Associations Between Infant Negative Affect and Parent Anxiety Symptoms are Bidirectional: Evidence from Mothers and Fathers

Examining timing effects in the intergenerational transmission of anxiety and depressive symptoms: A genetically informed study

The present study examined genetic, prenatal, and postnatal environmental pathways in the intergenerational transmission of anxiety and depressive symptoms from parents to early adolescents (when these symptoms start to increase), while considering timing effects of exposure to parent anxiety and depressive symptoms postnatally. The sample was from the Early Growth and Development Study, including 561 adopted children (57% male, 55% White, 13% Black/African American, 11% Hispanic/Latine, 20% multiracial, 1% other; 407 provided data in early adolescence) and their birth (BP) and adoptive parents (AP). Using a trait-state-occasion model with eight assessments from child ages 9 months to 11 years, we partitioned trait-like AP anxiety and depressive symptoms from time-specific fluctuations of AP anxiety and depressive symptoms. Offspring anxiety and depressive symptoms were assessed at 11 years (while controlling for similar symptoms at 4.5 years). Results suggested that time-specific fluctuations of AP1 (mostly mothers) anxiety/depressive symptoms in infancy (9 months) were indirectly associated with offspring anxiety/depressive symptoms at 11 years via offspring anxiety/depressive symptoms at 4.5 years; time-specific fluctuations of AP1 anxiety/depressive symptoms at child age 11 years were concurrently associated with offspring anxiety/depressive symptoms at 11 years. AP2 (mostly fathers) anxiety/depressive symptoms were not associated with offspring symptoms. Genetic and prenatal influences measured by BP internalizing problems were not associated with offspring symptoms. Results suggested infancy and early adolescence as developmental periods when children are susceptible to influences of parent anxiety and depressive symptoms. Preventive interventions should consider time-specific fluctuations in parent anxiety and depressive symptoms during these developmental periods. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Mothers' symptoms of anxiety and depression and the development of child temperament: A genetically informative, longitudinal investigation

Background

Child temperament traits and mothers' emotional symptoms relating to anxiety and depression may drive changes in one another, leading to their 'co-development' across time. Alternatively, links between mother and child traits may be attributable to shared genetic propensities. We explored longitudinal associations between mothers' emotional symptoms and child temperament traits and adjusted for genetic effects shared across generations.

Methods

This study is based on the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa). Mothers (n = 34,060) reported on their symptoms of anxiety and depression, and temperament among offspring (n = 42,526), at child ages 1.5, 3 and 5 years. Structural equation models parameterised developmental change in traits, and an extended family design adjusted for genetic effects.

Results

We found individual differences in stable trait scores and rate of change for all study variables. Longitudinal stability in mothers' emotional symptoms was associated with longitudinal stability in offspring emotionality (r = 0.143), shyness (r = 0.031), and sociability (r = -0.015). Longitudinal change in mothers' symptoms showed very small or negligible correlations with longitudinal change in child temperament. Both genetic and environmental influences explained the stable longitudinal association between mothers' symptoms and child emotionality.

Conclusions

The studied associations between mother and child traits across time appeared to be due to stable, trait-like factors, involving genetic and environmental influence, rather than their co-development. Findings contribute knowledge on how emotional symptoms develop in families across time, and the methods with which we can explore such development.

Variability in caregiver attention bias to threat: A Goldilocks effect in infant emotional development?

Attention biases to threat are considered part of the etiology of anxiety disorders. Attention bias variability (ABV) quantifies intraindividual fluctuations in attention biases and may better capture the relation between attention biases and psychopathology risk versus mean levels of attention bias. ABV to threat has been associated with attentional control and emotion regulation, which may impact how caregivers interact with their child. In a relatively diverse sample of infants (50% White, 50.7% female), we asked how caregiver ABV to threat related to trajectories of infant negative affect across the first 2 years of life. Families were part of a multi-site longitudinal study, and data were collected from 4 to 24 months of age. Multilevel modeling examined the effect of average caregiver attention biases on changes in negative affect. We found a significant interaction between infant age and caregiver ABV to threat. Probing this interaction revealed that infants of caregivers with high ABV showed decreases in negative affect over time, while infants of caregivers with low-to-average ABV showed potentiated increases in negative affect. We discuss how both high and extreme patterns of ABV may relate to deviations in developmental trajectories.

Validating a model to detect infant crying from naturalistic audio

Human infant crying evolved as a signal to elicit parental care and actively influences caregiving behaviors as well as infant-caregiver interactions. Automated cry detection algorithms have become more popular in recent decades, and while some models exist, they have not been evaluated thoroughly on daylong naturalistic audio recordings. Here, we validate a novel deep learning cry detection model by testing it in assessment scenarios important to developmental researchers. We also evaluate the deep learning model's performance relative to LENA's cry classifier, one of the most commonly used commercial software systems for quantifying child crying. Broadly, we found that both deep learning and LENA model outputs showed convergent validity with human annotations of infant crying. However, the deep learning model had substantially higher accuracy metrics (recall, F1, kappa) and stronger correlations with human annotations at all timescales tested (24 h, 1 h, and 5 min) relative to LENA. On average, LENA underestimated infant crying by 50 min every 24 h relative to human annotations and the deep learning model. Additionally, daily infant crying times detected by both automated models were lower than parent-report estimates in the literature. We provide recommendations and solutions for leveraging automated algorithms to detect infant crying in the home and make our training data and model code open source and publicly available.

