Two studies explored the interplay between death awareness, attachment style, and maternal separation anxiety among first-time mothers of infants aged 3-12 months. In Study 1 (N = 60), a higher accessibility of death-related thoughts was found following induction of thoughts about separation from the infant. In Study 2 (N = 100), a mortality…

Child care teachers cope with juggling multiple competing demands: (1) managing relationships with parents; (2) coping with individual infant temperaments; and (3) meeting the group needs of the other infants in their care. Infant teachers often play a unique role in that they may be the first adults to listen and understand what the experience of…

This study investigated dopamine receptor genes ("DRD2" and "DRD4") and maternal sensitivity as predictors of infant respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and RSA reactivity, purported indices of vagal tone and vagal regulation, in a challenge task at 3, 6, and 12 months in 173 infant-mother dyads. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) revealed that at…

It was examined whether secure infant-mother attachment contributes to emotionally congruent and organized mother-child dialogues about emotions in later years. The attachment of 99 children was assessed using the Strange Situation at the age of 1 year and their emotion dialogues with their mothers were assessed at the ages of 4.5 and 7.5 years.…

Reports a short-term longitudinal study of children at 13 months and at 18 months which supports the belief that patterns of emotion reflect early, persistent individual differences; they also reflect a developmental trend toward increasing complexity of emotional responses. (Author/NH)

This literature review focuses on factors found to be associated with individual differences in infant night waking. Infant night waking that requires parent intervention to assist the infant to return to sleep is of special concern to parents because of the sleep deprivation and fragmentation that they experience. Both intrinsic and extrinsic…

Three studies examined adrenocortical activity in infants. Morning naps were associated with decreases in salivary cortisol. Riding for 40 minutes in a car lowered salivary cortisol concentrations. Thirty minutes of maternal separation in the laboratory resulted in higher salivary cortisol concentrations than did 30 minutes of play with the mother…

Seventy 15-month-old infants were studied at home before starting child care, during adaptation (mothers present) and separation (first 9 days without mothers) phases, and 5 months later. Security of infantmother attachment was assessed before and 3 months after child care began. In the separation phase, salivary cortisol rose over the first 60…

This study examined associations between foster mothers' emotional investment, assessed when foster children were age 2, and foster children's representations of self and others, assessed when children were age 5. Caregiver investment was assessed using a semi-structured interview called the ''This is My Baby'' interview (TIMB; Bates, B., &…

Anxiety about the emotional experience of young children in nursery has been central in thinking about the development of nursery provision. The main theory of emotion that has been applied to nursery practice has been attachment theory. This article proposes that there is a need to open up our conceptual framework for thinking about emotional…

With current U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, military families are facing an unprecedented level of stress because of repeated and lengthy separations. The impact on children of these separations from one or both parents depends to a large extent on the remaining caregiver's ability to respond to the needs of the children. By…

Four-month-old rhesus monkeys were removed from their social group under three different conditions of perceptual isolation from their mothers and peers. Infant behavior was recorded and blood samples were obtained for analysis of plasma cortisol. Infants never showed signs of depression; their responses following separation were seen as attempts…

Capacity of infant monkeys to mount an antibody response to viral challenge was evaluated after monkeys' removal from their mothers in several social and physical environments. Results indicated that trauma of separation was reduced when infants were familiar with the separation environment or familiar social companions were available. (PCB)

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from infants shown sets of familiar faces presented frequently and infrequently, and a set of novel faces presented infrequently, and correlated with infant emotional behavior and cortisol levels. Found that infants scoring higher on the normative ERP factor were more distressed during parent…

Studied behavior of infants with insecure-avoidant attachments who were reunited with their mothers after having been placed in a strange situation away from the mothers. Infants with extensive nonparental care experience displayed more stressful behavior in reunion episodes than did infants with less nonparental care experience. (GLR)