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Recent advances in audiological early intervention and hearing technologies have significantly improved access to spoken language for children with hearing loss (CwHL), but many CwHL require additional support to match the language development of their peers with normal hearing (PwNH). Programmes such as It Takes Two to Talk®, the Hanen Program® and Talking Matters focus on supporting parents to enhance children's language development in natural environments. Analysis of response types has become a significant trend, facilitated by technological developments like Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA®), which provides uninterrupted recordings and automated calculations of adult–child interactions. This research examined three child language measures, child vocalisation counts, total number of words, and mean length of utterance, comparing CwHL and PwNH. Transcribed excerpts of LENA recordings were coded to determine caregivers' use of 'high-level' responses in exchanges with their children and were correlated with child language outcomes. The results confirm the crucial role of caregiver response types in enhancing child language outcomes and exemplify the bidirectional relationship of caregiver-child interactions. The findings add to the literature to suggest that families and educators would benefit from guidance and coaching to acquire and apply high-level response types during natural spoken language interactions with CwHL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs the psychoanalytic method of observation over 12 months to examine the development of an infant (Andrea) and her caregiving environment through weekly one-hour visits. Initially, the observations focused on interactions between Andrea and her mother, who was a single parent during pregnancy and Andrea's early weeks. As the father became more involved, the focus broadened to include him, shifting the family dynamic from a dyadic to a triadic structure. This transition offers nuanced insights into the complexities of parental roles and the factors that enable 'good enough' parenting and healthy child development. The observations highlight that parenting, particularly caring for a newborn, is a challenging task requiring a collaborative family environment, with active parental involvement and broader support systems for both the caregiver and the child. This support helps ensure adequate parenting, which in turn fosters the infant's emotional security and overall well-being. Drawing on psychoanalytic theories, these observations seem to show that while the primary caregiver-infant dyad is crucial, the effectiveness of caregiving and the child's development are greatly enhanced by the larger support network. This underscores the need for stronger societal support systems to help caregivers and infants thrive, particularly in increasingly individualistic Western cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article claims that the children's poetry of Laura E. Richards deserves more critical attention for its modeling in verse of a specific kind of intimate caregiver-child relationship. It especially examines the roles of sleep and dreams in In My Nursery as defining that connection not only through human interactions but especially through the child's engagement with the natural world. By having plants, flowers, trees, and animals conspire to facilitate the regulation of sleep habits, Richards also brings these poems into dialogue with a longstanding tradition. Poems about sleep and dreams since ancient times and specifically in the early modern period have reconciled opposites such as vulnerability and control; Richards's sleepers find themselves performing similar work with the help of external human and environmental support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores how caregiver–child scientific conversation during storybook reading focusing on the challenges or achievements of famous female scientists impacts preschoolers' mindset, beliefs about success, and persistence. Caregiver–child dyads (N = 202, 100 female, 35% non‐White, aged 4–5, ƒ =.15) were assigned to one of three storybook conditions, highlighting the female scientist's achievements, effort, or, in a baseline condition, neither. Children were asked about their mindset, presented with a persistence task, and asked about their understanding of effort and success. Findings demonstrate that storybooks highlighting effort are associated with growth mindset, attribution of success to hard work, and increased persistence. Caregiver language echoed language from the assigned storybook, showing the importance of reading storybooks emphasizing hard work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most language use is displaced, referring to past, future, or hypothetical events, posing the challenge of how children learn what words refer to when the referent is not physically available. One possibility is that iconic cues that imagistically evoke properties of absent referents support learning when referents are displaced. In an audio‐visual corpus of caregiver–child dyads, English‐speaking caregivers interacted with their children (N = 71, 24–58 months) in contexts in which the objects talked about were either familiar or unfamiliar to the child, and either physically present or displaced. The analysis of the range of vocal, manual, and looking behaviors caregivers produced suggests that caregivers used iconic cues