Ronald Seifer

Familial Risk and Child Competence.

Components of familial risk are examined in the context of a 4-year longitudinal study of children with mentally ill mothers. The risk factors examined are parental mental health, social status, parental perspectives, and family stress. The interactions among the risk factors were found to be complex in nature and different for child cognitive and social-emotional competence. These findings are discussed in the context of a systems approach to development in general, and to the development of children at risk in particular. Parental beliefs, attitudes, and coping abilities are hypothesized to be important mediators between environmental stress and child competencies.

Effects of acute sleep restriction on behavior, sustained attention, and response inhibition in children

This study examined the effects of acute sleep restriction on the daytime behavior and performance of healthy children and adolescents. 82 participants (8 to 15 years of age) completed 5 nights of baseline sleep and were randomly assigned to Optimized (10 hr.) or Restricted (4 hr.) sleep for an overnight lab visit. Behavior, performance, and sleepiness were assessed the following day. Sleep restriction was associated with shorter daytime sleep latency, increased subjective sleepiness, and increased sleepy and inattentive behaviors but was not associated with increased hyperactive-impulsive behavior or impaired performance on tests of response inhibition and sustained attention. Results are discussed in terms of current theories regarding effects of inadequate or disturbed sleep among children and adolescents.

Child and Family Factors that Ameliorate Risk between 4 and 13 Years of Age

Protective processes in at-risk children between 4 and 13 years of age were examined in a longitudinal study. A multiple risk index was used at 4 years to identify 50 high-risk children and 102 who were at low risk. Cognitive and social-emotional status were measured at each time point. The following indicators of protective processes were related to positive change in cognitive and/or social-emotional function in the high-risk children between 4 and 13 years: mother-child interaction; child perceived competence, locus of control, life events, and social support; and maternal parenting values, social support, depression, and expressed emotion. Many of these factors were also related to improvement in the low-risk children. Some variables showed an interaction effect, where impact was substantially higher in the high-risk group compared with the low-risk group. The utility of multiple risk constructs and process oriented approaches to protective factors are discussed.

Attachment, Maternal Sensitivity, and Infant Temperament during the First Year of Life.

Families were examined at 6, 9, and 12 months in an intensive longitudinal study that included Home Behavior Attachment Q-sorts, laboratory Strange Situation assessment, home observations of infant temperament behavior on 24 occasions, observations of maternal parenting sensitivity on 12 occasions, and maternal reports of infant temperament. Maternal sensitivity was modestly related to Q-sort security and unrelated to Strange Situation classification. In contrast, observed infant temperament was more strongly related to both maternal sensitivity and Q-sort security. The relation between home and laboratory assessment of attachment security, which was at the level found in prior work (e.g., B. E. Vaughn & E. Waters, 1990), remained after the effects of observed and mother-reported infant temperament were partialed. Our data highlight the need to consider other factors besides maternal sensitivity in the explanation of variability in the attachment status of 1-year-olds.

Sociocultural Variability in Infant Temperament Ratings.

The interaction between the temperament of children and their caretaking environment is thought to be an important factor in the etiology of childhood behavior deviance. Most recent research in infant temperament has used a maternal questionnaire. Scores from these questionnaires have been subject to low concurrent validity. Also, there have been indications that maternal characteristics such as anxiety level influence child temperament ratings. The present study examined mother characteristics, child behavior, and mothers temperament ratings when their babies were 4 months old. The social status, anxiety level, the mental health status of the mother were all related to temperament ratings on the Carey Infant Temperament Questionnaire. However, child behavior measured in the home and laboratory were sporadically related to temperament, and these relations were of small magnitude. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis demonstrated that mother effects were powerful than child effects. These results supported the notion that individual differences in mothers, rather than differences in infants, may be the major contributor to early ratings of temperament.

Intrinsic circadian period of adolescent humans measured in conditions of forced desynchrony.

