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The impact of different parenting-related variables on child psychological development is widely acknowledged. However, studies about the specific influence of maternal and family dimensions on child early developmental outcomes in at-risk dyads are still scarce. The aim of this longitudinal study was to investigate the short- and middle-term effects of prenatal and postnatal family and maternal features, and child attachment, on child psychological development at 3 and 24 months in at-risk families. Forty-two mothers with psychological, social and/or demographic risk conditions and their first-born infants were assessed longitudinally. Measurements of maternal personality, psychological and depressive symptoms, family socioeconomic status (SES), child-mother attachment, and infant general psychological development were collected at multiple time points, through validated questionnaires and/or mother-child observation. Maternal and family dimensions showed a significant effect on child psychological development over time. The expected detrimental role of reported maternal depressive symptoms was observed both at 3 and 24 months of child's age. Data also highlighted the negative contribution of low family SES and an unexpected positive influence of maternal personality trait of psychoticism on child psychological development at 24 months. We also found a positive association between attachment security and child developmental outcome. These findings might have relevant implications for the implementation of early prevention programs by differentiating the specific predictive role of maternal child and familial factors on child psychological development in at-risk families., (© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Understanding early episodes of cry is essential to improve caregiver-child interaction and child well-being. Caregiver perceptions of cry are based on interpretations of different acoustic characteristics of the cry, including the length of the pauses, the number of utterances, and the fundamental frequency. In this study, we used tree-based models to establish a hierarchy of effect in terms of how these acoustic characteristics influence perceptions of cries of children with autism compared to cries of typically developing children. In two studies, one in Italy and the other in Japan, we found that cries of children with autism are perceived more negatively. We also found that the length of the pauses, more than the number of utterances or fundamental frequency, determines listeners' negative perceptions. Implications for early caregiver-child interactions are discussed., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Parental beliefs are relevant to child development because they shape parenting behaviors and help to determine and regulate child cognitive and socioemotional growth. Here we investigated cross-cultural variation in Italian and U.S. mothers' parental beliefs about their social and didactic interactions with their young children. To compare parental beliefs, the Parental Style Questionnaire (PSQ) was administered to samples of 273 Italian mothers and 279 U.S. mothers of 20-month-olds (55% male). To conduct substantive cross-cultural comparisons of beliefs, the measurement invariance of the PSQ was first established by hierarchical multi-group confirmatory factor analyses. The PSQ was essentially invariant across cultures. Italian mothers reported that they engaged in both social and didactic behaviors with their young children less frequently than U.S. mothers. Results of our study confirm that mothers in different cultures differentially value parental stimulation and its relevance for early child development., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

This research analyzed gait in toddlers and tested the hypothesis that movement can be used as an early indicator of Autistic Disorder. It was proposed that an early identification method could indicate differences in the gait of toddlers with autism as opposed to those with typical development or with mental retardation. Observational methods were applied to retrospective home videos of 42 children after 6 mo. of independent walking. In particular, the Walking Observation Scale was used, which includes 11 items that analyze gait through three axes of foot movements, arm movements, and global movements. Analysis showed different distributions for the three groups, i.e., the autistic group differed from the other two on scores for the Walking Observation Scale and each axis. After 6 mo. of independent walking, different patterns in gait among groups were evident. These results agree with recently published evidence which acknowledges the importance of movement as an early indicator for differential diagnosis of autism.

We studied the development of narrative ability yearly in a cross-sectional design from 4 to 10 years. All children were given the same props and underwent the same procedures. Children's narratives were transcribed verbatim, and then coded for number of words, propositions, episodes and indexes of narrative cohesion and structure. Verbal IQ was controlled as appropriate. Words showed no significant effect for age. A number of propositions and episodes followed nonlinear trajectories of development, and spline regression analyses identified maxima at 8 and 7 years, respectively. However, indexes of cohesion and structure followed linear trajectories of development.

