This study examined whether risk status and cumulative risk were associated with autonomic nervous system reactivity and recovery, and emotion regulation in infants. The sample included 121 6-month-old infants. Classification of risk status was based on World Health Organization criteria (e.g., presence of maternal psychopathology, substance use, and social adversity). Heart rate, parasympathetic respiratory sinus arrhythmia, and sympathetic preejection period were examined at baseline and across the still face paradigm. Infant emotion regulation was coded during the still face paradigm. Infants in the high-risk group showed increased heart rate, parasympathetic withdrawal, and sympathetic activation during recovery from the still face episode. Higher levels of cumulative risk were associated with increased sympathetic nervous system activation. Moreover, increased heart rate during recovery in the high-risk group was mediated by both parasympathetic and sympathetic activity, indicating mobilization of sympathetic resources when confronted with socioemotional challenge. Distinct indirect pathways were observed from maternal risk to infant emotion regulation during the still face paradigm through parasympathetic and sympathetic regulation. These findings underline the importance of specific measures of parasympathetic and sympathetic response and recovery, and indicate that maternal risk is associated with maladaptive regulation of stress early in life reflecting increased risk for later psychopathology.

This study examined whether prenatal reflective functioning (RF) was related to mothers’ interactive style across contexts with their 6‐month‐old infants (M age = 6.02 months, SD = 0.41, 54% boys), and to what extent quality of prenatal RF could account for the influence of accumulated risk on maternal interactive behavior. Accumulated risk was defined as the sum‐score of a selection of risk factors that have been associated with suboptimal infant development. Mother–infant dyads (N = 133) were observed during free play, two teaching tasks, and the Still‐Face Paradigm (SFP). Better prenatal RF was associated with more positive maternal behavior in all settings and less negative behavior during teaching and SFP reengagement. Accumulated risk and prenatal RF predicted shared variance in maternal interactive behavior (with unique predictive effects observed only for RF on sensitivity during teaching and SFP play, and for accumulated risk on sensitivity and positive engagement during SFP play, and internalizing‐helplessness during SFP reengagement). Accumulated risk had an indirect effect on maternal sensitivity during teaching and SFP play through prenatal RF. These findings suggest not only that RF may be targeted prenatally to improve mother–infant interactions, but also that enhancing RF skills may ameliorate some of the negative consequences from more stable perinatal risk factors that influence parent–child interactions.

The concept of maternal reflective functioning (RF) has been gaining increasing interest as a possible intermediate mechanism in associations between a wide range of psychosocial risk factors and poor child outcomes. The purpose of the present study was to determine which psychosocial risk factors are linked to prenatal RF in a high-risk (HR) group of primiparous women. Differences in prenatal RF between the HR group and a low-risk (LR) control group also were examined. The sample consisted of 162 women (M = 22.22 years, SD = 2.39; 83 classified as HR). RF was coded from the Pregnancy Interview (A. Slade, 2007a). Risk status was assessed by means of the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview-plus (M.I.N.I.-plus; D.V. Sheehan et al., 1997) and several questionnaires. HR women demonstrated significantly lower RF quality than did the LR group. Regression analyses indicated that maternal education, size of social support network, and substance use during pregnancy were the strongest predictors of prenatal RF for the HR group. The results suggest that maternal RF potentially could be an important target for those prevention and intervention programs that aim to reduce adverse psychosocial development in offspring of HR mothers.

Background Despite the increasing interest in cardiac autonomic nervous activity, the normal development is not fully understood. The main aim was to determine the maturation of different cardiac sympathetic‐(SNS) and parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity parameters in healthy patients aged 0.5 to 20 years. A second aim was to determine potential sex differences. Methods and Results Five studies covering the 0.5‐ to 20‐year age range provided impedance‐ and electrocardiography recordings from which heart rate, different PNS‐parameters (eg, respiratory sinus arrhythmia) and an SNS‐parameter (pre‐ejection period) were collected. Age trends were computed in the mean values across 12 age‐bins and in the age‐specific variances. Age was associated with changes in mean and variance of all parameters. PNS‐activity followed a cubic trend, with an exponential increase from infancy, a plateau phase during middle childhood, followed by a decrease to adolescence. SNS‐activity showed a more linear trend, with a gradual decrease from infancy to adolescence. Boys had higher SNS‐activity at ages 11 to 15 years, while PNS‐activity was higher at 5 and 11 to 12 years with the plateau level reached earlier in girls. Interindividual variation was high at all ages. Variance was reasonably stable for SNS‐ and the log‐transformed PNS‐parameters. Conclusions Cardiac PNS‐ and SNS‐activity in childhood follows different maturational trajectories. Whereas PNS‐activity shows a cubic trend with a plateau phase during middle childhood, SNS‐activity shows a linear decrease from 0.5 to 20 years. Despite the large samples used, clinical use of the sex‐specific centile and percentile normative values is modest in view of the large individual differences, even within narrow age bands.

Inhibitory control (IC) and negative emotionality (NE) are both linked to aggressive behavior, but their interplay has not yet been clarified. This study examines different NE × IC interaction models in relation to aggressive behavior in 855 preschoolers (aged 2-5 years) using parental questionnaires. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that NE and IC predict aggression both directly and interactively. The highest aggression levels were reported in children with high NE and low IC. Interestingly, the protective effect of IC for aggressive behavior increases with rising levels of NE. Analyses focusing on physical aggression revealed a significant NE × IC interaction in boys aged 4-5 years only. These findings shed new light on potential compensatory mechanisms for aggressive behavior in developing children.