Physiological and Behavioural Regulatory Processes in Recovering from Distress: Developmental and Contextual Dimensions in Infancy.

一般来说，消极情绪调节是一个人从痛苦事件中冷静下来的能力。目前的研究项目集中在生命第二年的负面情绪调节的发展。研究童年时期的负面情绪调节很重要，因为它预示着以后生活中许多不同的结果。生命的第二年是一个重要的年龄，因为这是婴儿有可靠的策略来调节痛苦的第一年。所以，因为生命的第二年可能是调节策略的可塑性特别高的时候，这个研究项目可能对理解发育机制特别有帮助。***该项目的重点是建立一个儿童和家长队列（n=600），他们将在多伦多和汉密尔顿的儿科医生办公室招募。这一队列代表了两个实验室的令人兴奋的协同作用，他们的整个研究项目都集中在研究影响调节上。Pillai Riddell（约克大学）专注于理解痛苦行为，Schmidt（麦克马斯特大学）专注于痛苦生理学（如心脏）。***这一研究计划的主要创新之一是，该团队将进行专门的分析，根据婴儿在痛苦情况下的调节方式，发现稳定的婴儿群体。这些分组将基于婴儿的行为和心率生理。第一项研究是描述三个不同年龄（12、18、24个月）婴儿的稳定调节组；在三种不同类型的痛苦情况下[免疫针头带来的痛苦（高度痛苦），与主要照顾者分离带来的痛苦（中度痛苦）和解决难题带来的痛苦（轻度痛苦）]；并使用两种类型的婴儿测量（行为和心脏生理学）]。第二项研究考察了我们是否可以通过了解婴儿在一年中的其他时间处于什么调节组来预测他们在24个月时处于什么调节组。最后，最后一项研究通过观察照顾者因素（如敏感性、心率、精神病理和养育压力），重点关注照顾者在塑造婴儿在生命第二年的调节能力方面所起的重要作用。一种对儿童发展有影响的理论认为，反应更强烈、需要更长的时间才能平静下来的儿童可能比反应更少的婴儿更容易受到照顾者因素的影响。***这三项研究的结果将有助于我们理解婴儿负性情绪调节在关键发育阶段的发展。该研究队列也将为未来阶段的研究奠定重要基础，以努力建立对儿童后期负面情绪调节的综合行为和生理理解

Generally speaking, negative affect regulation is one's ability to calm down from distressing events. The current program of research focuses on the development of negative affect regulation over the second year of life. Childhood negative affect regulation is important to study because it predicts many different outcomes later in life. The second year of life is an important age because this is the first year infants have reliable strategies to regulate from distress. So, because the second year of life may be when when malleability of regulatory strategies is especially high, this program of research may be especially informative to understanding developmental mechanisms. ***The program focuses on building a cohort of children and parents (n=600) that will be recruited in paediatrician offices in Toronto and Hamilton. This cohort represents an exciting synergy of two laboratories that have focused their entire programs of research on studying affect regulation. Pillai Riddell (York University) has focused on understanding distress behaviours and Schmidt (McMaster University) has focused on distress physiology (e.g. cardiac).***One of the major innovations of this proposed program of research is that the team will be conducting specialized analyses that will discover stable groups of infants based on how they regulate after distressing situations. These groups will be based on both the infant's behaviours and heart rate physiology. The first study is about describing these stable regulatory groups of infants at three different ages (12-, 18-, 24- months); in three different types of distress situations [distress from immunization needles (high distress), distress from being separated from primary caregiver (moderate distress) and distress from working on a hard puzzle (mild distress)]; and using two types of infant measurement (behaviour and heart physiology)]. The second study examines if we can predict what regulatory groups the infants are in at 24-months by knowing what regulatory groups they were in at other points in the year. Finally, the last study focuses on the important role that caregivers play in shaping an infant's development of regulation over the second year of life by looking at caregiver factors (e.g. sensitivity, heart rate, psychopathology and parenting stress). One theory that is influential in child development suggests that children who are more reactive and take longer to calm down may be more influenced by caregiver factors than infants who tend to are less reactive. ***The findings from all three studies will contribute significantly to our understanding of the development of infant negative affect regulation during a crucial developmental stage. The study cohort will also forms an important foundation for future phases of research that strives to build an integrated behavioural and physiological understanding of negative affect regulation in later childhood.**