Parent-Infant Interaction, Bio-Behavior and Stress Regulation: Theory, Research, and Assessment

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Parent-Infant Interaction, Bio-Behavior and
Stress Regulation Theory, Research, and
Assessment
What Develops? Understanding Assessment in Early
Childhood Education

• David W. Haley, Ph.D.
• Postdoctoral Fellow
• Department of Pediatrics
• University of British Columbia

dhaley_at_cw.bc.ca
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Working Assumptions

• Parent-infant interactions are regulatory
• Biological vulnerabilities influence
  parent-infant interactions/regulatory systems
• Parent-infant interactions/regulatory systems
  affect how infants interact in social/cognitive
  contexts

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Social and Biological Factors that Influence
Development
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(No Transcript)
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Still-Face Effect

• Still-Face
• social gaze
• negative affect
• heart rate
• (Weinberg, 1996)
• (Tronick,
• Als, Brazelton,
• 1978)

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Reunion

• Reunion
• social gaze
• negative affect
• heart rate
• (Weinberg, 1996)
• partial recovery

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Still-Face and Reunion

• Still-Face
• (Tronick et al., 1978)
• Reunion as Recovery
• (Weinberg Tronick, 1996)
• Quality of parent-infant interaction
• predicts infant responses
• (Carter Mayes, 1990 Braungart et al., 2000)

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Parent Behavior

• ? Infants
• social gaze
• (Kogan Carter, 1996)
• negative affect
• (Braungart et al., 2001)

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Aims

• Will parent responsiveness moderate the infants
  ability to regulate stress?
• Will Still-Face Reunion procedure be sufficiently
  stressful to elicit a cortisol response in
  infants?

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Independent Variables

• 2 (Parent Responsiveness) x 5 (Episode) with
  Repeated Measures
• Parent Responsiveness high/low groups
• Episode

Play
Still-Face II
Still-Face I
Reunion I
Reunion II
2 min
2 min
2 min
2 min
2 min
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Cortisol response to SFP (N 43), F(1,39)8.30,
plt.001

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Social Attend differs by Group, F(1, 39)
6.10, plt.05. (N 43)
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Negative Affect differs by Group x Episode, F(3,
101), p lt .05. (N43)
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Heart Rate differs by Group x Episode, F(3, 98)
4.31, p lt .01. (N42)
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Conclusions

• Infant HPA, cardiovascular, emotional, and social
  responses sensitive to procedure
• Infant ability to regulate stress decreases with
  repeated stressors
• Parent responsiveness moderates infant ability to
  regulate stress

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Parent-Infant Interaction and Maternal Drinking
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University of New Mexico
Research Staff Hillary Heyl Janette
Schluter Research Assistants Chen Meng Amir
Wodajo Brandi Proctor Melissa Ramsey Rrittany
Rayburn Jennifer Bennett Trainees Sharon McCaul,
MA Jordan Bell, MS
Principal Investigator Nancy Handmaker,
Psychology Co-Investigator Collaborators Stan
Handmaker, Pediatrics Brittany Raybrun,
ObGy Rappaport, ObGy Jean Lowe,
Developmental William Zywiak, Stats Support
NIH NIAAA CRC
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BackgroundEffects of Moderate Alcohol Exposure
(gt0.5 oz absolute alcohol/day)

• Growth deficits
• IQ
• Learning problems
• Behavior problems
• Biobehavior
• HPA
• Sympathetic Adrenal Medulla
• Affect
• Attention
• Emotional Disorders

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HPA Axis
Stressors
Hippocampus
Social Cognitive Physical Emotional
(-)
Hypothalamus
CRF
(-)
()
Pituitary Gland
ACTH
()
Adrenal Glands
Cortisol
Cortisol
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Drinking from conception to knowledge of
pregnancy awareness until birth (N54)
Pre-aware Post-aware
Average of drinks per day 2.27 (3.38) 0-22.13 .11 (.33) 0-2.13
Average of drinks per drinking day 6.97 (6.04) 0-31 1.80 (4.30) 0-29
Average blood alcohol content (BAC mg/dl) 37.63 (55.93) 0-291.33 1.70 (5.43) 0-28.34
Percent of days drinking () 0.290 (.11) 0-1.00 .119 (.03) 0-.19
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Cortisol Reactivity predicted by Maternal
Drinking (), adjusted R² .15 (n38)

• () after adjusting for gender days until
  awareness
• Removing mothers who continued to drink (n11),
  R² .11
• Removing mothers who drank 5 drinks (n5),
• R² .09

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Multiple Stress Systems Heart Rate and Negative
Affect by Drinking




Heart Rate by drinking, adj. R² .15, after
adjusting for gender and days until aware, (n
33)
Negative Affect by drinking, adj. R² .06 , after
adjusting for gender, R² .14 (n50)
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Conclusion

• Moderate to High drinking from conception to
  awareness of pregnancy associated with
• Greater cortisol reactivity
• Elevated heart rate during recovery
• Greater negative affect

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Parent-Infant Interaction Assessed via Infant
Cognition (Contingency Learning)
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Working Assumptions
Contingency Learning
Social Context
Genes
Genes
Biobehavior
Brains
Genes
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Biobehavioral Responses to Painful Stressors in
Preterm Infants (Grunau, 2001)

• 8-month-old (corrected)
• preterm full-term
• Elevation of heart rate
• in preterm
• Neonatal stress
• linked to alterations
• in cardiac facial
• activity (rs .45-.53)

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Question?

• Given that preterm infants have learning
  difficulties and show biobehavioral differences
• Is contingency learning a biobehavioral challenge
  for preterms?
• Is contingency learning more of a biobehavioral
  challenge for slow vs. fast learners?

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Participants

• 3-month-old infants
• 47 preterms corrected for age
• 54 full-term controls

Conception
Full-term
Preterm
3 months

Gestation
32 weeks
36-42 weeks
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Kicking by Group x Phase, plt.001
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Kicking by Group x Speed x Phase, plt.001
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Vagal Tone by Group x Speed, plt.01.
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Conclusion

• Learning is a biobehavioral challenge for infants
• Learning is a greater biobehavioral challenge for
  preterm and slow learners

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Working Assumptions Restated

• Parent-infant interactions are regulatory
• Biological vulnerabilities influence
  parent-infant interactions/regulatory systems
• Parent-infant interactions/regulatory systems
  affect how infants interact during
  social/cognitive contexts

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University of British Columbia
Co-ordinator Colleen Fitzgerald Manager, SCN
Project Adi Amir Research Staff Taryn
Fay Kristin Fay Gisela Gosse, RN Colleen Jantzen
Andrew Macquistan Carol Stephanson
Primary Investigator Ruth Grunau, Psychologist
Co-Investigators Michael Whitfield,
Neonatologist Tim Oberlander, Pediatrician Joanne
Weinberg, Neuroscientist Alfonso Solimano,
Neonatologist Graduate Trainees Research
Staff Liisa Holsti (CIHR) Mary
Beckingham Julie Petrie-Thomas Zoe Raffard
(CIHR, MSFHR)
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Institutions

• Centre for Community Child Health Research,
• British Columbia Research Institute,
• University of British Columbia
• Department of Pediatrics,
• University of British Columbia

Funding Sources NICHD, CIHR, HELP, MSFHR