Amie Ashley Hane

Behavioral Reactivity and Approach-Withdrawal Bias in Infancy.

Seven hundred seventy-nine infants were screened at 4 months of age for motor and emotional reactivity. At age 9 months, infants who showed extreme patterns of motor and negative (n = 75) or motor and positive (n = 73) reactivity and an unselected control group (n = 86) were administered the Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery, and baseline electroencephalogram data were collected. Negatively reactive infants showed significantly more avoidance than positively reactive infants and displayed a pattern of right frontal electroencephalogram asymmetry. Positively reactive infants exhibited significantly more approach behavior than controls and exhibited a pattern of left frontal asymmetry. Results support the notion that approach-withdrawal bias underlies reactivity in infancy.

Plasticity for Affective Neurocircuitry How the Environment Affects Gene Expression

We (Fox et al., 2005) recently described a gene-by-environment interaction involving child temperament and maternal social support, finding heightened behavioral inhibition in children homozygous or heterozygous for the serotonin transporter (5HTTLPR) gene short allele whose mothers reported low social support. Here, we propose a model, Plasticity for Affective Neurocircuitry, that describes the manner in which genetic disposition and environmental circumstances may interact. Children with a persistently fearful temperament (and the 5HTTLPR short allele) are more likely to experience caregiving environments in which threat is highlighted. This in turn will exacerbate an attention bias that alters critical affective neurocircuitry to threat and enhances and maintains anxious behavior in the child.

Longitudinal Stability of Temperamental Exuberance and Social-Emotional Outcomes in Early Childhood

The goals of the current study were to investigate the stability of temperamental exuberance across infancy and toddlerhood and to examine the associations between exuberance and social-emotional outcomes in early childhood. The sample consisted of 291 4-month-olds followed at 9, 24, and 36 months and again at 5 years of age. Behavioral measures of exuberance were collected at 9, 24, and 36 months. At 36 months, frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) asymmetry was assessed. At 5 years, maternal reports of temperament and behavior problems were collected, as were observational measures of social behavior during an interaction with an unfamiliar peer in the laboratory. Latent profile analysis revealed a high, stable exuberance profile that was associated with greater ratings of 5-year externalizing behavior and surgency, as well as observed disruptive behavior and social competence with unfamiliar peers. These associations were particularly true for children who displayed left frontal EEG asymmetry. Multiple factors supported an approach bias for exuberant temperament but did not differentiate between adaptive and maladaptive social-emotional outcomes at 5 years of age.

Ordinary variations in human maternal caregiving in infancy and biobehavioral development in early childhood: A follow-up study.

Rodent models of early caregiving find that pups reared by dams providing low levels of early stimulation subsequently display heightened stress reactivity and social aggression. We examined these effects in humans by investigating the effects of early caregiving on markers of biobehavioral development at ages 2 and 3 years. This study extended the findings reported by Hane and Fox (Hane and Fox [2006] Psychol. Sci. 17: 550-556) in which 185 mothers and infants were observed and scored for variations in maternal caregiving behavior (MCB) at age 9 months. Relative to young children who received high-quality MCB in infancy, those who received low-quality MCB showed significantly higher socially inhibited behavior with adults, right frontal electroencephalographam (EEG) asymmetry, aggressive play, and maternal reported internalizing behavior problems and anger proneness. These effects were independent of early temperamental reactivity. Results parallel rodent models and demonstrate that ordinary variations in MCB influence stress reactivity and social behavior in young children.

Family Nurture Intervention in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit improves social-relatedness, attention, and neurodevelopment of preterm infants at 18 months in a randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND Preterm infants are at high risk for adverse neurodevelopmental and behavioral outcomes. Family Nurture Intervention (FNI) in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is designed to counteract adverse effects of separation of mothers and their preterm infants. Here, we evaluate effects of FNI on neurobehavioral outcomes. METHODS Data were collected at 18 months corrected age from preterm infants. Infants were assigned at birth to FNI or standard care (SC). Bayley Scales of Infant Development III (Bayley-III) were assessed for 76 infants (SC, n = 31; FNI, n = 45); the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) for 57 infants (SC, n = 31; FNI, n = 26); and the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT) was obtained for 59 infants (SC, n = 33; FNI, n = 26). RESULTS Family Nurture Intervention significantly improved Bayley-III cognitive (p = .039) and language (p = .008) scores for infants whose scores were greater than 85. FNI infants had fewer attention problems on the CBCL (p < .02). FNI improved total M-CHAT scores (p < .02). Seventy-six percent of SC infants failed at least one of the M-CHAT items, compared to 27% of FNI infants (p < .001). In addition, 36% of SC infants versus 0% of FNI infants failed at least one social-relatedness M-CHAT item (p < .001). CONCLUSIONS Family Nurture Intervention is the first NICU intervention to show significant improvements in preterm infants across multiple domains of neurodevelopment, social-relatedness, and attention problems. These gains suggest that an intervention that facilitates emotional interactions between mothers and infants in the NICU may be key to altering developmental trajectories of preterm infants.

