a) primary focus on behavioural parent responsiveness; (b) average infant age 6–18 months; and (c) in‐depth definition of parent responsiveness. We completed a qualitative content analysis of the definitions of parent responsiveness extracted from each included article. The resulting definition contains 15 dimensions of parent responsiveness across four levels of behaviour that comprehensively describe the complexity of parent‐infant interactions. This model is foundational for future studies of parent responsiveness, its impact on child development, and factors that influence parents' ability to respond to their infants' cues.","PeriodicalId":47820,"journal":{"name":"Infant and Child Development","volume":"32 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-12-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142884284","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cognitive tasks are seldom evaluated on their ability to provide valid and reliable measurements of the construct they intend to measure. This scarcity of psychometric evaluations makes it challenging to evaluate replications of experimental effects and to relate performance in cognitive tasks to other constructs of interest. In developmental science, these issues are compounded by the often‐imprecise measures derived from tasks completed by child participants. Here, we focus on the spatial arrangement method when used to assess semantic structure in children and evaluate its psychometric properties. Using a new analytic approach to capture individual variability in participants' arrangement in this task, we show that the spatial arrangement method has appropriate construct validity (β = 0.40), internal consistency (r2 = 0.20), and test–retest reliability (r2 = 0.41; ICC = 0.56) when used to evaluate semantic structure in U.S. children (4–9 years of age; N = 200 across 4 datasets). We discuss the implications of these findings for examining semantic structure in children and for strengthening methodological practices in developmental science more broadly.
{"title":"Strengthening Developmental Science With Psychometric Evaluations: An Examination of the Spatial Arrangement Method as a Measure of Semantic Structure in Children","authors":"Catarina Vales, Zach Branson, Anna V. Fisher","doi":"10.1002/icd.2560","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.2560","url":null,"abstract":"Cognitive tasks are seldom evaluated on their ability to provide valid and reliable measurements of the construct they intend to measure. This scarcity of psychometric evaluations makes it challenging to evaluate replications of experimental effects and to relate performance in cognitive tasks to other constructs of interest. In developmental science, these issues are compounded by the often‐imprecise measures derived from tasks completed by child participants. Here, we focus on the spatial arrangement method when used to assess semantic structure in children and evaluate its psychometric properties. Using a new analytic approach to capture individual variability in participants' arrangement in this task, we show that the spatial arrangement method has appropriate construct validity (<jats:italic>β</jats:italic> = 0.40), internal consistency (<jats:italic>r</jats:italic><jats:sup>2</jats:sup> = 0.20), and test–retest reliability (<jats:italic>r</jats:italic><jats:sup>2</jats:sup> = 0.41; ICC = 0.56) when used to evaluate semantic structure in U.S. children (4–9 years of age; <jats:italic>N</jats:italic> = 200 across 4 datasets). We discuss the implications of these findings for examining semantic structure in children and for strengthening methodological practices in developmental science more broadly.","PeriodicalId":47820,"journal":{"name":"Infant and Child Development","volume":"23 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142841939","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Charlotte Viktorsson, Angelica Ronald, Terje Falck‐Ytter
Twin studies are important for research on genetic and environmental influences on child development, but it is imperative to test whether findings can be generalised from twins to singletons. Since the first months of life are defined by the emergence of important sleep behaviours, we compared 451 (54.8% females) twins and 77 singletons (48.1% females) on a range of sleep, settle and crying behaviours at 5 months of age. No significant differences were found regarding duration of crying or time until settled. However, singletons were reported to wake up more frequently during nighttime than twins (F(1, 509) = 35.10, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.065), suggesting that, when reported in twin studies, this measure might be slightly underestimated at a mean level in relation to singletons. In conclusion, despite the unique challenges and additional caregiver load of infant twins, there seem to be few differences between twins and singletons regarding parent‐reported settle and crying behaviours in early infancy.
{"title":"A Comparison of Sleep and Settle Behaviours Across Twins and Singletons at 5 Months of Age","authors":"Charlotte Viktorsson, Angelica Ronald, Terje Falck‐Ytter","doi":"10.1002/icd.2564","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.2564","url":null,"abstract":"Twin studies are important for research on genetic and environmental influences on child development, but it is imperative to test whether findings can be generalised from twins to singletons. Since the first months of life are defined by the emergence of important sleep behaviours, we compared 451 (54.8% females) twins and 77 singletons (48.1% females) on a range of sleep, settle and crying behaviours at 5 months of age. No significant differences were found regarding duration of crying or time until settled. However, singletons were reported to wake up more frequently during nighttime than twins (<jats:italic>F</jats:italic>(1, 509) = 35.10, <jats:italic>p</jats:italic> < 0.001, <jats:italic>η</jats:italic><jats:sub><jats:italic>p</jats:italic></jats:sub><jats:sup>2</jats:sup> = 0.065), suggesting that, when reported in twin studies, this measure might be slightly underestimated at a mean level in relation to singletons. In conclusion, despite the unique challenges and additional caregiver load of infant twins, there seem to be few differences between twins and singletons regarding parent‐reported settle and crying behaviours in early infancy.","PeriodicalId":47820,"journal":{"name":"Infant and Child Development","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142820662","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Karin Stanzel, Tomoko Honda, Thach Tran, Jane Fisher
This systematic review and meta‐analyses aim to synthesise evidence about behavioural interventions to address dysregulated sleeping and cry/fuss behaviour in infants aged up to 12 months and the effects on infant behaviour and maternal mental health. A systematic literature search of English‐language publications was performed in November 2020 and updated in May 2023 using Medline, Embase, PsychInfo and Cinahl Plus. Twenty‐two papers reporting twenty studies met inclusion criteria of these sixteen papers reported both maternal and infant outcomes. Although, there is heterogeneity of the investigations, their results are broadly consistent. Parents who attended a behavioural intervention program for unsettled behaviours in infants reported improvement of their mental health and parenting confidence, and unsettled infant behaviours were improved including a reduction of night waking and cry/fuss behaviour. This review and meta‐analyse provides evidence that behavioural interventions show a mild to moderate improvement in unsettled infant behaviour and maternal mental health.