especially in displaced contexts and for unfamiliar objects, using other cues when objects were present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevalence of autistic-like behaviors is increasing worldwide, both in developed and developing countries. With a high disease burden and complex developmental causes, there has been much interest in the etiology of the disease, and there is a lack of evidence on the relationship between caregiver-child interaction and autistic-like behaviors. This study investigated the association between caregiver-child interaction and children's autistic-like behaviors during early childhood. The subjects of this study were 171 kindergartens selected from the Longhua Child Cohort Study (LCCS), and a total of 40,237 children around the age of three were included. Sociodemographic characteristics, family income, and frequency of interaction between caregivers and children were all filled in by the child's primary caregiver, and the adapted Chinese Autism Behavior Checklist was used to assess children's autism-like behaviors. Tobit Regression and ancovariance analysis (ANCOVA) were used to measure the relationship between caregiver-child interactions (family and social activities) and autism-like behaviors, with a two-tailed p value of <0.05 being significant. Tobit regression analyses found that in the 0–1 year age group, different frequencies of singing activities by caregivers with children (<3 times per week, 3–6 times per week, 6 times or more per week) were significantly negatively associated with autistic-like behaviors in a dose-response manner (B values of −0.323, −0.381, −0.544, all p < 0.0001); in the 1–3 year age group, different frequencies of reading interactions by caregivers with children (<3 times per week, 3–6 times per week, 6 times or more per week) were also significantly negatively associated with autistic-like behaviors in a dose-response manner (B values of −0.388, −0.632, −0.956, all p < 0.0001), and similar associations were found in singing and chatting interactions. Our findings suggest that higher frequencies of early caregiver-child interactions are associated with lower levers of autistic-like behaviors in children around the age of three years. • More early caregiver-child interactions are linked to fewer autistic-like behaviors in children around age three. • Increasing the frequency of reading to children between the ages of 1-3 years led to the greatest decrease in ABC scores. • Findings underscore the importance of public health interventions to encourage caregivers to frequently interact with the children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The present study assessed the associations between caregivers' adverse experiences with childhood caregivers, adult and parental reflective functioning (RF), and emotion socialization strategies with their preschoolers in an effort to illuminate the unique and joint contribution of adult and parental RF in caregiving. Background: Parental RF is defined as parents' ability to reflect on their child's state of mind, whereas adult RF involves parents' capacity to reflect on their own experiences with childhood caregivers. Most research on adult and parental RF has examined these constructs separately, making it unclear whether adult and parental RF play similar or different roles in caregiving. Method: Participants were 64 preschooler–caregiver dyads from Head Start programs (Mchildage = 4; 81% Black). A multimethod approach was used, including self‐report, interview, and observational measures. Hierarchical linear regression analyses were employed to evaluate whether adult and parental RF accounted for unique or joint variance in caregivers' emotion socialization behaviors after accounting for caregivers' adverse experiences with childhood caregivers. Adult RF also was tested as a moderator of the relation between caregivers' adverse experiences with childhood caregivers and emotion socialization strategies. Results: Adult and parental RF each demonstrated unique associations with particular emotion socialization strategies. Adult RF also moderated the association between caregivers' exposure to maladaptive parenting in childhood and emotion socialization behaviors. Conclusion and implications: Findings suggest that both types of RF are important for caregivers' ability to validate children's emotions and that reflecting on caregiving received in childhood can act as a protective mechanism and help promote effective caregiving behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A complex dynamic systems perspective was applied to explore how mother and child mutually shape interpersonal coordination. Applying a microanalytic design, this study examined the moment-to-moment interaction behavior of 39 Dutch mothers and their three- and four-year-old children (53.8% girls, predominantly White) during a collaboration task. Fine-grained time-series data were extracted about the verbal, affective, and body movement modalities. Research Findings: Cross-recurrence quantification analysis showed that mothers and children were coupled within all three modalities. Recurrent behaviors were found with varying delays, spanning from the immediate to the entire length of the interaction. Many of the interactions were characterized by a certain degree of patternedness, whereby the amount of patternedness varied substantially between dyads. Measures of interpersonal coordination were not associated between modalities. Practice or Policy: