The Development of Self-regulation in High Risk Infants

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This study investigates early social and physiological processes involved in the development of self regulation and its relation to infant-mother attachment and cognitive development in high risk infants who vary in their level of neonatal medical risk. The research has a longitudinal design that follows infants from hospital discharge until they are 2 years (corrected for gestational age) and involves data collected from children and families using multiple methods in multiple contexts. The study has 4 specific aims: (1) to examine 3 preverbal predictors of high risk infants' self-regulation, including neurophysiological modulation (early cardiorespiratory processes), quality of mutual regulation (parent-infant interaction), and infant self regulatory disposition (temperament), (2) to investigate parent-infant interaction quality over time as a mediator of the relation between infant/maternal characteristics and infants' cognitive and social outcomes, (3) to identify whether infants varying in risk levels and temperament are differentially susceptible to negative parenting associated with chronic maternal depression, and (4) to identify relations among attachment, cognitive abilities, and self-regulation in high risk infants. The proposed investigation will advance the field of developmental psychopathology by examining longitudinal processes involved in the development of early self-regulation and will extend our knowledge in 3 ways: (1) identification of how infants' perinatal medical risks and early heart rate variability directly and indirectly predict developmental outcomes, (2) testing a model that specifies parent-infant interaction quality as a mediator of the relation between infant neonatal risks, maternal depressive symptoms, and infant developmental outcomes, which has implications for preventive interventions with high risk infants, and (3) identification of relations among self-regulational capacities, attachment relationships and cognitive development in high risk infants, which may provide suggestions for extending developmental follow-up evaluations of NICU graduates to include screening dyadic interactions.