Mutual Regulatory Processes in Black Mother-Infant Dyads

描述(由申请者提供)：这项修订后的赠款的主要目标是通过对已经收集的纵向数据进行二级分析，增加我们对非洲裔儿童社会情感发展的了解。具体地说，我们建议评估163名非洲血统(非洲裔美国人或黑人)成年母亲与12至18个月大的足月健康婴儿(50%女性)之间发生的相互调节(MR)过程(即同步性、影响分享或匹配、从不协调的情感状态到协调的情感状态的修复、双向和母体调节反应)。受试者是一项完成的纵向研究的参与者，该研究部分由斯宾塞基金会(M.Beeghly，PI)资助，部分由我们自己的资源资助。本研究的分析将基于每个年龄段在两个不同的(结构化和非结构化)互动环境中制作的录像带。其具体目的是：1)评估不同情境和年龄的MR成绩的相对稳定性，以及儿童性别、年龄、交互环境对MR过程的影响；评估MR变量与特定的生物和社会背景变量(困难的儿童气质、母亲的心理社会适应、社会支持、家庭环境、SES)的关系，包括被确定为与黑人家庭特别相关的特定变量(即家庭组成、社会支持和儿童养育态度的变化，如温暖与严格，以及种族社会化)，3]评估12个月或18个月时评估的MR变量是否与18个月时儿童结果的四个领域(在单独游戏期间观察到的自我调节行为、依恋状态、语言技能和一般认知功能)有关，其中每一项都与儿童在童年后期的积极功能有关，以及4]评估每个年龄段的MR变量是否在背景变量与儿童结果之间的关系中起中介作用。儿童和母亲的情感和二元行为将使用单一的评分系统，即儿童照顾者相互调节(CCMR)系统，从每个年龄段的母子互动录像带中进行微观分析编码。时间序列分析将被用来产生代表二元情感分享、修复、同步和双向的MR变量，而顺序数据分析技术将被用来产生描述母亲对孩子行为的调节反应的变量。这项研究将是第一次对黑人母亲和健康足月婴儿的单一种族样本中纵向多个磁共振过程进行评估，这些样本在第二年的生命中SES不同。研究结果将大大增加我们对这一队列中母子关系的个体差异的了解，并将提供宝贵的信息，为未来的研究提供信息和指导，以及为黑人母婴二元组及其家庭的高危群体设计更有效的预防和干预服务。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The primary goal of this revised grant is to increase our understanding of the socio-emotional development of young children of African heritage by carrying out secondary analyses on already-collected longitudinal data. Specifically, we propose to evaluate the mutual regulatory (MR) processes (i.e., synchrony, affect sharing or matching, reparation from uncoordinated to coordinated affective states, bi-directionality, and maternal regulatory responsiveness) that take place between 163 adult mothers of African heritage (African American or Black) varying in SES and their full-term healthy infants (50% female) at 12 and 18 months of age. Subjects were participants in a completed longitudinal study that was partially funded by the Spencer Foundation (M. Beeghly, PI) and partially by our own resources. Analyses in the present study will be based on videotapes made in two contrasting (structured and unstructured) interactive contexts at each age. The specific aims are to: 1] evaluate the relative stability of MR scores across context and age, and the effect of child gender, age, interactive context on MR processes; 2] evaluate the relation of MR variables to specific biologic and social contextual variables (difficult child temperament, maternal psychosocial adaptation, social support, family environment, SES), including specific variables identified as being especially relevant to Black families (i.e., variations in household composition, social support, and child rearing attitudes such as warmth versus strictness, and racial socialization), 3] evaluate whether MR variables assessed at 12 or 18 months are related to four domains of children's outcomes at 18 months (self-regulatory behavior observed during solitary play, attachment status, language skills, and general cognitive functioning), each of which have been linked with children's positive functioning in later childhood, and 4] evaluate whether MR variables at each age mediate the relation between contextual variables and child outcomes. Child and maternal affect and dyadic behavior will be coded micro-analytically from videotapes of mother-child interaction in each context at each age using a single scoring system, the Child Caregiver Mutual Regulation (CCMR) system. Time series analysis will be used to generate MR variables representing dyadic affect sharing, reparation, synchrony, and bi-directionality, and sequential data analytic techniques will be used to generate variables describing maternal regulatory responsiveness to child behavior. This study will be among the first to evaluate longitudinally multiple MR processes within a single-racial sample of Black mothers and healthy term infants varying in SES during the second year of life. Findings will significantly increase our understanding of individual differences in the mother-child relationship in this cohort and will provide valuable information to inform and guide future research as well as the design of more effective prevention and intervention services for higher risk groups of Black mother-infant dyads and their families.