Circadian timing was assessed with forced desynchrony (FD) in 10 healthy adolescents (five boys, five girls; mean age 13.7 years). Following 10 days of entrainment to a fixed light-dark (LD) schedule at home, participants were studied under dim light (<20 lux) in the laboratory. A 28-h schedule (FD) was imposed for 12 x 28-h cycles. Saliva was collected at 30- or 60-min intervals throughout; core temperature was measured in constant routines (CR) before and after FD. Intrinsic circadian period was estimated by linear regression using temperature minimum from CRs and dim-light salivary melatonin onsets and offsets from FD. Average intrinsic circadian period for core temperature (n = 7) was 24.30+/-0.20, for melatonin onset was 24.33+/-0.21, and for melatonin offset was 24.35+/-0.21. Intrinsic circadian period in every adolescent was greater than 24 h.

Sleep and Psychological Characteristics of Children on a Psychiatric Inpatient Unit

OBJECTIVE To assess the association of objective measures of sleep-wake patterns and psychological status and abuse history of children hospitalized in a psychiatric inpatient unit. METHOD Thirty-nine inpatient children participated in the study. They were monitored for one to three consecutive nights with miniature wrist activity monitors for objective assessment of sleep-wake patterns. In addition, a thorough psychiatric and psychosocial assessment was completed with each child and the parents. RESULTS Childrens self-ratings of depression, hopelessness, and low self-esteem were significantly correlated with objective sleep measures indicating poorer sleep quality. No significant correlations between intelligence scores and sleep measures were found. Nonabused and sexually abused children had better sleep quality than physically abused children. CONCLUSIONS Sleep quality during hospitalization is strongly associated with self experiences of depression, hopelessness, and low self-esteem in children with severe behavior disorders.

Psychological distress in mothers of preterm infants

The purpose of this study was to identify infant and maternal characteristics that predict psychological distress among mothers of preterm infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Infant characteristics included birth weight, gestational age, and ventilatory support, and maternal characteristics included age, parity, and socioeconomic status. Mothers (n = 142) completed questionnaires including a demographic form, the Parental Stressor Scale, and the Symptom Checklist 90-R. In hierarchical regression analyses, maternal NICU-specific distress was more strongly predicted by infant characteristics [F(3,135) = 6.80, p < .05] with maternal variables covaried. Maternal general psychological distress was more strongly predicted by maternal characteristics [F(3,135) = 6.05, p < .05]) with infant variables covaried. Twenty-eight percent of mothers reported clinically significant psychological distress compared with 10% in a normative population. Psychological distress among mothers of preterm infants appears to be common and deserves clinical consideration. The use of standardized questionnaires as part of the assessment process may improve case identification and psychosocial service delivery in the NICU.

Levels of family assessment: II. Impact of maternal psychopathology on family functioning.

The association of maternal and contextual risk factors with whole-family, marital, and parent-child levels of family functioning was examined. Matemal mental illness and multiple contextual risk best predicted whole-family functioning, but each was related to marital and parent-child levels as well. Nonspecific indicators of maternal illness, rather than diagnostic category, were the better predictors of family functioning. The multiple contextual risk index was the variable most associated with all levels of family functioning, more so than any indicator of maternal illness. These results indicate (a) that maternal mental illness and family functioning are strongly associated and (b) that variation in the conceptualization and measurement strategy for risk and family functioning affects the conclusions of research. The importance of clear conceptualization of family levels and psychopathology risk in families of young children is discussed.

Prediction of Adolescent Affective Disorder: Effects of Prior Parental Affective Disorders and Child Psychopathology

OBJECTIVE To examine the role of major parental and child diagnostic factors in predicting episodes of serious affective disorder in adolescents in a nonreferred sample. METHOD The sample included 139 youngsters (average age 14 years at enrollment) drawn from a health maintenance organization and evaluated at two points in time 4 years apart. Both parents and adolescents were assessed using structured diagnostic instruments scored according to criterion systems. Parent and child lifetime diagnoses identified in the first assessment were used to predict the onset of episodes of serious affective disorder in the adolescents which occurred between the first and second assessment. RESULTS Stepwise multiple regression analyses of the significant univariate factors showed that the most powerful predictors of episodes of affective disorder were total number of diagnoses the adolescents received prior to first assessment, lifetime duration of parental major depressive disorder, and total number of lifetime nonaffective disorders of the parents. CONCLUSION Broad risk factors from different domains best predict episodes of affective disorder in children and adolescents.