Next to the content of interaction behavior (e.g., what a parent actually says), practitioners should also consider how behaviors of a mother and her child vary together. Thereby, an appraisal of the caregiver–child relationship should not merely focus on caregiving behavior, but acknowledge the active and autonomous involvement of the child. It remains to be investigated how different patterns of interpersonal coordination may serve as a diagnostic marker of (mal)adaptive child development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to (1) explore demands and resources among centre-based and Family, Friend and Neighbor (FFN) early childhood education (ECE) caregivers, and (2) investigate how these factors are associated with the quality of caregiver-child relationships. ECE caregivers (n = 257) completed a survey that assessed demands, resources, and the quality of caregiver-child relationships. Analyses included univariate and bivariate analyses and hierarchical linear regression modelling. Centre-based caregivers (n = 173) reported higher stress, less knowledge related to wellness, and lower confidence related to self-care practices compared to FFN caregivers (n = 84) (all p <.05). Mindfulness was associated with higher reported closeness with children in their care (p <.05). Centre-based caregivers may experience more demands and less resources compared to FFN caregivers which could impact the quality of care. Mindfulness strategies may help to mitigate demands and bolster the well-being of ECE caregivers and healthy early childhood development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across the globe the prevalence of men who work in the early education and care field is scant. This phenomenon is evidenced in the Canadian childcare milieu where male early childhood professionals constitute a modest fraction of the sector. At the nucleus of this are gender-situated scrutinization, role model binaries, and adverse occupational outcomes. Subsequently a Qualitative Intrinsic Case Study, rooted in a Social Constructivist Philosophical Paradigm, was applied to secure the voices of men who work in Ontario, Canada. Novel to findings of this study are the heterogenous reactions of family and friends, male role model disharmony, strategies adopted by participants to self-protect and avoid speculation, forgotten child voices, and nuances affiliated with working in a care profession. Participants of this study urge other male early years professionals and communities to intentionally probe this domain of study, with the aim to bolster male participation in the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the Lovin' Care Gathering a transformative event organized by Children's Homes Quality (CHQ). Topics include the passionate efforts to promote a love-led revolution in residential childcare, the need for a cultural shift in prioritizing secure attachments for children, and the call to action by Valerie Tulloch to integrate Lovin' Car' principles into roles to make a positive impact.

In the face of childhood adversity, services and interventions can improve a child's life trajectory by promoting healthy development, enhancing protective factors, and building resilience through stable and supportive relationships. One such service, a specific and highly researched home visiting intervention, Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch‐up (ABC), is often provided to families through home visiting service programs. This qualitative descriptive study examines the experiences of caregivers (N = 18) who received ABC as part of a statewide early childhood initiative in one midwestern state. Participants provided insight into the context of their lives before and during the intervention. They described their perspectives of the utility of the program and its influence on their family's behaviors and interactions. Findings demonstrate that coaching support bolstered caregivers' confidence in effective strategies and guided them through caregiving challenges. Caregivers observed growth in their caregiving practices, their infants' and young children's social and emotional skills, and their dyadic caregiver‐child relationships, demonstrating the benefits of participating in and completing the ABC intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Observational assessments are important for understanding a range of behaviors and emotions in the young child-caregiver relationship. This paper provides initial data on a multidimensional assessment for professionals who work with young children and their caregivers, the What to Look for in Relationships (WLR). The WLR was designed to assist providers in evaluating strengths and areas for improvement in five areas of young child-caregiver relationship dimensions. This paper reports on the development, interrater reliability, initial convergent and discriminant validity, and incremental utility of the scales. Methods: Data were collected from caregiver-child dyads, who participated in a semi-structured observational caregiver-child interaction session as part of a clinic evaluation for relationship-based therapeutic services for young children in child protection. Recorded interactions were coded using the WLR scales with 146 interactions coded by at least two independent observers for interrater reliability analyses. Results: The scales showed adequate internal consistency, good inter-rater reliability, strong convergent associations with a single dimension measure (i.e., the