Maternal negative affect moderates behavioral and physiological synchrony in Latinx and Black mother-child dyads

Positive behavioral synchrony (PBS) between mothers and children involves the bidirectional exchange of verbal and nonverbal communication. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) synchrony reflects the concordance between mother-child physiological states. Both PBS and RSA synchrony can be undermined by psychopathology symptoms. Latinx and Black families may experience contextual stressors that contribute to heightened symptoms of psychopathology, yet minimal research has examined relations between psychopathology symptoms with PBS and RSA synchrony in these families. The present study assessed associations between maternal depressive and child internalizing symptoms, mother and child negative affect (NA), and PBS and RSA synchrony in a sample of 100 Latina and Black mothers (M_age  = 34.48 years, SD = 6.39 years) and their children (M_age  = 6.83 years, SD = 1.50 years). Dyads engaged in a video-recorded stress task where RSA was collected continuously. Videos were later coded for PBS and mother and child NA. Mothers reported on their depressive and child's internalizing symptoms. Maternal NA was associated with weak PBS and negative RSA synchrony. Neither depressive and internalizing symptoms nor child NA were associated with PBS or RSA synchrony. Results highlight the potency of maternal NA on behavioral and physiological synchrony in Latinx and Black families.

Parental anxiety and offspring development: A systematic review

BACKGROUND

Parental anxiety has been associated with increased risk of emotional and behavioural problems for offspring, yet the differing impact of each parent is unclear. As emotional disorders continue to present a significant challenge to the health system and with the role of mothers and fathers changing over the past two decades, we sought to systematically review the available literature for an association between parental anxiety and offspring suboptimal outcomes.

METHODS

A systematic review was conducted using the following databases: Ovid MEDLINE, Embase; PsycINFO and Google Scholar. Reference lists of the included papers were also searched. Data was analysed and grouped based on offspring age.

RESULTS

Eighteen studies were included in this review. Results suggest that both parents' mental health can impact negatively on the functioning of offspring, during infancy, childhood, and adolescence. This association is weak in infancy, with equivocal results, however the association in childhood appears robust for both mothers and fathers. In adolescence, the findings suggest that maternal anxiety may be more influential than paternal anxiety.

LIMITATIONS

As the methodology of the included studies was heterogenous, and the timing of assessment varied across the papers, drawing concrete conclusions from the existing research is somewhat impaired.

CONCLUSIONS

Both mothers' and fathers' anxiety have the propensity to negatively impact on their child's development. Implementing preventative interventions, which include both parents, as well as systemic interventions, which include the whole family, are essential in stemming the intergenerational transmission of mental health problems within families.

Annual Research Review: Towards a deeper understanding of nature and nurture: combining family-based quasi-experimental methods with genomic data

Distinguishing between the effects of nature and nurture constitutes a major research goal for those interested in understanding human development. It is known, for example, that many parent traits predict mental health outcomes in children, but the causal processes underlying such associations are often unclear. Family-based quasi-experimental designs such as sibling comparison, adoption and extended family studies have been used for decades to distinguish the genetic transmission of risk from the environmental effects family members potentially have on one another. Recently, these designs have been combined with genomic data, and this combination is fuelling a range of exciting methodological advances. In this review we explore these advances - highlighting the ways in which they have been applied to date and considering what they are likely to teach us in the coming years about the aetiology and intergenerational transmission of psychopathology.

Maternal anxiety and toddler depressive/anxiety behaviors: The direct and moderating role of children's focused attention

Attention mechanisms have a pertinent role in shaping developmental pathways to anxiety and depressive disorders. The current study examined the direct and interactive associations between maternal anxiety symptoms, children's focused attention, and children's anxiety and depression behaviors in early toddlerhood. Participants were 150 mother-child dyads (50 % female) that were assessed at two time points. At 12 months of child age, mothers reported about their anxiety symptoms and children's focused attention. Children's focused attention was also observed and rated from an individual play task. At 18 months of age, mothers reported about children's anxiety and depression behaviors. Focused attention predicted child anxiety and depressive behaviors, with different patterns of associations between observed and reported measures of attention. There was also a significant interaction between maternal anxiety symptoms and observed children's focused attention. A positive association between maternal anxiety symptoms and child anxiety and depression symptoms was evident only for children with above-average levels of observed focused attention during play. Results suggest that different aspects of focused attention play a role in maternal reported anxiety and depression behaviors in early development and may modulate the intergenerational transmission of anxiety.