{"title":"Behavioural Interventions for Problematic Infant Sleeping and Cry/Fuss Behaviour: A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analyses","authors":"Karin Stanzel, Tomoko Honda, Thach Tran, Jane Fisher","doi":"10.1002/icd.2554","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.2554","url":null,"abstract":"This systematic review and meta‐analyses aim to synthesise evidence about behavioural interventions to address dysregulated sleeping and cry/fuss behaviour in infants aged up to 12 months and the effects on infant behaviour and maternal mental health. A systematic literature search of English‐language publications was performed in November 2020 and updated in May 2023 using Medline, Embase, PsychInfo and Cinahl Plus. Twenty‐two papers reporting twenty studies met inclusion criteria of these sixteen papers reported both maternal and infant outcomes. Although, there is heterogeneity of the investigations, their results are broadly consistent. Parents who attended a behavioural intervention program for unsettled behaviours in infants reported improvement of their mental health and parenting confidence, and unsettled infant behaviours were improved including a reduction of night waking and cry/fuss behaviour. This review and meta‐analyse provides evidence that behavioural interventions show a mild to moderate improvement in unsettled infant behaviour and maternal mental health.","PeriodicalId":47820,"journal":{"name":"Infant and Child Development","volume":"10 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142815775","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) is highly responsive to changes in environmental conditions and serves an essential role in mobilising the metabolic resources required for young children to regulate their thoughts, emotions and behaviours. According to polyvagal theory, the PNS evolved to play a leading role in the neurophysiological response to situations that range from modestly challenging to engaging, and many situations in which young children must exercise volitional processes of self‐regulation conform to this description. Children's phasic parasympathetic activity during measures of volitional self‐regulation is often associated with their performance on those measures or with their performance on other assessments of self‐regulation, but the nature of the associations between PNS activity and performance on measures of volitional self‐regulation is highly variable. This heterogeneity complicates the interpretation of results obtained across different studies and inhibits our ability to formulate directional hypotheses about what patterns of phasic parasympathetic activity we would expect to observe as young children exercise volitional processes of self‐regulation in different situations. This special issue presents a set of papers that addressed these challenges by administering multiple measures of volitional self‐regulation to the same sample of children or by examining how children's characteristics and experience in their developmental environments may account for observed differences in their phasic PNS activity.
{"title":"At the Interface Between Parasympathetic Activity and Self‐Regulation in Young Children: Introduction to the Special Issue","authors":"Steven J. Holochwost, Cathi B. Propper","doi":"10.1002/icd.2559","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.2559","url":null,"abstract":"The parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) is highly responsive to changes in environmental conditions and serves an essential role in mobilising the metabolic resources required for young children to regulate their thoughts, emotions and behaviours. According to polyvagal theory, the PNS evolved to play a leading role in the neurophysiological response to situations that range from modestly challenging to engaging, and many situations in which young children must exercise volitional processes of self‐regulation conform to this description. Children's phasic parasympathetic activity during measures of volitional self‐regulation is often associated with their performance on those measures or with their performance on other assessments of self‐regulation, but the nature of the associations between PNS activity and performance on measures of volitional self‐regulation is highly variable. This heterogeneity complicates the interpretation of results obtained across different studies and inhibits our ability to formulate directional hypotheses about what patterns of phasic parasympathetic activity we would expect to observe as young children exercise volitional processes of self‐regulation in different situations. This special issue presents a set of papers that addressed these challenges by administering multiple measures of volitional self‐regulation to the same sample of children or by examining how children's characteristics and experience in their developmental environments may account for observed differences in their phasic PNS activity.","PeriodicalId":47820,"journal":{"name":"Infant and Child Development","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-12-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142789865","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity has widespread research applications but poses measurement challenges due to its high sensitivity to environmental conditions and immediate demands. While standardised methods exist for measuring PNS reactivity and recovery in response to stressors, the selection of appropriate baseline and resting states is often overlooked. This commentary argues that a clearer conceptual distinction between baseline, a research construct for comparing values, and rest, a psychophysiological state of low arousal and cognitive engagement, is crucial for data interpretation. This includes a need for explicitly justifying baseline conditions in relation to research goals and validating rest conditions. By improving the clarity and rigour of baseline and rest, researchers can enhance the interpretability of PNS reactivity and recovery measures, supporting integration of research findings across studies.