Parent-Infant Relationship Global Assessment Scale; PIR-GAS) and discriminated those in the clinical range from those with adaptive functioning on the PIR-GAS. Discussion: This study provides initial support for the usefulness of the WLR scales for assessing dimensions of caregiver-child relationships during early childhood that may be useful targets of intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quality of the relationship between caregiver and child has long‐term effects on the cognitive and socio‐emotional development of children. A process involved in human parenting is the bio‐behavioural synchrony that occurs between the partners in the relationship during interaction. Through interaction, bio‐behavioural synchronicity allows the adaptation of the physiological systems of the parent to those of the child and promotes the positive development and modelling of the child's social brain. The role of bio‐behavioural synchrony in building social bonds could be investigated using functional near‐infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). In this paper we have (a) highlighted the importance of the quality of the caregiver‐child relationship for the child's cognitive and socio‐emotional development, as well as the relevance of infantile stimuli in the activation of parenting behaviour; (b) discussed the tools used in the study of the neurophysiological substrates of the parental response; (c) proposed fNIRS as a particularly suitable tool for the study of parental responses; and (d) underlined the need for a multi‐systemic psychobiological approach to understand the mechanisms that regulate caregiver‐child interactions and their bio‐behavioural synchrony. We propose to adopt a multi‐system psychobiological approach to the study of parental behaviour and social interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Process quality of Dutch home-based care is higher than center-based care. • Center-based care offers a richer physical environment than home-based care. • Children in home-based care have a higher level of well-being and less problem behavior than their peers in center-based care. • The caregiver-child relationship is a significant moderator of children's well-being and social-emotional functioning in home-based care. This study compares process quality and child functioning in Dutch center-based care and home-based care and explores the role of the dyadic caregiver-child relationship. Participants in this study included 228 children from 74 locations (154 attending center-based child care, 74 home-based child care; mean age 2.5 years). The level of emotional and behavioral support and caregiver-child closeness was higher in home-based care than center-based care, whereas quality of the physical environment was higher in center-based child care. Children's well-being was higher and levels of problem behavior were lower in home-based care compared to center-based care. The caregiver-child relationship was related to a higher level of well-being and less problem behavior. Process quality was more strongly related to children's functioning in home-based child care compared to center-based child care. The dyadic relationship quality is an important element of the care ecology of preschool children and predicts child functioning in both home-based and center-based care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch‐up (ABC) is an intervention targeted at enhancing the socioemotional and regulatory functioning of at‐risk infants. However, to use the ABC for infants/toddlers with intellectual disabilities/developmental delays (ID/DD) and in novel cultural contexts, such as South Africa, adaptations may be required. This study aimed, therefore, to explore the opinions of clinical experts and perceptions of caregivers regarding the use of ABC for children with ID/DD in South Africa. It also sought to incorporate the experiences of families of children with ID/DD who received, and intervenors who delivered, ABC in its first implementation in South Africa. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 18 participants. Thematic analysis explicated 12 main themes: Intervention Strengths, Points of Concern, and Recommendations (Experts); Focus on Caregiver‐child Relationship, and Intervention Targets and Duration (Caregivers); Benefits of ABC, and Cultural Considerations (ABC Recipients); Focused and Targeted, Value of Feedback, Supportive Supervision, Working Alliance, and Challenges Experienced (ABC Intervenors). Practice and training recommendations include psychoeducation for parents and training for intervenors that is ID/DD‐specific, expanding supervision capacity, building intervenors' cultural/linguistic sensitivity and competence, accessing referral networks, including local Community Health Workers as intervenors, and greater flexibility in how the sessions are organized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study tested the effectiveness of Promoting First Relationships® (PFR), a preventive intervention program aimed at fostering positive caregiver-child relationships in Native families living on a rural reservation. Participants were 162 primary caregivers (96% Native; 93% female) and their Native toddlers (10–31 months old; 50% female). Families were randomized to a PFR group (n = 81) or Resource and Referral (RR) control group (n = 81), after baseline data collection (Time 1) to assess the quality of caregiver-child interaction, caregiver knowledge about children's social-emotional