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

一般来说，负面情绪调节是一个人从痛苦事件中平静下来的能力。 目前的研究计划侧重于在生命的第二年的负面影响调节的发展。儿童期的负面情绪调节是研究的重要内容，因为它可以预测以后生活中许多不同的结果。第二年的生活是一个重要的年龄，因为这是第一年的婴儿有可靠的策略，以调节从痛苦。因此，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用。* 该计划的重点是建立一个儿童和父母的队列（n=600），将在多伦多和汉密尔顿的儿科医生办公室招募。这一群体代表了两个实验室的令人兴奋的协同作用，这两个实验室的整个研究计划都集中在研究情感调节上。 皮莱里德尔（约克大学）专注于理解痛苦行为，施密特（麦克马斯特大学）专注于痛苦生理学（例如心脏）。这项研究计划的主要创新之一是，研究小组将进行专门的分析，根据婴儿在痛苦情况下的调节方式来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学。 第一项研究是关于描述三个不同年龄的婴儿的这些稳定的调节组（12个月、18个月、24个月）;在三种不同类型的痛苦情况下[免疫针头造成的痛苦（高度痛苦），与主要照顾者分离的痛苦（中度痛苦）和从事困难难题的痛苦（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点所处的调节组来预测婴儿在24个月时所处的调节组。 最后，最后一项研究的重点是照顾者在塑造婴儿的发展中发挥的重要作用的监管在第二年的生活中，照顾者的因素（如敏感性，心率，精神病理学和养育压力）。一种对儿童发展有影响的理论认为，反应更激烈、需要更长时间冷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。* 所有三项研究的结果将大大有助于我们理解婴儿在关键发育阶段的负面情绪调节的发展。 该研究队列还将为未来阶段的研究奠定重要基础，该研究致力于建立对儿童后期负面影响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.**