{"title":"Baseline and Rest: A Need for Conceptual Clarity When Measuring Parasympathetic Reactivity and Recovery","authors":"Jacek Kolacz","doi":"10.1002/icd.2563","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.2563","url":null,"abstract":"Parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity has widespread research applications but poses measurement challenges due to its high sensitivity to environmental conditions and immediate demands. While standardised methods exist for measuring PNS reactivity and recovery in response to stressors, the selection of appropriate baseline and resting states is often overlooked. This commentary argues that a clearer conceptual distinction between baseline, a research construct for comparing values, and rest, a psychophysiological state of low arousal and cognitive engagement, is crucial for data interpretation. This includes a need for explicitly justifying baseline conditions in relation to research goals and validating rest conditions. By improving the clarity and rigour of baseline and rest, researchers can enhance the interpretability of PNS reactivity and recovery measures, supporting integration of research findings across studies.","PeriodicalId":47820,"journal":{"name":"Infant and Child Development","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-12-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142789875","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Adopted youth often have contact with or at least information about birth family members—but such relationships or knowledge rarely extend to birth fathers. The current study explores ideas, feelings, and questions about birth fathers among youth raised by two mothers, including whether or not they desire contact. Interviews were conducted with 25 adolescents, ages 13–19 years. Thematic analysis of narratives revealed seven groups of respondents who displayed a range of interests, feelings, and contact desires in relation to birth fathers. Some adolescents had limited information about or interest in their birth fathers, others showed ambivalence and uncertainty, and still others voiced curiosity and strong interest. A few articulated a sense of a fathers ‘absence’ and a longing for a fatherly presence. The data are interpreted in the context of ambiguous loss, uncertainty management, and gender perspectives. Implications for future research, adoption practice, and adoptive parenting are considered.
{"title":"Thinking About the Birth Father: Loss, Longing, Ambivalence, and Indifference Among Adopted Adolescents With Lesbian Mothers","authors":"Abbie E. Goldberg, David M. Brodzinsky","doi":"10.1002/icd.2561","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.2561","url":null,"abstract":"Adopted youth often have contact with or at least information about birth family members—but such relationships or knowledge rarely extend to birth fathers. The current study explores ideas, feelings, and questions about birth fathers among youth raised by two mothers, including whether or not they desire contact. Interviews were conducted with 25 adolescents, ages 13–19 years. Thematic analysis of narratives revealed seven groups of respondents who displayed a range of interests, feelings, and contact desires in relation to birth fathers. Some adolescents had limited information about or interest in their birth fathers, others showed ambivalence and uncertainty, and still others voiced curiosity and strong interest. A few articulated a sense of a fathers ‘absence’ and a longing for a fatherly presence. The data are interpreted in the context of ambiguous loss, uncertainty management, and gender perspectives. Implications for future research, adoption practice, and adoptive parenting are considered.","PeriodicalId":47820,"journal":{"name":"Infant and Child Development","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142789903","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In a sample of 110 Mexican‐origin infants (M = 7.24 months; SD = 2.06; range, 3.78–13.04 months; 58% male) we examined the bidirectional covariation of mother and infant positive and negative emotions across the day. Further, we examined maternal emotion regulation as a potential moderator of the linkage between mother‐infant emotions. Using an Ecological Momentary Assessment design, mothers reported their positive and negative emotions three times a day, for 6 days. Analyses employed a multi‐level modelling approach to examine moment‐to‐moment covariation. Results indicated both mother and infant negative emotions, and mother and infant positive emotions significantly covary. Interestingly, maternal emotion regulation did not moderate either the covariation of negative or positive mother‐infant emotion. These analyses represent one of the first examinations of daily covariation in mother‐infant dyadic emotion.
{"title":"Mother‐Infant Covariation of Positive and Negative Emotions Across the Day","authors":"Leah C. Hibel, Siwei Liu, Chase Boyer","doi":"10.1002/icd.2562","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.2562","url":null,"abstract":"In a sample of 110 Mexican‐origin infants (<jats:italic>M</jats:italic> = 7.24 months; <jats:italic>SD</jats:italic> = 2.06; range, 3.78–13.04 months; 58% male) we examined the bidirectional covariation of mother and infant positive and negative emotions across the day. Further, we examined maternal emotion regulation as a potential moderator of the linkage between mother‐infant emotions. Using an Ecological Momentary Assessment design, mothers reported their positive and negative emotions three times a day, for 6 days. Analyses employed a multi‐level modelling approach to examine moment‐to‐moment covariation. Results indicated both mother and infant negative emotions, and mother and infant positive emotions significantly covary. Interestingly, maternal emotion regulation did not moderate either the covariation of negative or positive mother‐infant emotion. These analyses represent one of the first examinations of daily covariation in mother‐infant dyadic emotion.","PeriodicalId":47820,"journal":{"name":"Infant and Child Development","volume":"87 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142776617","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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