needs, caregiver depressive symptoms, and child externalizing behavior. After delivery of the PFR intervention or the RR service, follow-up assessments were repeated immediately post-intervention (Time 2) and 3 months later (Time 3). After controlling for baseline assessments, multivariate analyses of covariance revealed that caregivers in the PFR group had significantly higher scores on knowledge about children's social-emotional needs at Time 2 (p <.01, η2 =.06) and Time 3 (p <.05, η2 =.04) and less severe depressive symptoms at Times 2 and 3 (both p <.05, η2 =.04). At Time 3, the quality of caregiver-child interaction was better in the PFR group (p <.01, η2 =.06), an effect that was moderated by severity of depressive symptoms (p =.05, η2 =.06), with PFR having the greatest impact at low levels of initial symptoms (p =.02). Results support the positive impact of PFR in a Native community and suggest conditions under which the intervention may be most effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors examined similarities and differences in Canadian and ni‐Vanuatu caregivers' child‐directed speech to their toddlers (N = 35, Mage: 21 months, 20 girls). Speech samples were collected (2013–2016) during free play and analyzed with a focus on describing parents' references to their toddlers. Canadian caregivers referred significantly more to toddlers' tangible characteristics (relative risk, RR = 2.12) and internal states (RR = 2.31), whereas ni‐Vanuatu caregivers referred more to actions (RR = 2.04). When referring to internal states, Canadian mothers referred significantly more to mind‐minded states, whereas ni‐Vanuatu caregivers referred more to body‐minded states (RR = 7.98). These findings are interpreted as capturing meaningful differences in toddlers' opportunities to attend to themselves. Implications for self‐concept development are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most out-of-home placed children have experienced early adversities, including maltreatment and neglect. A challenge for caregivers is to adequately interpret their foster child's internal mental states and behavior. We examined caregivers' mind-mindedness in out-of-home care, and the association among caregivers' mind-mindedness (and its positive, neutral, and negative valence), recognition of the child's trauma symptoms, and behavior problems. Participants (N = 138) were foster parents, family-home parents, and residential care workers. Caregivers' mind-mindedness was assessed with the describe-your-child measure. Caregivers' recognition of the child's trauma symptoms, their child's emotional symptoms, conduct problems, prosocial behavior, and quality of the caregiver-child relationship were assessed using caregivers' reports. Foster parents produced more mental-state descriptors than did residential care workers. General mind-mindedness, as well as neutral and positive mind-mindedness, related negatively to conduct problems. Besides, positive mind-mindedness was associated with prosocial behavior and neutral mind-mindedness with a better quality of the caregiver-child relationship and fewer child conduct problems. Negative mind-mindedness related positively to the caregiver's recognition of the child's trauma symptoms, and indirectly, to emotional symptoms. In conclusion, mind-mindedness seems to be an essential characteristic of out-of-home caregivers, connected to the understanding of their child's behavior problems and trauma symptoms, as well as to the relationship with the child. The findings suggest a possible use of mind-mindedness in out-of-home care evaluation and intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the integration of Jessica Benjamin’s concepts of ‘mutual recognition’ and ‘the third’ into child-parent psychotherapy (CPP), a relationship-based trauma-informed dyadic intervention model rooted in attachment theory. Despite the significance of caregiver-child relationships in trauma response, Benjamin’s work remains underutilized in the CPP literature. This article uses a case illustration to demonstrate how incorporating Benjamin’s concepts enriches CPP interventions that address the relational impact of trauma on young children. Three strategies are outlined to cultivate thirdness within CPP, drawing from clinical material: exploring trauma and complementarity, distinguishing play from reality, and working with the clinician’s subjectivity. The article illustrates how the utilization of Benjamin’s concepts can complement CPP and how emphasizing the intersubjective dynamic between parent and child, enhancing parental subjectivity, and prioritizing the repair of recognition breakdowns can support clinicians in advancing the therapeutic goals of CPP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most significant protective factors for transgender youth is caregiver support, but caregivers often struggle with accepting their child's gender identity. Many of these caregivers experience ambiguous loss, grieving the gendered aspects of their child and of the caregiver-child relationship. However, disenfranchised grief often goes unrecognized by the caregiver, and/or unsupported by society, and can also be difficult to reconcile with the caregiver's love for their child. Thus, the following article details the nature of disenfranchised grief and ambiguous loss and describes how counselors must be prepared to normalize this grief, while helping caregivers of transgender youth mourn their loss and create meaning from the