Assessing bidirectional relations between infant temperamental negative affect, maternal anxiety symptoms and infant affect-biased attention across the first 24-months of life

Developmental theories suggest affect-biased attention, preferential attention to emotionally salient stimuli, emerges during infancy through coordinating individual differences. Here we examined bidirectional relations between infant affect-biased attention, temperamental negative affect, and maternal anxiety symptoms using a Random Intercepts Cross-Lagged Panel model (RI-CLPM). Infant-mother pairs from Central Pennsylvania and Northern New Jersey (N = 342; 52% White; 50% reported as assigned female at birth) participated when infants were 4, 8, 12, 18 and 24 months of age. Infants completed the overlap task while eye-tracking data were collected. Mothers reported their infant's negative affect and their own anxiety symptoms. In an RI-CLPM, after accounting for between-person variance (random intercepts representing the latent average of a construct), it is possible to assess within-person variance (individual deviations from the latent average of a construct). Positive relations represent stability in constructs (smaller within-person deviations). Negative relations represent fluctuation in constructs (larger within-person deviations). At the between-person level (random intercepts), mothers with greater anxiety symptoms had infants with greater affect-biased attention. However, at the within-person level (deviations), greater fluctuation in maternal anxiety symptoms at 12- and 18 months prospectively related to greater stability in attention to angry facial configurations. Additionally, greater fluctuation in maternal anxiety symptoms at 18 months prospectively related to greater stability in attention to happy facial configurations. Finally, greater fluctuation in maternal anxiety symptoms at 4- and 12 months prospectively related to greater stability in infant negative affect. These results suggest that environmental uncertainty, linked to fluctuating maternal anxiety, may shape early socioemotional development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Parent-to-Child Anxiety Transmission Through Dyadic Social Dynamics: A Dynamic Developmental Model

The intergenerational transmission of psychopathology is one of the strongest known risk factors for childhood disorder and may be a malleable target for prevention and intervention. Anxious parents have distinct parenting profiles that impact socioemotional development, and these parenting effects may result in broad alterations to the biological and cognitive functioning of their children. Better understanding the functional mechanisms by which parental risk is passed on to children can provide (1) novel markers of risk for socioemotional difficulties, (2) specific targets for intervention, and (3) behavioral and biological indices of treatment response. We propose a developmental model in which dyadic social dynamics serve as a key conduit in parent-to-child transmission of anxiety. Dyadic social dynamics capture the moment-to-moment interactions between parent and child that occur on a daily basis. In shaping the developmental trajectory from familial risk to actual symptoms, dyadic processes act on mechanisms of risk that are evident prior to, and in the absence of, any eventual disorder onset. First, we discuss dyadic synchrony or the moment-to-moment coordination between parent and child within different levels of analysis, including neural, autonomic, behavioral, and emotional processes. Second, we discuss how overt emotion modeling of distress is observed and internalized by children and later reflected in their own behavior. Thus, unlike synchrony, this is a more sequential process that cuts across levels of analysis. We also discuss maladaptive cognitive and affective processing that is often evident with increases in child anxiety symptoms. Finally, we discuss additional moderators (e.g., parent sex, child fearful temperament) that may impact dyadic processes. Our model is proposed as a conceptual framework for testing hypotheses regarding dynamic processes that may ultimately guide novel treatment approaches aimed at intervening on dyadically linked biobehavioral mechanisms before symptom onset.

Parenting in the Context of the Child: Genetic and Social Processes

The focus on the role of parenting in child development has a long-standing history. When measures of parenting precede changes in child development, researchers typically infer a causal role of parenting practices and attitudes on child development. However, this research is usually conducted with parents raising their own biological offspring. Such research designs cannot account for the effects of genes that are common to parents and children, nor for genetically influenced traits in children that influence how they are parented and how parenting affects them. The aim of this monograph is to provide a clearer view of parenting by synthesizing findings from the Early Growth and Development Study (EGDS). EGDS is a longitudinal study of adopted children, their birth parents, and their rearing parents studied across infancy and childhood. Families (N = 561) were recruited in the United States through adoption agencies between 2000 and 2010. Data collection began when adoptees were 9 months old (males = 57.2%; White 54.5%, Black 13.2%, Hispanic/Latinx 13.4%, Multiracial 17.8%, other 1.1%). The median child age at adoption placement was 2 days (M = 5.58, SD = 11.32). Adoptive parents were predominantly in their 30s, White, and coming from upper-middle- or upper-class backgrounds with high educational attainment (a mode at 4-year college or graduate degree). Most adoptive parents were heterosexual couples, and were married at the beginning of the project. The birth parent sample was more racially and ethnically diverse, but the majority (70%) were White. At the beginning of the study, most birth mothers and fathers were in their 20s, with a mode of educational attainment at high school degree, and few of them were married. We have been following these family members over time, assessing their genetic influences, prenatal environment, rearing environment, and child development. Controlling for effects of genes common to parents and children, we confirmed some previously reported associations between parenting, parent psychopathology, and marital adjustment in relation to child problematic and prosocial behavior. We also observed effects of children's heritable characteristics, characteristics thought to be transmitted from parent to child by genetic means, on their parents and how those effects contributed to subsequent child development. For example, we found that genetically influenced child impulsivity and social withdrawal both elicited harsh parenting, whereas a genetically influenced sunny disposition elicited parental warmth. We found numerous instances of children's genetically influenced characteristics that enhanced positive parental influences on child development or that protected them from harsh parenting. Integrating our findings, we propose a new, genetically informed process model of parenting. We posit that parents implicitly or explicitly detect genetically influenced liabilities and assets in their children. We also suggest future research into factors such as marital adjustment, that favor parents responding with appropriate protection or enhancement. Our findings illustrate a productive use of genetic information in prevention research: helping parents respond effectively to a profile of child strengths and challenges rather than using genetic information simply to identify some children unresponsive to current preventive interventions.

