Push or Carry? Pragmatic Opportunities for Language Development in Strollers vs. Backpacks

Caregiving relationships are a cornerstone of developmental psychopathology

The interdisciplinary field of developmental psychopathology has made great strides by including context into theoretical and empirical approaches to studying risk and resilience. Perhaps no context is more important to the developing child than their relationships with their caregivers (typically a child's parents), as caregivers are a key source of stimulation and nurturance to young children. Coupled with the high degree of brain plasticity in the earliest years of life, these caregiving relationships have an immense influence on shaping behavioral outcomes relevant to developmental psychopathology. In this article, we discuss three areas within caregiving relationships: (1) caregiver-child interactions in everyday, naturalistic settings; (2) caregivers' social cognitions about their child; and (3) caregivers' broader social and cultural context. For each area, we provide an overview of its significance to the field, identify existing knowledge gaps, and offer potential approaches for bridging these gaps to foster growth in the field. Lastly, given that one value of a scientific discipline is its ability to produce research useful in guiding real-world decisions related to policy and practice, we encourage developmental psychopathology to consider that a focus on caregiving, a modifiable target, supports this mission.

Infant Placement and Language Exposure in Daily Life

Children's daily contexts shape their experiences. In this study we assessed whether variations in infant placement (e.g., held, bouncy seat) are associated with infants' exposure to adult speech. Using repeated survey sampling of mothers and continuous audio recordings, we tested whether use of independence-supporting placements was associated with adult speech exposure in a Southeastern U.S. sample of 60 4- to 6- month- old infants (38% male, predominately White, not Hispanic/Latinx, from higher SES households). Within-subject analyses indicated that independence-supporting placements were associated with exposure to fewer adult words in the moment. Between-subjects analyses indicated that infants more frequently reported to be in independence-supporting placements that also provided posture support (i.e., exersaucer) were exposed to fewer adult words and less consistent adult speech across the day. These findings indicate that infants' opportunities for exposure to adult speech "in the wild" may vary based on immediate physical context.

Scoping Review of Biological and Behavioral Effects of Babywearing on Mothers and Infants

OBJECTIVE

To synthesize the evidence on the biological and behavioral effects of babywearing on mothers and infants.

DATA SOURCES

We searched PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, PsycINFO, Sociological Abstracts, SCOPUS, and Google Scholar for peer-reviewed, full-text research articles published in English in which researchers reported on the biological or behavioral effects of babywearing on mothers or infants.

STUDY SELECTION

We reviewed the titles and abstracts of 200 records and abstracted 80 for full-text review. Of these, 29 studies met the eligibility criteria and were included in the review.

DATA EXTRACTION

We used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) and extracted the following data from the included articles: author(s), year of publication, setting, aim/purpose, design, description, sample, results/outcomes, and implications to practice.

DATA SYNTHESIS

We synthesized data from the included studies into the following eight themes: Increased Contact, Responsiveness, and Secure Attachment; Physiologic Effects; Biomechanics and Positioning; Facilitating and Empowering; Comfort; Maternal Benefits; Speech, Vocalizations, and Tempo; and Beliefs and Perceptions About Babywearing.

CONCLUSION

Babywearing may have a range of beneficial biological and behavioral effects on mothers and infants. The evidence, however, is insufficient to inform practice recommendations, and additional research is warranted.

A soft baby carrier intervention enhances amygdala responses to infant crying in fathers: A randomized controlled trial

New fathers may grow into their parental role through active involvement in childcare. Spending time in physical contact with the child may promote an adaptive transition to fatherhood. In this randomized controlled trial, we tested the effects of a baby carrier intervention on fathers' hormonal and neural functioning. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we examined whether infant carrying affects neural reactivity to infant crying in first-time fathers, taking into account the role of the hormone oxytocin as a mediating mechanism and fathers' own childhood experiences as a potential moderating factor. Sixty first-time fathers (infant age M = 11.18 weeks, SD = 2.08) were randomly assigned to a baby carrier intervention group (n = 32 fathers) or a control group (n = 28 fathers). Fathers in the intervention group were instructed to use a baby carrier for three weeks, whereas fathers in the control group were instructed to use a baby seat. Before and after the intervention salivary oxytocin was measured and neural reactivity to infant crying was assessed using fMRI. Results showed that the infant carrier intervention increased amygdala reactivity to infant crying compared to the infant seat users. This effect was most pronounced in fathers with experiences of childhood abuse. The carrier intervention did not affect fathers' oxytocin levels. Our findings indicate that spending time in physical contact with the infant may promote attention to and accurate perception of infant signals, in particular in fathers with more adverse childhood experiences. Soft baby carriers may, therefore, facilitate an adaptive transition to fatherhood.

Nurse Perceptions of Babywearing for Neonates With Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

BACKGROUND

Infants diagnosed with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) often spend several weeks in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and have difficulty being consoled. Infant carriers may be used to help with irritability, while allowing the adult user to be more mobile, through the practice of babywearing (the facilitated holding of an infant using a soft cloth infant carrier worn on the body).

PURPOSE

To examine the experience of babywearing infants diagnosed with NAS while admitted in the NICU from the perspective of the nurses who care for them.