Episodes of crying with higher fundamental frequency (f0) are perceived as more aversive and distressful than lower frequency cries. Besides, previous studies have speculated that in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) higher f0 may account for evoking mental states of uneasiness in the caregiver. Moreover no evidence on developmental trajectory of f0 in ASD in infancy is present in literature. This research investigated: developmental trajectory of f0 of episodes of crying in children with ASD as opposed to typically developing (TD) children and children with other developmental delay (DD). Two studies were employed. In Study 1, using a standardised protocol for acoustic analysis a group of 30 TD children was followed longitudinally (five, 13 and 20 months) and f0 of their episodes of crying was analysed. In Study 2, acoustic analysis was applied to episodes of crying selected from retrospective home videos of 30 children with ASD, TD and DD at five and 18 months. Decrease of f0 in TD children between the first and second year both using a standard procedure and the retrospective procedure was found. Besides while in TD and DD children a change of the f0 trajectory was present, no changes were evident in ASD. Higher f0 may account in ASD for a caregiver bias in their interpretation of crying, evoking mental states of uneasiness and it may interfere with the adequacy of the parental response. Limitations and future goal of the research are described. (Contains 2 figures.)

Crying behavior and mother-infant interactions during episodes of crying were coded using the Cry Observation Codes and then compared for 48 mother-infant dyads of children with autism, children with developmental delays, and typically developing children. At 1 year of age, children who would later be diagnosed with autism showed a different pattern of cry compared to the children in the comparison groups; specifically, their cries had less waveform modulation and more dysphonation. Maternal reactions to the crying of infants later diagnosed with autism were qualitatively different from the responses to cries of the other children of the same age (fewer tactile or vestibular stimulation and more verbal production). Implications of the study are described. (Contains 3 tables.)

This study used a cross-national framework to examine country, region, and gender differences in emotional availability (EA), a prominent index of mutual socioemotional adaptation in the parent-child dyad. Altogether 220 Argentine, Italian, and U.S. mothers and their daughters and sons from both rural and metropolitan areas took part in home observations when the children were 20 months old. In terms of country, Italian mothers were more sensitive and optimally structuring, and Italian children were more responsive and involving, than Argentine and U.S. dyads. In terms of region, rural mothers were more intrusive than metropolitan mothers, and boys from metropolitan areas were more responsive than boys from rural areas. In terms of gender, mothers of girls were more sensitive and optimally structuring than mothers of boys, and daughters were more responsive and involving than sons. Understanding how country, region, and gender influence EA exposes forces that shape child development, parent-infant interaction, and family systems. (Contains 4 tables, 1 figure, and 1 footnote.)

A total of 467 mothers of firstborn 20-month-old children from 7 countries (103 Argentine, 61 Belgian, 39 Israeli, 78 Italian, 57 Japanese, 69 Korean, and 60 US American) completed the "Jackson Personality Inventory" (JPI), measures of parenting cognitions (self-perceptions and knowledge), and a social desirability scale. Our first analysis showed that the Five-Factor structure of personality (Openness, Neuroticism, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness) could be extracted from the JPI scales when cross-cultural data from mothers in the 7 countries were analyzed; it was also replicable and generalizable in mothers from so-called individualist and collectivist cultures. Our second analysis showed that the five personality factors relate differently to diverse parenting cognitions in those individualist versus collectivist cultures. Maternal personality has significance in studies of normative parenting, child development, and family process across cultural contexts. (Contains 5 tables and 2 figures.)