The Relation Between Coordinated Interpersonal Timing and Maternal Sensitivity in Four-Month-Old Infants

The relation between mother–infant coordinated interpersonal timing, an automated microanalytic measure of dyadic vocal coordination, and maternal sensitivity was explored. Thirty-five mothers and their developmentally normal 4-month-old infants were audio-recorded during a 20-min laboratory vocal interaction session, that was later analyzed for degree of vocal coordination. Maternal Sensitivity ratings (Ainsworth & Bell, 1969) were based on a video-taped 45-min unstructured laboratory interaction period. A significant curvilinear relation between the degree to which mother coordinated her noninterruptive co-occurring speech to that of her infant was found and revealed that mothers highest in sensitivity were characterized by moderate levels of coordination. Examining mother-infant interaction at the specific behavioral level, while incorporating tests of nonlinear trends, may provide important information about the nature of sensitive parenting.

Family nurture intervention improves the quality of maternal caregiving in the neonatal intensive care unit: evidence from a randomized controlled trial.

Objective:This study assessed the impact of Family Nurture Intervention (FNI) on the quality of maternal caregiving behavior (MCB) while in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). FNI is a randomized controlled trial conducted in a high-acuity NICU to facilitate an emotional connection between mothers and their premature infants. FNI begins shortly after birth, continues until discharge, and involves mother/infant calming sessions that include scent cloth exchange, vocal soothing and emotion expression, eye contact, skin-to-skin and clothed holding, and family-based support sessions. Methods:Maternal caregiving behavior was coded during a single holding and feeding session (∼30 min) in the NICU before discharge at approximately 36 weeks gestational age (GA). Sixty-five mothers and their premature infants (34 male, 31 female; 26–34 wk GA) were included in these analyses (FNI, n = 35; standard care [SC], n = 30). Results:Relative to mothers in the SC condition, those in the FNI group showed significantly higher quality MCB, which remained significant when controlling for birth order, twin status, maternal depression, and maternal anxiety. Conclusion:This is the first study to demonstrate that in-unit MCB can be enhanced by a hospital-based intervention. FNI provides a new rationale for integrating nurture-based interventions into standard NICU care.

Longitudinal Trajectories of Social Reticence with Unfamiliar Peers across Early Childhood

Behavioral inhibition is a temperament assessed in the toddler period via childrens responses to novel contexts, objects, and unfamiliar adults. Social reticence is observed as onlooking, unoccupied behavior in the presence of unfamiliar peers and is linked to earlier behavioral inhibition. In the current study, we assessed behavioral inhibition in a sample of 262 children at ages 2 and 3, and then assessed social reticence in these same children as they interacted with an unfamiliar, same-age, same-sex peer at 2, 3, 4, and 5 years of age. As expected, early behavioral inhibition was related to social reticence at each age. However, multiple trajectories of social reticence were observed including High-Stable, High-Decreasing, and Low-Increasing, with the High-Stable and High-Decreasing trajectories associated with greater behavioral inhibition compared to the Low-Increasing trajectory. In addition, children in the High-Stable social reticence trajectory were rated higher than all others on 60-month Internalizing problems. Children in the Low-Increasing trajectory were rated higher on 60-month Externalizing problems than children in the High-Decreasing trajectory. These results illustrate the multiple developmental pathways for behaviorally inhibited toddlers and suggest patterns across early childhood associated with heightened risk for psychopathology.

Mother and child interpretations of threat in ambiguous situations: relations with child anxiety and autonomic responding.

This study examined maternal and child interpretive bias to threat (IBT) during dyadic conversation, child physiological reactivity and regulation during dyadic conversation, and maternal report of child anxiety in a community sample of 35 mothers and their 8- to 10-year-old children. Mothers and children discussed one neutral and six ambiguous scenarios, which were subsequently coded for frequency of maternal and child initiation, minimization, and expansion of threat-related themes. Child electrocardiogram data were collected during these conversations and maternal reports of child anxiety and internalizing problems were obtained. Across the sample, children initiated threat-related discussion more often than mothers. Maternal threat expansions were significantly positively correlated with child anxiety and internalizing behaviors. Maternal minimizations of threat were significantly associated with augmented child vagal tone throughout the IBT paradigm. Implications for prevention of child anxiety and directions for extending IBT research within the context of the mother-child dyad are discussed.

Beyond Licking and Grooming: Maternal Regulation of Infant Stress in the Context of Routine Care.

SYNOPSIS Rodent epigenetic models of early maternal care have demonstrated that natural variations in maternal behavior shape the development of stress reactivity and social behavior in offspring. Rodent models have also revealed the “hidden” regulatory functions of specific dimensions of maternal behavior. Here we present research that has extended rodent models of early care to the study of biobehavioral development in human infants. Research showing contemporaneous and predictive associations between quality of maternal caregiving behavior (MCB) and early biobehavioral development is reviewed. New evidence demonstrating the proximal effects of MCB in early infancy on infant stress reactivity is reported and highlights the value of examining early parenting at the specific behavioral level. Future research should extend this domain-specific approach to the study of infant contributions to the early care environment. Implications for intervention are discussed.