The Development of Self-regulation in High Risk Infants

描述(由申请人提供)：这项研究调查了早期社会和生理过程中涉及的自我调节的发展及其与婴儿-母亲依恋和认知发展的关系，这些高危婴儿的新生儿医疗风险水平不同。这项研究采用纵向设计，跟踪婴儿从出院到2岁(经胎龄校正)，并使用多种方法在多种情况下从儿童和家庭收集数据。这项研究有四个具体目标：(1)检验高危婴儿自我调节的三个言语前预测因子，包括神经生理调节(早期心肺过程)、相互调节质量(亲婴互动)和婴儿自我调节倾向(气质)；(2)调查随时间变化的亲婴互动质量，作为婴儿/母亲特征与婴儿认知和社会结果之间关系的中介；(3)确定风险水平和气质不同的婴儿是否不同地容易受到与慢性母亲抑郁相关的负面父母养育的影响；以及(4)确定依恋、认知能力、以及高危婴儿的自我调节。 这项拟议的研究将通过研究早期自我调节发展的纵向过程来推动发展精神病理学领域的发展，并将在三个方面扩展我们的知识：(1)确定婴儿的围产期医疗风险和早期心率变异性如何直接和间接预测发育结果；(2)测试一个模型，将父母与婴儿的互动质量指定为婴儿新生儿风险、母亲抑郁症状和婴儿发展结果之间关系的中介，这对高危婴儿的预防干预具有意义；以及(3)确定高危婴儿的自我调节能力、依恋关系和认知发展之间的关系。这可能为扩展对NICU毕业生的发展跟踪评估提供建议，以包括筛选二元交互作用。

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.