This study applies methods used in sign language and gesture research to better understand reduced imitation accuracy (IA) of actions and gestures in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and we addressed contrasting theories on IA in ASD and the role of objects and meanings in imitation. Eight male children with ASD with a mean chronological age (CA) of 86.76 months (SD = 10.74, range 70.5–104.4) and 22 male and female peers with typical development (TD) and a mean CA of 85.44 months (SD = 7.95, range 73.4–96.7) imitated videos of an adult performing actions with objects, representational gestures, conventional gestures and meaningless gestures. We measured accuracy as ability to effectively reproduce features (handshape, palm orientation, location, movement direction and type) and timing (speed) of observed actions/gestures, after ruling out cases of specular (i.e., mirror-like) versus anatomical imitation. Results highlighted significantly lower feature and timing accuracy in children with ASD with respect to the TD group across tasks, and these findings supported sensory-motor theories of IA in ASD. Our data also showed the different impact of objects and meanings within groups. Overall, these results suggest validity to our assessment method and suggested the importance of considering both discreet variables (i.e., variables describing action/gesture feature accuracy, e.g. handshape, movement direction) and continuous variables (i.e., kinematic variables, e.g. speed) in evaluating IA in autism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To develop a secure attachment, the quality of the mother's relationship is fundamental, but now there is evidence that fathers equally play early and integrated roles in the development of the child, particularly in social and communicative skills. Hiraoka and colleagues emphasize father support in regulating maternal distress while listening to the infant's cry. We also emphasize the father's role in supporting the mother and in improving social and communicative competences in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The aim of this study was to compare functional features of maternal and paternal speech directed to children with Down syndrome and developmental age-matched typically developing children. Altogether 88 parents (44 mothers and 44 fathers) and their 44 young children (22 children with Down syndrome and 22 typically developing children) participated. Parents’ speech directed to children was obtained through observation of naturalistic parent–child dyadic interactions. Verbatim transcripts of maternal and paternal language were categorized in terms of the primary function of each speech unit. Parents (both mothers and fathers) of children with Down syndrome used more affect-salient speech compared to parents of typically developing children. Although parents used the same amounts of information-salient speech, parents of children with Down syndrome used more direct statements and asked fewer questions than did parents of typically developing children. Concerning parent gender, in both groups mothers used more language than fathers and specifically more descriptions. These findings held controlling for child age and MLU and family SES. This study highlights strengths and weaknesses of parental communication to children with Down syndrome and helps to identify areas of potential improvement through intervention. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Studies on parental interaction in the context of ASD has mainly focused on mothers, even if fathers and their children seem to form close and supportive relationships that may have unique effects on child development. Given the impact of ASD symptoms on a child's ability to interact with significant others, recent findings strengthen the importance of including caregivers during treatment to guarantee a better adaptation to the child's impairments. Despite this, fathers are scarcely involved, and interventions seem to not be tailored to their interactive characteristics and needs. For this reason, a systematic review was conducted to investigate fathers and children with ASD behaviors during interaction. This review found 12 observational studies that identified social, cognitive, and affective interactive modalities in father–child dyads through three psychology-focused journal databases: PubMed, PsycINFO and Scopus. The significant variation in both sample size and in the measures used to assess dyadic outcomes limits the ability of this work to make robust recommendations for intervention. Despite this, the results revealed characteristic behaviors of this dyad that consequently allow specific targets to be worked on during intervention. In fact, from fathers' individual strengths and weaknesses, it is possible to implement interventions that are complementary with maternal characteristics from the perspective of personalized and optimized treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Adults' sensitive appraisal of and response to infant cry play a foundational role in child development. Employing a gene × environment (G × E) approach, this study investigated the interaction of genetic polymorphisms of the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR) and oxytocin receptor genes (OXTR; rs53576, rs2254298) with early parental care experiences in influencing adults' implicit associations to infant cry. Eighty nulliparous adults (40 females, 40 males) responded to the Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire (PARQ), a measure of early care experiences, and participated in a Single Category Implicit Association Task (SC-IAT) to measure implicit associations to infant cry. Independent of parental experience, the valence of the implicit response to infant cry is associated with the serotonin transporter gene polymorphism (5-HTTLPR), with LL-carriers showing more positive implicit associations than S-carriers. OXTR rs53576 moderated the relation between parental rejection and implicit appraisal of infant cry: A-carriers who experienced negative early care showed an implicit positive appraisal of infant cry, whereas in GG carriers, positive early care experiences were associated with an implicit positive reaction to infant cry. OXTR rs2254298 had no relation to implicit associations to infant cry or to early care experiences. These findings cast light on the possible interplay of genetic inheritance and early environment in influencing adults' responses to infant cry that may be incorporated into screening protocols aimed at identifying at-risk adult-infant interactions. Highlights • A gene-by-environment effect on implicit associations to infant cry was investigated. • L-homozygotes (5-HTTLPR) had a more positive response to infant cry than S-allele carriers. • OXTR rs53576 moderated the effect of early care experiences to implicit response to infant cry. • OXTR rs53576 effect is consistent with differential susceptibility hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]