METHODS

Nurses (N = 18; mean age = 35.44 years, SD = 9.45) were recruited and interviewed using a semistructured interview method from a 38-bed NICU in the Southwestern United States.

RESULTS

A thematic content analyses using an open coding scheme yielded 6 themes that fell into 2 categories: (1) benefits of babywearing infants with NAS in the NICU (Infant Consoling, Adult Multitasking, Caregiver-Infant Trust); and (2) suggestions to maximize babywearing in the NICU (Infection Control, Reoccurring Infant Carrier Education, and Reduced Patient Load).

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

Many NICUs incorporate kangaroo care (or skin-to-skin contact) as a treatment option; however, NICU staff cannot participate in kangaroo care. Babywearing is a practical alternative for nurses and support staff. Nurses supported the practice of babywearing as a means to improve the well-being of infants with NAS while also allowing for increased efficiency in nursing tasks.

IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH

More prospective studies are needed that evaluate the carryover effects and long-term impact of babywearing for infants diagnosed with NAS.

Revisiting the roots of attachment: A review of the biological and psychological effects of maternal skin-to-skin contact and carrying of full-term infants

During the early period of hypothesis building and empirical testing of attachment theory, a major emphasis was placed on mother-infant physical contact. In spite of this, mother-infant contact has received scant attention amongst attachment and child development researchers in the past decades. Here, a brief theoretical framework for mother-infant contact is presented, drawing on animal studies as well as human studies of preterm infants and neonates. Salient mechanisms may include an extended sensitive period during early infancy, requiring specific somatosensory stimuli for bio-behavioral homeorhesis; oxytocinergic and epigenetic pathways; kinesthetic stimuli and face-to-face proximity allowing for increased social interaction. Studies of extended human mother-full-term infant physical contact have demonstrated positive effects in multiple domains. For infants, these include sleep organization, temperature and heart rate regulation, behavioral response, crying/colic, socio-emotional development, attachment quality, speech development opportunities and mother-child interactions. For mothers, studies demonstrate improved depressive symptomatology, physiological stress regulation, contingent responsivity, breastfeeding and mother-child interactions. Parent-infant attachment quality has gained prominence as a trauma-resilience factor as well as a predictor of adult physical health. The potential role of mother-infant contact as an attachment promoting intervention as well as future research subjects are discussed. Current evidence supports the original attachment research that early maternal touch provision may influence infant socio-emotional development and attachment quality, with positive implications for mother-child relationship functioning.

Social touch alters newborn monkey behavior

In humans, infants respond positively to slow, gentle stroking-processed by C-tactile (CT) nerve fibers-by showing reductions in stress and increases in eye contact, smiling, and positive vocalizations. More frequent maternal touch is linked to greater activity and connectivity strength in social brain regions, and increases children's attention to and learning of faces. It has been theorized that touch may prime children for social interactions and set them on a path towards healthy social cognitive development. However, less is known about the effects of touch on young infants' psychological development, especially in the newborn period, a highly sensitive period of transition with rapid growth in sensory and social processing. It remains untested whether newborns can distinguish CT-targeted touch from other types of touch, or whether there are benefits of touch for newborns' social, emotional, or cognitive development. In the present study, we experimentally investigated the acute effects of touch in newborn monkeys, a common model for human social development. Rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), like humans, are highly social, have complex mother-infant interactions with frequent body contact for the first weeks of life, making them an excellent model of infant sociality. Infant monkeys in the present study were reared in a neonatal nursery, enabling control over their early environment, including all caregiver interactions. One-week-old macaque infants (N = 27) participated in three 5-minute counter-balanced caregiver interactions, all with mutual gaze: stroking head and shoulders (CT-targeted touch), stroking palms of hands and soles of feet (Non-CT touch), or no stroking (No-touch). Immediately following the interaction, infants watched social and nonsocial videos and picture arrays including faces and objects, while we tracked their visual attention with remote eye tracking. We found that, during the caregiver interactions, infants behaved differently while being touched compared to the no-touch condition, irrespective of the body part touched. Most notably, in both touch conditions, infants exhibited fewer stress-related behaviors-self-scratching, locomotion, and contact time with a comfort object-compared to when they were not touched. Following CT-targeted touch, infants were faster to orient to the picture arrays compared to the other interaction conditions, suggesting CT-targeted touch may activate or prime infants' attentional orienting system. In the No-touch condition infants attended longer to the nonsocial compared to the social video, possibly reflecting a baseline preference for nonsocial stimuli. In contrast, in both touch conditions, infants' looked equally to the social and nonsocial videos, suggesting that touch may influence the types of visual stimuli that hold infants' attention. Collectively, our results reveal that newborn macaques responded positively to touch, and touch appeared to influence some aspects of their subsequent attention, although we found limited evidence that these effects are mediated by CT fibers. These findings suggest that newborn touch may broadly support infants' psychological development, and may have early evolutionary roots, shared across primates. This study illustrates the unique insight offered by nonhuman primates for exploring early infant social touch, revealing that touch may positively affect emotional and attentional development as early as the newborn period.