Mutual Regulatory Processes in Black Mother-Infant Dyads

描述（由申请人提供）：这项修订后的补助金的主要目标是通过对已收集的纵向数据进行二次分析，增加我们对非洲血统幼儿社会情感发展的理解。具体而言，我们建议评估163名不同社会经济地位的非洲裔成年母亲（非裔美国人或黑人）与其12和18个月大的足月健康婴儿（50%为女性）之间发生的相互调节（MR）过程（即同步、情感共享或匹配、从不协调到协调的情感状态的修复、双向性和母亲调节反应）。受试者是一项完整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在两种不同的（结构化和非结构化）互动背景下在每个年龄段制作的录像带。具体目的是：1]评估不同背景和年龄的MR分数的相对稳定性，以及儿童性别、年龄、互动背景对MR过程的影响；[2]评估MR变量与特定的生物和社会背景变量（困难儿童气质、母亲心理社会适应、社会支持、家庭环境、社会经济地位）的关系，包括与黑人家庭特别相关的特定变量（即家庭组成、社会支持和育儿态度（如温暖与严厉）的变化，以及种族社会化）。[3]评估在12或18个月时评估的MR变量是否与儿童在18个月时的四个结果领域相关（单独玩耍时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），每一个都与儿童在童年后期的积极功能有关。[4]评估每个年龄段的MR变量是否介导了环境变量与儿童结果之间的关系。儿童和母亲的情感和二元行为将使用一个单一的评分系统，即儿童照顾者相互调节（CCMR）系统，从每个年龄的每种情况下的母子互动录像带中进行微观分析编码。时间序列分析将用于生成代表二元影响共享、修复、同步和双向性的MR变量，序列数据分析技术将用于生成描述母亲对儿童行为的调节反应的变量。这项研究将是第一个在黑人母亲和健康足月婴儿的单一种族样本中纵向评估多重磁共振过程的研究，这些婴儿在出生后的第二年社会经济地位不同。研究结果将显著增加我们对该队列中母子关系个体差异的理解，并将提供有价值的信息，为未来的研究提供信息和指导，以及为黑人母婴双联体及其家庭的高风险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.