adversity, in part by reframing this loss as positive change since it will enhance the emotional and physical well-being of the child. Counselors also provide resources and referrals, debunk common myths about transgender identities, and help caregivers explore their emotions while navigating their grief through personal therapy, relationship counseling, and support groups specifically designed for caregivers of transgender youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early relational health between caregivers and children is foundational for child health and well‐being. Children and caregivers are also embedded within multiple systems and sectors, or a "child‐serving ecosystem", that shapes child development. Although the COVID‐19 pandemic has made this embeddedness abundantly clear, systems remain siloed and lack coordination. Fostering relational health amongst layers of this ecosystem may be a way to systematically support young children and families who are facing adversity. We integrate theory, examples, and empirical findings to develop a conceptual model informed by infant mental health and public health frameworks that illustrates how relational health across the child‐serving ecosystem may promote child health and well‐being at a population level. Our model articulates what relational health looks like across levels of this ecosystem from primary caregiver‐child relationships, to secondary relationships between caregivers and child‐serving systems, to tertiary relationships among systems that shape child outcomes directly and indirectly. We posit that positive relational health across levels is critical for promoting child health and well‐being broadly. We provide examples of evidence‐based approaches that address primary, secondary, and tertiary relational health, and suggest ways to promote relational health through cross‐sector training and psychoeducation in the science of early development. This model conceptualizes relational health across the child‐serving ecosystem and can serve as a template for promoting child health and well‐being in the context of adversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most children experience stressful life events while growing up which may compromise emotional and physical development and may have long-term effects on their mental health. These negative experiences include, but are not limited to maltreatment, growing up in a chaotic family environment, domestic violence, loss, natural disasters, terrorism, war, and refugee conditions. Multiple factors including the child's age, temperament, resilience, and family support and coping determine whether the child develops difficulties including trauma symptoms. Children experience and give meaning to traumatic life events in their own unique way. Initial assessment should be family-centered and the developmental level of the child, risk factors and functional impairment should be assessed. In order to fully understand risk factors related to early interpersonal trauma, cultural, socio-economic and social factors that shape the caregiver-child relationship should be thoroughly assessed. TraumaPlay, developed by Goodyear-Brown (2010; 2019), offers a developmentally sensitive approach by using the facilitating power of play. The therapist acts as a safe base and container for the child, and treatment takes place through this healing relationship with the trusted therapist. Through sensitive and carefully timed interventions, the traumatized child is helped in working through feelings of loneliness, abandonment, maltreatment, and loss. The safe space provided by the therapist offers a milieu to drain the toxicity of disturbing memories and rediscover hope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Research has indicated disagreement between physicians, caregivers, and adolescents with special health care needs regarding appropriate risk counseling.Objective: The study examines caregivers' perceptions of adolescent risk counseling. We hypothesize caregivers of adolescents with special healthcare needs will perceive a lower rate of risk counseling.Methods: Data come from the 2016 National Survey of Children's Health. The sample included 13,542 adolescents. Analysis completed using logistic regression with odds ratios.Results: The results indicate no difference in caregiver perceptions of risk counseling for adolescents with special healthcare needs. Gender, race/ethnicity, and relationship between caregiver and provider influenced perception of receipt of risk counseling, regardless of health status.Conclusions: Although adolescents with special healthcare needs perceive their risk behavior counseling to be lacking in quantity/quality, caregivers perceive such counseling does occur. These results highlight the need for comprehensive risk counseling for groups at risk of known health disparities.Practice Implications: Physicians and providers should be provided with the training and resources needed to be comfortable to engage in risk counseling. Adolescents need the opportunity to see their provider privately, and education to advocate for information risky behaviors. Parents, providers, and adolescents should be included in future risk counseling intervention plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pediatric primary care plays a critical role in supporting the healthy development of young children. Wisdom and research suggest that every developmental domain is shaped by the quality of close relationships, particularly