No abstract

This study investigated the maternal concerns and emotions that may regulate one form of sensitive parenting, support for children's immediate desires or intentions. While reviewing a videotape of interactions with their 1-year-olds, mothers who varied on depressive symptoms reported concerns and emotions they had during the interaction. Emotions reflected outcomes either to children (child-oriented concerns) or to mothers themselves (parent-oriented concerns). Child-oriented concerns were associated with fewer negative emotions and more supportive behavior. Supportive parenting was high among mothers who experienced high joy and worry and low anger, sadness, and guilt. However, relations depended on whether emotions were child or parent oriented: Supportive behavior occurred more when emotions were child oriented. In addition, as depressive symptoms increased, mothers reported fewer child-oriented concerns, fewer child-oriented positive emotions, and more parent-oriented negative emotions. They also displayed less supportive behavior. Findings suggest that support for children's immediate intentions may be regulated by parents' concerns, immediate emotions, and depressive symptoms.

Vibrant expression of emotion is the principal means infants and young children use to elicit appropriate and timely caregiving, stimulation, and support. This study examined the depression-inhibition hypothesis: that declines in mothers' support as their depressive symptoms increase inhibit children's emotional communication. Ninety-four mothers and their 14- to 27-month-olds interacted in a university playroom. Based on microanalytic coding of discrete facial displays, results supported three components of the hypothesis. (a) As mothers' depressive symptoms increased, children displayed less facial emotion (more flat affect, less joy, less sadness, less negative). (b) Mothers' low emotional and behavioral support predicted children's low facial communication and mediated relations between mothers' depressive symptoms and children's infrequent emotion. (c) Children who were passive with mothers behaviorally expressed emotion infrequently. Children's passivity mediated relations between mothers' depressive symptoms and children's infrequent emotion displays. Contrary to modeling and contagion theories, mothers' facial displays did not mediate relations between their depressive symptoms and children's facial displays. Nor were the outcomes children experienced regulating their facial displays. Rather, findings suggest that, even when depressive symptoms are modest, young children inhibit emotion as mothers' depressive symptoms increase to withdraw from unresponsive mothers, which may adversely affect children's subsequent relationships and competencies.

We present a computerize battery constructed to evaluate behavioral performances for language, declarative memory, executive functions and social cognition abilities. This battery was created to evaluate cognitive outcomes in adults who underwent hemispherotomy as a clinical treatment of Rasmussen Encephalitis (RE) in their childhood and have been tested in a group of healthy participants (n= 88). LEXTOMM battery can be used for cognitive assessment of any type of population and allow the collection of behavioral performances in terms of accuracy and reaction times. LEXTOMM battery is composed of six language tasks allowing to assess six different linguistic abilities such as lexical storage, semantics, phonology, syntax, prosody perception and production. Different input modalities are proposed for these tasks (picture, written and auditory modality). A specific task allowing the assessment of the language generation and declarative memory interaction is also proposed. The battery also included a visual control categorization task is proposed in order to assess decision-making baseline. Moreover, LEXTOMM also includes four tasks allowing the assessment of the executive functions. More specifically we included tasks allowing the evaluation of four executive processes: updating in working memory, switching/flexibility, sustained attention and inhibition. Finally, the battery includes a theory of mind abilities task. All tasks were developed using the E-Prime 3.0 software (E-Prime Psychology Software Tools Inc., Pittsburgh, USA), running on a PC. Before each task, a training session is included, with several stimuli that differ from those presented during the experiment. This training allows participants to understand the instructions and get familiarized with each task. Hereafter, we describe the procedures and tasks included in LEXTOMM, in the following order: low-level visual categorization, language, language in interaction with declarative memory, executive functions and social cognition/theory of mind.