Effects of Attachment-Based Intervention on Low-Income Latinx Infants' and Mothers' Cardiac Vagal Regulation

根据生物嵌入模型，早期环境通过压力调节进入皮下，以 影响身体健康。依恋研究与这一模型一致，将支持性照护与健康联系起来 结果，但潜在的心理生理机制还不是很清楚。本R03建议书重点介绍 心脏迷走神经张力，一个重要的压力调节指标，与早期护理和 身体健康。特别是，我们将检查婴儿和母亲在休息和休息时的呼吸窦性心律失常(RSA)。 对轻微的压力源做出反应。我们假设，促进敏感的基于依恋的干预 照顾以及婴儿和母亲的压力调节有可能支持良好的身体健康。这个 现有文献表明，母亲的敏感照顾可能会影响婴儿RSA、母亲RSA和RSA 同步性，但因果关系尚未得到检验。这些影响需要进行严格的调查才能阐明 有效调节压力的发育途径。结果将反过来为改进和评估提供信息 依恋干预及其对儿童健康的影响。因此，对依恋的实验研究-- 有必要进行有基础的干预，以检验照料是否以及如何因果影响发育 这种干预对谁是最有效的。拟议的研究将扩展派·柏林的 最近完成了RCT对低收入者的依恋和生物行为追赶(ABC)计划的测试， 拉丁裔母亲及其婴儿(N=181)。到目前为止，随机对照试验的结果显示了对母亲敏感性的积极影响 以及婴儿行为和皮质醇的调节。在补充数据收集中，心电记录， 从婴儿和母亲那里收集的RSA评分，在一系列轻微的 压力源。需要补充资金来(A)清理、编辑和计算RSA值；以及(B)处理数据 分析。样本反映了一个代表性不足、潜在信息量很高的研究人群。 照顾和压力调节之间的联系，因为社会文化背景可能起到特别的作用 拉丁裔家庭在压力调节中的重要作用。因此，增加母亲的敏感度可能会更多 基于重要性和依恋的干预更有效--对以高风险为特征的拉丁裔家庭 (资源较少)社会文化背景。我们将测试ABC对婴儿RSA、母亲RSA和 婴儿-母亲RSA同步(目标1)。我们还将测试社会文化背景的两个方面(母体 文化适应和邻里社会凝聚力)作为干预效果的调节变量(目标2)。通过利用 涉及代表性不足人群的现有随机对照试验的潜在影响将很高：这项研究将打破新的 并将通过生成效应大小和统计功率估计，为 本研究的下一阶段：基于依恋的潜力的更全面的研究(R01) 改善低收入拉丁裔家庭儿童健康状况的干预措施。

According to the biological embedding model, early environments get “under the skin” via stress regulation to influence physical health. Consistent with this model, attachment research links supportive caregiving to health outcomes, but underlying psychophysiological mechanisms are not well understood. This R03 proposal focuses on cardiac vagal tone, an important index of stress regulation that has been associated with early caregiving and physical health. In particular, we will examine infants' and mothers' respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) at rest and in response to mild stressors. We hypothesize that attachment-based interventions that promote sensitive caregiving and infants' and mothers' stress regulation have the potential to support good physical health. The extant literature suggests that mothers' sensitive caregiving may influence infant RSA, maternal RSA, and RSA synchrony, but causal effects have not been tested. These effects require rigorous investigation to elucidate the developmental pathways to effective stress regulation. Results will in turn inform improvement and evaluation of attachment-based interventions and their effects on child health. Thus, experimental studies of attachment- based interventions are necessary to test whether and how caregiving causally affects the development of RSA, and for whom such interventions are most effective. The proposed study will extend PI Berlin's recently completed RCT testing the Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC) program with low-income, Latinx mothers and their infants (N = 181). RCT findings to date illustrate positive effects on maternal sensitivity and infant behavioral and cortisol regulation. In a supplemental data collection, electrocardiographic recordings, from which RSA scores can be constructed, were collected from both infants and mothers during a series of mild stressors. Supplemental funding is required to (a) clean, edit, and calculate RSA values; and (b) conduct data analysis. The sample reflects an underrepresented and potentially highly informative population in which to study the associations among caregiving and stress regulation, as sociocultural context may play an especially important role in stress regulation for Latinx families. Therefore, increased maternal sensitivity may be more important – and attachment-based intervention more effective - for Latinx families characterized by higher-risk (lower-resourced) sociocultural contexts. We will test ABC intervention effects on infant RSA, maternal RSA, and infant-mother RSA synchrony (Aim 1). We will also test two aspects of sociocultural context (maternal acculturation and neighborhood social cohesion) as moderators of intervention effects (Aim 2). By leveraging an existing RCT involving an underrepresented population potential impact will be high: This study will break new ground and will create, through the generation of effect sizes and statistical power estimations, a foundation for the next phase of this research: a more comprehensive (R01) study of the potential of attachment-based intervention to improve children's health outcomes in low-income Latinx families.