the caregiver‐child relationship. Therefore, pediatric primary care has a unique opportunity to support and nurture early relationships using the Early Relational Health (ERH) framework and its applications Early Relational Health Screen, and Early Relational Health Conversations. ERH and its applications recognize years of innovation focused on the promotion of the wellbeing of caregiver‐child relationships, and children's long‐term development. Central to enhancing and elevating pediatric practice is intentional effort in using diversity‐informed, anti‐racist, equitable systems of care frameworks. This Commentary offers a call to action for pediatric primary care to create more equitable and inclusive practice via ERH. The call to action includes deepening self and institutional awareness; allocating resources for systems change, including infusing greater equity into departmental structures; and, building authentic relationships with patients, families, and communities. This will result in intentional systems change centered on equitable practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social contexts shape the development of attention; however, little is known about joint attention beyond infancy. This study employed behavioral and eye‐tracking measurements to investigate cultural variations in how caregivers direct 3‐ to 4‐year‐old children's attention and subsequent changes in children's attention to objects and contextual backgrounds in the United States (predominantly non‐Hispanic Whites) and Japan (N = 60 mother‐child dyads, 29 girls, 31 boys). The findings revealed that caregivers directed children's attention to culturally sensitive information, and significant cross‐cultural differences in attention emerged after caregiver–child interaction, with Japanese children shifting their attention to the backgrounds. Results provide new insights into the role of social interaction and cultural diversity in the development of attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: Caregiver-child relationship; Peer relationships; Developmental psychopathology; Youth mental health EN Caregiver-child relationship Peer relationships Developmental psychopathology Youth mental health 5 7 3 03/13/23 20230101 NES 230101 Adaptive relationships play a major role in healthy child development. Just as parental mental illness and adverse childhood experiences, child characteristics such as temperament and psychopathology shape the caregiver-child relationship and can pose challenges on parenting. Caregiver-child relationship, Developmental psychopathology, Youth mental health, Peer relationships. [Extracted from the article]

The Circle of Security-Parenting Intervention (COS-P; Cooper et al., 2009) is a psychoeducational program for caregivers of young children that has been widely disseminated. The program is founded in attachment theory and relies on computer-delivered content and parent reflection and discussion to teach concepts of safety and security to promote better caregiver-child relationships and child wellbeing. The present study is a randomized controlled trial of COS-P, individually delivered to 85 Australian caregivers (51 COS-P, 34 waitlist control) who reported parenting distress and child disruptive behaviors. Caregivers completed a baseline assessment and repeated the assessment after completion of COS-P or 8 weeks on the waitlist. Caregivers completed surveys to report child symptoms, and parenting stress, anxious and avoidant attachment, reflective functioning, parenting practices, and depressive symptoms. No differences in COS-P vs. waitlist participants were found at baseline. Analyses of complete data (35 COS-P, 25-26 waitlist) revealed a greater decline in caregivers' attachment anxiety and negative parenting relative to waitlist, but only attachment anxiety in intent-to-treat analyses. Other improvements were found, but these extended to both the COS-P and waitlist conditions and did not differ between conditions. Overall, effects of COS-P were small and rarely significant, suggesting the need to consider alternative programs that have evidence of effectiveness when providing services to at-risk families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple interventions have been developed to improve the caregiver–child relationship as a buffer to the effects of early life adversity and toxic stress. However, relatively few studies have evaluated the long-term effects of these early childhood interventions, particularly on parenting and childhood behaviors. Here we describe the early school-age follow-up results of a randomized controlled trial of Minding the Baby ® (MTB), a reflective, attachment-based, trauma-informed, preventive home-visiting intervention for first-time mothers and their infants. Results indicate that mothers who participated in MTB are less likely to show impaired mentalizing compared to control mothers two to eight years after the intervention ended. Additionally, MTB mothers have lower levels of hostile and coercive parenting, and their children have lower total and externalizing problem behavior scores when compared to controls at follow-up. We discuss our findings in terms of their contribution to understanding the long-term parenting and childhood socio-emotional developmental effects of early preventive interventions for stressed populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

