Dynamics of emotion regulation in infants of clinically depressed and nondepressed mothers.
BACKGROUND
Emotion regulation (ER) has been conceptualized as an ongoing process of the individual's emotion patterns in relation to moment-to-moment contextual demands. In contrast to traditional approaches of descriptively quantizing ER, we employed a dynamic approach to ER by examining key transitions in infants of clinically depressed and nondepressed mothers in the context of maternal still-face (SF).


METHODS
Mothers with (n = 48) and without a clinical diagnosis of depression (n = 68) were seen in a modified SF paradigm with their 5-month-olds. Infant states and self-soothing behaviors were coded in 1-sec time intervals.


RESULTS
Infants of nondepressed mothers used attentional regulatory strategies, whereas infants of depressed mothers used internally directed strategies of self-soothing to reduce negativity and maintain engagement with mother.


CONCLUSIONS
This study advances our understanding of processes underlying infant ER and points to possible mechanisms for the development of long-term maladaptive ER strategies in infants of depressed mothers.
Manian
Nanmathi
N
Child and Family Research, Program in Developmental Neuroscience, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Suite 8030, 6705 Rockledge Drive, Bethesda, MD 20892-7971, USA. maniann@mail.nih.gov
Bornstein
Marc H
MH
D000328:Adult; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D056348:Emotional Intelligence; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D002666:Psychology, Child; D055815:Young Adult