Bidirectional effects of toddler temperament and maternal overprotection on maternal and child anxiety symptoms across preschool

INTRODUCTION

Existing research highlights interactions among child temperament, parents' own anxiety symptoms, and parenting in predicting increased risk for anxiety symptom development. Theoretical models of child-elicited effects on parents have proposed that parents' behaviors are likely not independent of children's temperament; fearful children likely elicit more protective responses from parents and these parenting behaviors reinforces child anxiety and parents' own anxiety.

METHOD

The current study tests this model and examines whether there are bidirectional influences between early fearful temperament (i.e., dysregulated fear [DF]), maternal overprotection, and subsequent trajectories of maternal and child anxiety symptoms across early childhood. A total of 166 children and mothers participated in a multimethod, longitudinal study of temperament risk from 2 to 6 years.

RESULTS

Results largely support our hypotheses, replicating and extending the prior literature. DF was associated with more maternal overprotective behavior, subsequent child anxiety symptoms, and maternal anxiety symptoms. Moreover, there were indirect (mediated) associations through maternal overprotective behavior and both child and mother anxiety symptoms.

CONCLUSION

Results support the hypothesis that intergenerational transmission of anxiety was meditated through maternal behaviors and that the child-driven temperament effects are central to trajectories of child and maternal anxiety trajectories.

From mothers to children and back: Bidirectional processes in the cross-generational transmission of anxiety from early childhood to early adolescence

BACKGROUND

Maternal psychopathology and caregiving behavior are linked with child anxiety and these associations may be particularly salient when families face mass trauma together and members influence each other's symptomatology and resilience. Despite the well-known mother-to-child effects, less research addressed the longitudinal bidirectional effects of maternal and child's anxiety symptoms on each other.

METHODS

Mothers and children exposed to chronic war-related trauma from Sderot, Israel, and comparison group were followed at three time-points; Early childhood (T1:N = 232, M_Age  = 2.76 years), late childhood (T3:N = 176, M_Age  = 9.3 years), and early adolescence (T4:N = 110, M_Age  = 11.66 years). At each time-point maternal and child's anxiety symptoms were evaluated via questionnaires and maternal sensitivity was coded from videotaped observations of parent-child interactions. Bidirectional associations were examined using traditional cross-lagged panel model (CLPM) and CLPM with random intercepts (RI-CLPM).

RESULTS

Trauma-exposed mothers and children exhibited more anxiety symptoms and lower maternal sensitivity. Cross-lagged panel models revealed cross-time bidirectional associations between maternal anxiety and child anxiety from early to late childhood. Child anxiety at each time-point predicted maternal anxiety and maternal sensitivity at the next stage; however, maternal sensitivity did not show longitudinal associations with child anxiety, highlighting children's role in shaping caregiving.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings demonstrate bidirectional cross-generational influences of mother and child on each other's anxiety in contexts of trauma and pinpoint early childhood as a sensitive period for such mutual influences. Children's increased anxiety following trauma appears to be further exacerbated via its impact on increasing maternal anxiety and compromising sensitive caregiving, underscoring the potential benefits of parental and mother-child interventions for trauma-exposed populations.

Caregiver Psychological Distress Predicts Temperament and Social-Emotional Outcomes in Infants with Autism Traits

Child temperament and caregiver psychological distress have been independently associated with social-emotional difficulties among individuals with autism. However, the interrelationship among these risk factors has rarely been investigated. We explored the reciprocal interplay between child temperament (surgency, negative affectivity, and self-regulation) and caregiver psychological distress in the development of child internalizing and externalizing symptoms, in a cohort of 103 infants showing early autism traits. Caregivers completed questionnaires when children were aged around 12-months (Time 1 [T1]), 18-months (Time 2 [T2]), and 24-months (Time 3 [T3]). Cross-lagged path models revealed a significant pathway from T1 caregiver psychological distress through lower T2 child self-regulation to subsequently greater T3 child internalizing symptoms. No such caregiver-driven pathway was evident through T2 child negative affectivity or in the prediction of T3 child externalizing symptoms. Further, no support was found for temperament-driven pathways through caregiver psychological distress to child social-emotional difficulties. Child surgency was mostly unrelated to caregiver psychological distress and social-emotional difficulties. These findings implicate the need to support the mental health of caregivers with an infant with autism traits in order to enhance the emotion regulation and social-emotional development of their infants.

Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Genetically Informed Research: Associations Between Parent Anxiety and Offspring Internalizing Problems

OBJECTIVE

Parent anxiety is associated with offspring internalizing problems (emotional problems related to anxiety and depression). This may reflect causal processes, whereby exposure to parent anxiety directly influences offspring internalizing (and/or vice versa). However, parent-offspring associations could also be attributable to their genetic relatedness. A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to investigate whether exposure to parent anxiety is associated with offspring internalizing after controlling for genetic relatedness.

METHOD

A literature search across 5 databases identified 429 unique records. Publications were retained if they used a quasi-experimental design in a general population sample to control for participant relatedness in associations between parent anxiety and offspring internalizing outcomes. Publications were excluded if they involved an experimental exposure or intervention. Studies of prenatal and postnatal anxiety exposure were meta-analyzed separately. Pearson's correlation coefficient estimates (r) were pooled using multilevel random-effects models.

RESULTS

Eight publications were retained. Data were drawn from 4 population cohorts, each unique to a quasi-experimental design: adoption, sibling-comparison, children-of-twins or in vitro fertilization. Cohorts were located in northern Europe or America. Families were predominantly of European ancestry. Three publications (Nfamilies >11,700; offspring age range, 0.5-10 years) showed no association between prenatal anxiety exposure and offspring internalizing outcomes after accounting for participant relatedness (r = .04; 95% CI: -.07, .14). Six publications (Nfamilies >12,700; offspring age range, 0.75-22 years) showed a small but significant association between concurrent symptoms in parents and offspring after accounting for participant relatedness (r = .13; 95% CI: .04, .21).

CONCLUSION

Initial literature, derived from homogeneous populations, suggests that prenatal anxiety exposure does not cause offspring internalizing outcomes. However, postnatal anxiety exposure may be causally associated with concurrent offspring internalizing via nongenetic pathways. Longitudinal stability, child-to-parent effects, and the role of moderators and methodological biases require attention.

Parental characteristics and offspring mental health and related outcomes: a systematic review of genetically informative literature

Various parental characteristics, including psychiatric disorders and parenting behaviours, are associated with offspring mental health and related outcomes in observational studies. The application of genetically informative designs is crucial to disentangle the role of genetic and environmental factors (as well as gene-environment correlation) underlying these observations, as parents provide not only the rearing environment but also transmit 50% of their genes to their offspring. This article first provides an overview of behavioural genetics, matched-pair, and molecular genetics designs that can be applied to investigate parent-offspring associations, whilst modelling or accounting for genetic effects. We then present a systematic literature review of genetically informative studies investigating associations between parental characteristics and offspring mental health and related outcomes, published since 2014. The reviewed studies provide reliable evidence of genetic transmission of depression, criminal behaviour, educational attainment, and substance use. These results highlight that studies that do not use genetically informative designs are likely to misinterpret the mechanisms underlying these parent-offspring associations. After accounting for genetic effects, several parental characteristics, including parental psychiatric traits and parenting behaviours, were associated with offspring internalising problems, externalising problems, educational attainment, substance use, and personality through environmental pathways. Overall, genetically informative designs to study intergenerational transmission prove valuable for the understanding of individual differences in offspring mental health and related outcomes, and mechanisms of transmission within families.

Variable- and person-centered approaches to affect-biased attention in infancy reveal unique relations with infant negative affect and maternal anxiety

Affect-biased attention is an automatic process that prioritizes emotionally or motivationally salient stimuli. Several models of affect-biased attention and its development suggest that it comprises an individual's ability to both engage with and disengage from emotional stimuli. Researchers typically rely on singular tasks to measure affect-biased attention, which may lead to inconsistent results across studies. Here we examined affect-biased attention across three tasks in a unique sample of 193 infants, using both variable-centered (factor analysis; FA) and person-centered (latent profile analysis; LPA) approaches. Using exploratory FA, we found evidence for two factors of affect-biased attention: an Engagement factor and a Disengagement factor, where greater maternal anxiety was related to less engagement with faces. Using LPA, we found two groups of infants with different patterns of affect-biased attention: a Vigilant group and an Avoidant group. A significant interaction noted that infants higher in negative affect who also had more anxious mothers were most likely to be in the Vigilant group. Overall, these results suggest that both FA and LPA are viable approaches for studying distinct questions related to the development of affect-biased attention, and set the stage for future longitudinal work examining the role of infant negative affect and maternal anxiety in the emergence of affect-biased attention.

The Transactional Relationship between Parental and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms: The Mediating Effect of Nurturant-Involved Parenting

Sameroff's transactional theory emphasizes a bidirectional process between parents and offspring. The present study explored the reciprocal relationships between parental and adolescent depressive symptoms using a cross-lagged model and examined the mediating effect of nurturant-involved parenting on the relationship between them. Data for the present study were collected from a longitudinal study, and a total of 1644 adolescents and their mothers and fathers participated in the present study. The results revealed a reciprocal relationship between maternal and adolescent depressive symptoms, and the child-driven effect was more robust than the mother-driven effect. Adolescent depressive symptoms significantly predicted paternal depressive symptoms, but not vice versa. In addition, adolescent depressive symptoms indirectly predicted maternal and paternal depressive symptoms by deteriorating nurturant-involved parenting. These findings highlight a child-driven effect on parents' psychopathology, which may shed light on the mechanism underlying depression transmission between parents and adolescents.

Transacting brains: testing an actor-partner model of frontal EEG activity in mother-infant dyads

Studies have long observed the bidirectional nature of mother-infant relationships. While behavioral studies have shown that mothers high in social avoidance tendencies can influence the development of these traits in their offspring, the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying this phenomenon, and the role that the infants play, are not well understood. Here we acquired frontal electroencephalogram asymmetry (FA) data simultaneously in 40 mother-infant dyads (Mage mother = 31.6 years; Mage infant = 9 months). Using an actor-partner interdependence model, we examined whether mother (or infant) resting-state FA predicted infant (or mother) FA during two subsequent emotion-eliciting conditions (happy and fear). Maternal social approach versus avoidance traits were assessed as moderators to examine the impact of maternal characteristics on these mother-infant FA relations. In dyads led by mothers with high social avoidance/low social approach characteristics, maternal resting-state FA predicted infant FA during both emotion-eliciting conditions. We did not observe any effects of infant FA on mothers. Therefore, we speculate that individual differences in FA patterns might be a putative brain mechanism through which socially avoidant mothers transfer affective/behavioral information to their infants.

From Parent to Child to Parent: Associations Between Parent and Offspring Psychopathology

Parental psychopathology can affect child functioning, and vice versa. We examined bidirectional associations between parent and offspring psychopathology in 5,536 children and their parents. We asked three questions: (a) are parent-to-child associations stronger than child-to-parent associations? (b) are mother-to-child associations stronger than father-to-child associations? and (c) do within- and between-person effects contribute to bidirectional associations between parent and offspring psychopathology? Our findings suggest that only within-rater bidirectional associations of parent and offspring psychopathology can be consistently detected, with no difference between mothers and fathers. Child psychopathology was hardly associated with parental psychopathology. No evidence for cross-rater child-to-parent associations was found suggesting that the within-rater child-to-parent associations reflect shared method variance. Moreover, within-person change accounted for a part of the variance observed.

Examining the Role of Genetic Risk and Longitudinal Transmission Processes Underlying Maternal Parenting and Psychopathology and Children's ADHD Symptoms and Aggression: Utilizing the Advantages of a Prospective Adoption Design

Although genetic factors may contribute to initial liability for ADHD onset, there is growing evidence of the potential importance of the rearing environment on the developmental course of ADHD symptomatology. However, associations between family-level variables (maternal hostility, maternal depressive symptoms) and child behaviors (developmental course of ADHD and aggression) may be explained by genes that are shared by biologically related parents and children. Furthermore, ADHD symptoms and aggression commonly co-occur: it is important to consider both simultaneously to have a better understanding of processes underlying the developmental course of ADHD and aggression. To addresses these issues, we employed a longitudinal genetically sensitive parent-offspring adoption design. Analyses were conducted using Cohort I (n = 340) of the Early Growth and Development Study with cross-validation analyses conducted with Cohort II (n = 178). Adoptive mother hostility, but not depression, was associated with later child ADHD symptoms and aggression. Mothers and their adopted children were genetically unrelated, removing passive rGE as a possible explanation. Early child impulsivity/activation was associated with later ADHD symptoms and aggression. Child impulsivity/activation was also associated with maternal hostility, with some evidence for evocative gene-environment correlation processes on adoptive mother depressive symptoms. This study provides novel insights into family-based environmental influences on child ADHD and aggression symptoms, independent of shared parental genetic factors, implications of which are further explicated in the discussion.

Factorial Invariance, Latent Mean Differences of the Panas and Affective Profiles and Its Relation to Social Anxiety in Ecuadorian Sample

Positive (PA) and negative affect (NA) are related with aspects that are part of people’s psychological well-being, and the possibility of combining both dimensions to create four affective profiles, self-fulfilling (high PA and low NA), low affective (low PA and low NA), high affective (high PA and high NA) and self-destructive (low PA and high NA), has recently appeared. The current work aims to validate the short version of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) in Ecuador, test the existence of the four affective profiles and analyze its relation with social anxiety. The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule for Children and the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents was employed in a sample of 1786 Ecuadorian students aged from 15 to 18 years (M = 16.31, SD = 1.01). The factorial invariance of the scale across sex and age groups was proved and latent mean analyses showed that girls and 18-year-old students obtained the highest scores in negative affect. With regard to the affective profiles, the cluster analyses confirmed the existence of the four mentioned profiles, and the self-fulfilling profile obtained the lowest scores in all the dimensions of social anxiety, whereas the self-destructive profile obtained the highest scores.

Maternal and paternal influences on childhood anxiety symptoms: A genetically sensitive comparison

This study tested the theory that anxious fathers pose a quantitatively different environmental influence on childhood anxiety than anxious mothers. The analysed sample contained 502 linked adoption units from the Early Growth and Development Study (EGDS), a longitudinal multisite study that follows 561 adopted children (57.2% boys) and their adoptive and birth parents, who were recruited through US adoption agencies. A Bayesian latent growth model predicted child anxiety symptoms between 18 months and 4.5 years from inherited (birth parent anxiety) and rearing parent anxiety. This model revealed little evidence for a difference in the influence of maternal and paternal rearing parent anxiety on child anxiety symptoms. Contrary to theoretical predictions, anxiety in the rearing father is likely to have an equivalent influence to that of the mother on both child anxiety symptoms at 18 months old and their developmental trajectory over the preschool years.

Depression and Anxiety Symptoms of British Adoptive Parents: A Prospective Four-Wave Longitudinal Study

The mental health of birth parents has gained attention due to the serious negative consequences for personal, family, and child outcomes, but depression and anxiety in adoptive parents remains under-recognized. Using a prospective, longitudinal design, we investigated anxiety and depression symptoms in 96 British adoptive parents over four time points in the first four years of an adoptive placement. Depression and anxiety symptom scores were relatively stable across time. Growth curve analysis showed that higher child internalizing scores and lower parental sense of competency at five months post-placement were associated with higher initial levels of parental depressive symptoms. Lower parental sense of competency was also associated with higher initial levels of parental anxiety symptoms. Parents of older children and those with higher levels of parental anxiety and sense of competency at five months post-placement had a steeper decrease in depressive symptoms over time. Support for adoptive families primarily focuses on child adjustment. Our findings suggest that professional awareness of parental mental health post-placement may be necessary, and interventions aimed at improving parents' sense of competency may be beneficial.

The Early Growth and Development Study: A Dual-Family Adoption Study from Birth Through Adolescence

The Early Growth and Development Study (EGDS) is a prospective adoption study of birth parents, adoptive parents and adopted children (n = 561 adoptees). The original sample has been expanded to include siblings of the EGDS adoptees who were reared by the birth mother and assessed beginning at age 7 years (n = 217 biological children), and additional siblings in both the birth and adoptive family homes, recruited when the adoptees were 8-15 years old (n = 823). The overall study aims are to examine how family, peer and contextual processes affect child and adolescent adjustment, and to examine their interplay (mediation, moderation) with genetic influences. Adoptive and birth parents were originally recruited through adoption agencies located throughout the USA following the birth of a child. Assessments are ongoing and occurred in 9 month's intervals until the adoptees turned 3 years of age, and in 1 to 2 year intervals thereafter through age 15. Data collection includes the following primary constructs: child temperament, behavior problems, mental health, peer relations, executive functioning, school performance and health; birth and adoptive parent personality characteristics, mental health, health, context, substance use, parenting and marital relations; and the prenatal environment. Findings highlight the power of the adoption design to detect environmental influences on child development and provide evidence of complex interactions and correlations between genetic, prenatal environmental and postnatal environmental influences on a range of child outcomes. The study sample, procedures and an overview of findings are summarized and ongoing assessment activities are described.

Anxiety in the family: a genetically informed analysis of transactional associations between mother, father and child anxiety symptoms

BACKGROUND

Anxiety in parents is associated with anxiety in offspring, although little is known about the mechanisms underpinning these intergenerational associations. We conducted the first genetically sensitive study to simultaneously examine the effects of mother, father and child anxiety symptoms on each other over time.

METHOD

Adoptive parent and child symptoms were measured at child ages 6, 7 and 8 years from 305 families involved in the Early Growth and Development Study, using a prospective adoption design. Children were adopted at birth to nonrelatives, and composite data on internalising problems within birth families were used as a proxy measure of offspring inherited risk for anxiety. Structural equation models were fitted to the data to examine prospective associations between adoptive mother, father and child symptoms, whilst accounting for individuals' symptom stability over time.

RESULTS

Child anxiety symptoms at age 7 predicted adoptive mothers' anxiety symptoms at age 8. No mother-to-child or child-to-father effects were observed. These results were consistent in sensitivity analyses using only paternal offspring reports and using a second measure of child anxiety symptoms. Fathers' anxiety symptoms at child age 6 prospectively predicted child symptoms, but only when paternal offspring reports were included in the model. Composite data on birth family internalising problems were not associated with child anxiety symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

Results show environmentally mediated associations between parent and child anxiety symptoms. Results support developmental theories suggesting that child anxiety symptoms can exert influence on caregivers, and mothers and fathers may play unique roles during the development of child symptoms. Further research is needed on the role of genetic transmission associated with anxiety symptoms in biologically related families. In the meantime, researchers and clinicians should strive to include fathers in assessments and consider the effects of child symptoms on caregivers.

Transgenerational improvements following child anxiety treatment: An exploratory examination

Background

The present study conducted secondary analyses of a randomized controlled trial to examine the transgenerational relationship between cognitive-behavioral therapy for child Separation Anxiety Disorder (SepAD) and the mental health of parents. Symptoms of anxiety and depression were compared before and after child treatment between parents of children treated for SepAD and parents of healthy children, who did not receive any treatment.

Methods

One hundred and seven children aged 4–14 years with SepAD received one of two cognitive behavioral treatment programs for SepAD (TAFF; TrennungsAngstprogramm Für Familien; English: Separation Anxiety Family Therapy or CC; Coping Cat). Their parents (N = 189; 101 mothers and 88 fathers) were assessed at baseline and post-treatment for symptoms of separation anxiety, general anxiety, and depression. A comparison group of parents (N = 74; 42 mothers and 32 fathers) of 45 children without SepAD, who did not receive any treatment, were also assessed.

Results

Results indicated a significant interaction effect between group and time on mothers’ depression and separation anxiety, indicating that maternal symptoms of depression and separation anxiety improved in the child treatment condition in comparison to mothers of healthy children. There was no significant improvement in parental pathology levels among fathers of children treated for SepAD.

Conclusions

Treatment for child SepAD may have subsequent positive effects on mothers’ own levels of separation anxiety and depression, though the mechanisms are yet unknown. Future studies are needed that test the transgenerational effect of child SepAD treatment on parental mental health as the primary research question.

