Maternal substance use disorder predicting children's emotion regulation in middle childhood: the role of early mother-infant interaction

Maternal postpartum bonding impairment and increased substance use to cope with pandemic-related stress

Substance use rates, particularly among women, increased substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychological and economic risks disproportionately experienced by women were associated with increase in substance use patterns during the pandemic. Using substances (i.e., tobacco, alcohol, cannabis) to cope with stress is well-documented; what is less known are protective factors that were associated with less substance use during the pandemic. We examined whether mothers of young children (N = 96) who reported postpartum bonding impairment before the start of the pandemic reported greater substance use during the pandemic as a means to cope. Results from linear regression analyses found that mothers who reported higher levels of pre-pandemic mother-infant bonding impairments reported greater use of alcohol and other substances as a means to cope with pandemic stressors. These findings suggest that social connections might be a strategy to reduce substance use as a maladaptive coping behavior, especially during widespread crises such as the recent pandemic or for mothers of young children. In particular, promoting postpartum bonding through interventions might help to reduce substance use among new mothers.

Maternal alcohol dependence symptoms, maternal insensitivity to children's distress, and young children's blunted emotional reactivity

Maternal insensitivity to children's emotional distress (e.g., expressions of sadness or fearfulness) is one mechanism through which maternal alcohol dependence may increase children's risk for psychopathology. Although emotion dysregulation is consistently associated with psychopathology, it remains unclear how or why alcohol dependence's effects on caregiving responses to children's distress may impact children's emotion regulation over time, particularly in ways that may engender risks for psychopathology. This study examined longitudinal associations between lifetime maternal alcohol dependence symptoms, mothers' insensitivity to children's emotional distress cues, and children's emotional reactivity among 201 mother-child dyads (Mchild age = 2.14 years; 56% Black; 11% Latino). Structural equation modeling analyses revealed a significant mediational pathway such that maternal alcohol dependence predicted increases in mothers' insensitivity to children's emotional distress across a one-year period (β = .16, p = .013), which subsequently predicted decreases in children's emotional reactivity one year later (β = -.29, p = .009). Results suggest that mothers with alcohol dependence symptoms may struggle to sensitively respond to children's emotional distress, which may prompt children to suppress or hide their emotions as an adaptive, protective strategy. The potential developmental benefits and consequences of early, protective expressive suppression strategies are discussed via developmental psychopathology frameworks.

Early emotional caregiving environment and associations with memory performance and hippocampal volume in adolescents with prenatal drug exposure

Early adversities, including prenatal drug exposure (PDE) and a negative postnatal emotional caregiving environment, impact children's long-term development. The protracted developmental course of memory and its underlying neural systems offer a valuable framework for understanding the longitudinal associations of pre- and postnatal factors on children with PDE. This study longitudinally examines memory and hippocampal development in 69 parent-child dyads to investigate how the early caregiving emotional environment affects children with PDE's neural and cognitive systems. Measures of physical health, drug exposure, caregiver stress, depression, and distress were collected between 0 and 24 months At age 14 years, adolescents completed multiple measures of episodic memory, and at ages 14 and 18 years, adolescents underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Latent constructs of episodic memory and the caregiving environment were created using Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Multiple regressions revealed a negative emotional caregiving environment during infancy was associated with poor memory performance and smaller left hippocampal volumes at 14 years. Better memory performance at 14 years predicted larger right hippocampal volume at 18 years. At 18 years, the association between the emotional caregiving environment and hippocampal volume was moderated by sex, such that a negative emotional caregiving environment was associated with larger left hippocampal volumes in males but not females. Findings suggest that the postnatal caregiving environment may modulate the effects of PDE across development, influencing neurocognitive development.

American Academy of Nursing expert panel consensus statement on inequities in the juvenile justice system rooted in systemic and structural racism

The overrepresentation of youth of color has long been acknowledged and accepted in juvenile justice and legal systems. Many risk factors contribute to the detention and incarceration of youth; however, there is little evidence to explain how structural inequities and systemic racism add to that vulnerability. Historically, laws were passed to benefit the White society and resulted in outcomes that caused grave aftereffects for people of color and in some cases, ethnic minorities. Within the context of juvenile justice and the lens of critical race theory, the authors of this paper seek to illuminate selected historical educational, environmental, legal, and health care policies, practices, and decisions that led to their detrimental consequences. Recommendations for mitigating both intended (through law, funding, policies) and the unintended barriers as experienced by youth of color are presented.

Exploring resting frontal EEG and reflective functioning in maternal substance use

Maternal substance use is associated with altered neural activity and poor offspring outcomes, which may be facilitated by suboptimal caregiving in the form of impaired parental reflective functioning (PRF). To investigate these associations, the resting-state frontal electroencephalography (EEG) power of 48 substance-using mothers and 37 non-substance-using mothers were examined, specifying seven frequency bands: delta, theta, alpha, alpha1, alpha2, beta, and gamma. Substance-using mothers exhibited enhanced beta and gamma spectral power compared to non-substance-using mothers, potentially reflecting higher arousal states in substance-using mothers. There were no between-group differences in any component of PRF (i.e., levels of pre-mentalizing, certainty, and interest and curiosity). Whole-sample analyses revealed significant positive correlations between pre-mentalizing and delta spectral power. Taken together, these findings suggest potential neural correlates of maternal substance use and PRF, providing an important next step into examining associations between maternal substance use and poor child outcomes.