American Indian (AI) youth are at increased risk for poor reproductive health outcomes. Parental communication and monitoring are established predictors of sexual risk-taking among adolescents. No program evaluations of sexual risk avoidance programs have focused exclusively on AI youth and parents. This study assesses the impact of the Respecting the Circle of Life (RCL) Teenage Pregnancy Prevention program on parent–youth communication and parental monitoring through a randomized controlled trial with AI youth ages 11–19 and their trusted adults (parents/caregivers) (N  = 518). RCL consists of 8-peer group and one parent–youth session. Trusted adult participants completed the Parental Monitoring Scale and the Parent Adolescent Communication Scale at baseline and 3 and 9 months post-intervention via self-report. Intervention impact was evaluated using linear regression models, which included an indicator for study group. At 3 months post, trusted adults in the intervention reported significantly higher levels of sexual health communication (P  = 0.042) and spoke to their child more often about how to get condoms (P  = 0.001), get birth control (P  = 0.014) and protect themselves from human immunodeficiency virus (P  = 0.005) compared with trusted adults in the control condition. Program impact varied by age and sex. This study adds to literature and extends findings on RCL impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fathers' engagement in infant caregiving is linked with positive social, emotional, and developmental outcomes in children; however, its relationship with fathers' own health is largely unknown. This longitudinal study examined associations between fathers' caregiving engagement with their 6-month-old infants and their physical activity, sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption, nighttime sleep duration, and depressive symptoms 6 months later when infants were 12 months old. Participants were 143 fathers of infants (62.7% non-Hispanic White, 82.3% with a bachelor's degree). Fathers reported their frequency of engagement in seven caregiving activities when infants were 6 months old. Fathers' physical activity, SSB consumption, nighttime sleep duration, and depressive symptoms were assessed when infants were 6 and 12 months old. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to assess if fathers who reported higher infant caregiving at 6 months had more positive health outcomes at 12 months, controlling for fathers' age, race/ethnicity, education, employment, household income, and the outcome at 6 months. Fathers who reported higher caregiving engagement when infants were 6 months old had increased odds of being sufficiently physically active 6 months later (unadjusted odds ratio [OR] = 1.19, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [1.00, 1.41]; adjusted OR = 1.47, 95% CI = [1.11, 1.96]). No links were identified between fathers' caregiving engagement and their SSB consumption, nighttime sleep duration, or depressive symptoms. In summary, fathers' engagement in infant caregiving may be beneficial to their physical activity in the first year after birth. There was insufficient evidence in this study that the benefits of caregiving engagement were experienced broadly across multiple health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationships infants and young children have with their caregivers are fundamental to their survival and well-being. Theorists and researchers across disciplines have attempted to describe and assess the variation in these relationships, leading to a general acceptance that caregiving is critical to understanding child functioning, including developmental psychopathology. At the same time, we lack consensus on how to assess these fundamental relationships. In the present paper, we first review research documenting the importance of the caregiver–child relationship in understanding environmental risk for psychopathology. Second, we propose that the National Institute of Mental Health's Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative provides a useful framework for extending the study of children's risk for psychopathology by assessing their caregivers' social processes. Third, we describe the units of analysis for caregiver social processes, documenting how the specific subconstructs in the domain of social processes are relevant to the goal of enhancing knowledge of developmental psychopathology. Lastly, we highlight how past research can inform new directions in the study of caregiving and the parent–child relationship through this innovative extension of the RDoC initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined play interactions of 15 to 48-month-old children (n = 59) and their caregivers in Lazuri, a UNESCO-rated endangered South-Caucasian ancestral language, and Turkish, a dominant language supplanting Lazuri usage in the community. Child–caregiver dyads played with two toy sets (animal farm and tea set) that provided different contexts for interaction. Participants' utterances were coded as instances of distinct functional utterance types (e.g. labels, commands, and questions). Our goal was to analyze the influence of play context on child and caregiver functional utterances in order to identify factors that prompted children to use the ancestral language. The animal farm encouraged dyads to engage in labeling objects, while the tea set encouraged use of social language (e.g. comments). The differing contextual affordances led children to produce many more Lazuri labels than expected when playing with the animal farm. