Research That Matters (January 17 - 20, 2008)

Purpose: Parent reports of excessive infant crying problems are common and have the potential to progress through transactional processes into later psychopathology. Increasing our understanding of the biological and social mechanisms through which relationship difficulties develop into behavioral problems will improve our ability to focus interventions at appropriate targets. The current study explored whether infant crying behavior or negative caregiver perceptions of that behavior were more important to later child regulation. It was hypothesized that distal stressors in the absence of the buffering effects of supportive relationships increase the likelihood that a mother will have a negative perception of infant crying. Furthermore, it was predicted that these negative perceptions will impact subsequent maternal behavior during interactions with the infant in a manner that will impact the child's capacity for stress regulation.

Methods: Participants were 60 mother-child dyads followed longitudinally with home observations at 3, 7, and 15 months-of-age. In addition to measures of maternal perceptions of infant crying, and child and maternal mental health and interactive behavior, the current study also included measures of stress regulation as assessed by salivary cortisol. Dyadic interactive behaviors were assessed during the three videotaped-segments of the still-face procedure. This focus on interactions during periods of challenge allowed us to assess the dyad's capacity for co-regulation and aspects of reactivity hypothesized to be important to the child's developing self-regulatory capacities.

Results: Perceptions of infant crying behavior as problematic at 3 months-of-age were more predictive of later behavioral dysregulation than the actual level of crying. Distal risk factors, including measures of depression, anxiety, life events and social support, were found to be associated with the onset of these negative perceptions. The link between perceptions and subsequent infant behavior was mediated by the interactive behavior of the mother. There was also evidence of a moderation effect involving perceptions and the association between behavior during interactions at 7 months-of-age and infant cortisol expression at 15 months-of-age. For mothers who did not see their infants' crying as problematic there was no significant association between maternal tension/anxiety and subsequent infant cortisol levels, but for mothers holding negative perceptions an association was found between maternal tension/anxiety at 7 months and infant cortisol at 15 months.

Implications: We find strong support for our predictions about the importance of caregiver perceptions to developing relationship processes. Lack of social support and other risk factors were found to be associated with negative caregiver perceptions of crying at 3 months-of-age. The associations between maternal perceptions and the cortisol response represents a step forward in our understanding of the ways in which stress and disadvantage can act to shape cognitive representations of relationships when coping capacities and supports are overwhelmed. Our understanding of the development of the stress system in infants is limited, and the finding that the links between caregiver perceptions and behavior filters down to impact infant regulatory capacities speaks to the importance of a bio-psycho-social model of early development and the potential power of such a theoretical perspective to inform intervention design and policy.