Parent-Infant Interaction, Bio-Behavior and Stress Regulation: Theory, Research, and Assessment

1. What Develops? Understanding Assessment in Early Childhood Education Parent-Infant Interaction, Bio-Behavior and Stress Regulation: Theory, Research, and Assessment David W. Haley, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Fellow Department of Pediatrics University of British Columbia dhaley@cw.bc.ca

2. Working Assumptions • Parent-infant interactions are regulatory • Biological vulnerabilities influence parent-infant interactions/regulatory systems • Parent-infant interactions/regulatory systems affect how infants interact in social/cognitive contexts

3. Environment I. Parent-infant Psychological Development Regulation Arousal Affect Attention II. Alcohol Exposure III. Premature Birth Social and Biological Factors that Influence Development

5. Still-Face Effect • Still-Face • social gaze • negative affect • heart rate (Weinberg, 1996) (Tronick, Als, Brazelton, 1978)

6. Reunion Reunion: • social gaze • negative affect • heart rate (Weinberg, 1996) “partial recovery”

7. Still-Face and Reunion • Still-Face • (Tronick et al., 1978) • Reunion as Recovery • (Weinberg & Tronick, 1996) • Quality of parent-infant interaction predicts infant responses • (Carter & Mayes, 1990; Braungart et al., 2000)

8. Parent Behavior  Infant’s: • social gaze (Kogan & Carter, 1996) • negative affect (Braungart et al., 2001)

9. Aims Will parent responsiveness moderate the infant’s ability to regulate stress? Will Still-Face Reunion procedure be sufficiently stressful to elicit a cortisol response in infants?

10. Independent Variables 2 (Parent Responsiveness) x 5 (Episode) with Repeated Measures: • Parent Responsiveness: high/low groups • Episode: Play Still-Face I Reunion I Still-Face II Reunion II 2 min 2 min 2 min 2 min 2 min

11. Cortisol response to SFP (N = 43), F(1,39)=8.30, p<.001

12. Social Attend differs by Group, F(1, 39) = 6.10, p<.05. (N = 43)

13. Negative Affect differs by Group x Episode, F(3, 101), p < .05. (N=43)

14. Heart Rate differs by Group x Episode, F(3, 98) = 4.31, p < .01. (N=42)

15. Conclusions • Infant HPA, cardiovascular, emotional, and social responses sensitive to procedure • Infant ability to regulate stress decreases with repeated stressors • Parent responsiveness moderates infant ability to regulate stress

16. Parent-Infant Interaction and Maternal Drinking

17. University of New Mexico Research Staff Hillary Heyl Janette Schluter Research Assistants Chen Meng Amir Wodajo Brandi Proctor Melissa Ramsey Rrittany Rayburn Jennifer Bennett Trainees Sharon McCaul, MA Jordan Bell, MS Principal Investigator Nancy Handmaker, Psychology Co-Investigator* & Collaborators Stan Handmaker*, Pediatrics Brittany Raybrun, ObGy Rappaport, ObGy Jean Lowe, Developmental William Zywiak, Stats Support NIH NIAAA; CRC

18. Background:Effects of Moderate Alcohol Exposure (>0.5 oz absolute alcohol/day) • Growth deficits • IQ • Learning problems • Behavior problems • Biobehavior • HPA • Sympathetic Adrenal Medulla • Affect • Attention • Emotional Disorders

19. HPA Axis Stressors Hippocampus Social Cognitive Physical Emotional (-) Hypothalamus CRF (-) (+) Pituitary Gland ACTH (+) Adrenal Glands Cortisol Cortisol

20. Drinking from conception to knowledge of pregnancy & awareness until birth (N=54)

21. Cortisol Reactivity predicted by Maternal Drinking (†), adjusted R²= .15 (n=38) • (†) after adjusting for gender & days until awareness • Removing mothers who continued to drink (n=11), R²= .11 • Removing mothers who drank ≥ 5 drinks (n=5), • R²= .09

22. Multiple Stress Systems: Heart Rate and Negative Affect by Drinking Heart Rate by drinking, adj. R²= .15, after adjusting for gender and days until aware, (n= 33) Negative Affect by drinking, adj. R²= .06 , after adjusting for gender, R² =.14 (n=50)

23. Conclusion • Moderate to High drinking from conception to awareness of pregnancy associated with: • Greater cortisol reactivity • Elevated heart rate during recovery • Greater negative affect

24. Parent-Infant Interaction Assessed via Infant Cognition (Contingency Learning)

25. Working Assumptions Contingency Learning Social Context Genes Genes Biobehavior Brains Genes

26. Biobehavioral Responses to Painful Stressors in Preterm Infants (Grunau, 2001) • 8-month-old (corrected) • preterm & full-term • Elevation of heart rate • in preterm • Neonatal stress • linked to alterations • in cardiac & facial • activity (r’s .45-.53)

27. Question? Given that preterm infants have learning difficulties and show biobehavioral differences • Is contingency learning a biobehavioral challenge for preterms? • Is contingency learning more of a biobehavioral challenge for slow vs. fast learners?

28. Participants 3-month-old infants 47 preterms corrected for age 54 full-term controls Conception Preterm Full-term 3 months Gestation ≤ 32 weeks 36-42 weeks

29. Kicking by Group x Phase, p<.001

30. Kicking by Group x Speed x Phase, p<.001

31. Vagal Tone by Group x Speed, p<.01.

32. Conclusion • Learning is a biobehavioral challenge for infants • Learning is a greater biobehavioral challenge for preterm and slow learners

33. Working Assumptions Restated • Parent-infant interactions are regulatory • Biological vulnerabilities influence parent-infant interactions/regulatory systems • Parent-infant interactions/regulatory systems affect how infants interact during social/cognitive contexts

34. University of British Columbia Co-ordinator Colleen Fitzgerald Manager, SCN Project Adi Amir Research Staff Taryn Fay Kristin Fay Gisela Gosse, RN Colleen Jantzen Andrew Macquistan Carol Stephanson Primary Investigator Ruth Grunau, Psychologist Co-Investigators Michael Whitfield, Neonatologist Tim Oberlander, Pediatrician Joanne Weinberg, Neuroscientist Alfonso Solimano, Neonatologist Graduate TraineesResearch Staff Liisa Holsti (CIHR) Mary Beckingham Julie Petrie-Thomas Zoe Raffard (CIHR, MSFHR)

35. Institutions Centre for Community Child Health Research, British Columbia Research Institute, University of British Columbia Department of Pediatrics, University of British Columbia Funding Sources: NICHD, CIHR, HELP, MSFHR