Maternal Perinatal and Concurrent Anxiety and Mental Health Problems in Early Childhood: A Sibling-Comparison Study

Do associations between maternal anxiety symptoms and offspring mental health remain after comparing differentially exposed siblings? Participants were 17,724 offspring siblings and 11,553 mothers from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort study. Mothers reported anxiety and depressive symptoms at 30 weeks' gestation, and 0.5, 1.5, 3, and 5 years postpartum. Child internalizing and externalizing problems were assessed at ages 1.5, 3, and 5, and modeled using multilevel analyses with repeated measures nested within siblings, nested within mothers. Maternal pre- and postnatal anxiety were no longer associated with child internalizing or externalizing problems after adjusting for maternal depression and familial confounding. Maternal anxiety when the children were in preschool age, however, remained significantly associated with child internalizing but not externalizing problems.

The influence of caregiver depression on adolescent mental health outcomes: findings from refugee settlements in Uganda

BACKGROUND

Family-level predictors, including caregiver depression, are considered important influences on adolescent mental health. Adolescent depression and anxiety in refugee settings is known to be a significant public health concern, yet there is very limited literature from humanitarian settings focusing on the relationship between caregiver mental health and adolescent mental health. In the context of a larger study on child protection outcomes in refugee settings, researchers explored the relationship between caregiver depression and adolescent mental health in two refugee settlements, Kiryandongo and Adjumani, in Uganda.

METHODS

Adolescents between 13 and 17 and their caregivers participated in a household survey, which included measures of adolescent anxiety and depression, and caregiver depression. Analysis was conducted using multiple logistic regression models, and results were reported for the full sample and for each site separately.

RESULTS

In Kiryandongo, a one-unit increase in a caregiver's depression score tripled the odds that the adolescent would have high levels of anxiety symptoms (AOR: 3.0, 95% CI: 1.4, 6.1), while in Adjumani, caregiver depression did not remain significant in the final model. Caregiver depression, gender and exposure to violence were all associated with higher symptoms of adolescent depression in both sites and the full sample, for example, a one unit increase in caregiver depression more than tripled the odds of higher levels of symptoms of adolescent depression (AOR: 3.6, 95% CI: 2.0, 6.2). Caregiver depression is a consistently significantly associated with adverse mental health outcomes for adolescents in this study.

CONCLUSIONS

Adolescent well-being is significantly affected by caregiver mental health in this refugee context. Child protection interventions in humanitarian contexts do not adequately address the influence of caregivers' mental health, and there are opportunities to integrate child protection programming with prevention and treatment of caregivers' mental health symptoms.

Maternal anxiety predicts attentional bias towards threat in infancy

Although cognitive theories of psychopathology suggest that attention bias toward threat plays a role in the etiology and maintenance of anxiety, there is relatively little evidence regarding individual differences in the earliest development of attention bias toward threat. The current study examines attention bias toward threat during its potential first emergence by evaluating the relations between attention bias and known risk factors of anxiety (i.e., temperamental negative affect and maternal anxiety). We measured attention bias to emotional faces in infants (N = 98; 57 male) ages 4 to 24 months during an attention disengagement eye-tracking paradigm. We hypothesized that (a) there would be an attentional bias toward threat in the full sample of infants, replicating previous studies; (b) attentional bias toward threat would be positively related to maternal anxiety; and (c) attention bias toward threat would be positively related to temperamental negative affect. Finally, (d) we explored the potential interaction between temperament and maternal anxiety in predicting attention bias toward threat. We found that attention bias to the affective faces did not change with age, and that bias was not related to temperament. However, attention bias to threat, but not attention bias to happy faces, was positively related to maternal anxiety, such that higher maternal anxiety predicted a larger attention bias for all infants. These findings provide support for attention bias as a putative early mechanism by which early markers of risk are associated with socioemotional development. (PsycINFO Database Record

Delta-beta coupling is associated with paternal caregiving behaviors during preschool

Neural systems that index self-regulation have been associated with mental health outcomes, including risk for anxiety problems, from early in life. Yet, little is known about the environmental factors that may impact the development of neural systems of regulation. Behavioral work suggests that sensitive parenting, or parents' ability to correctly interpret and respond to children's signals, supports the development of regulation. Conversely, harsh parenting, or uninvolved or punitive parent behaviors, is thought to compromise developing regulatory systems. We recorded preschoolers' baseline electroencephalography (EEG) and tested whether individual differences in delta-beta coupling were linked to sensitive or harsh parenting behaviors in mothers and fathers. Using Fisher's r-to-z transform, we found that preschoolers whose fathers were low (vs. high) in harsh parenting showed greater coupling at parietal electrode sites (z=2.66, p=0.00); preschoolers whose fathers were high (vs. low) in harsh parenting showed greater coupling at frontal electrode sites (z=-2.14, p=0.02). Heightened coupling at frontal electrodes was also visible for children who showed high (vs. low) levels of social fear (z=-2.11, p=0.02), suggesting that enhanced frontal coupling may be associated with increased risk for anxiety problems. No differences in coupling were seen based on levels of sensitive parenting behaviors in mothers or fathers. Results provide initial evidence that harsh parenting behaviors in fathers are associated with differences in a general index of neural regulation in preschoolers, which may have implications for the development of social fear in early life.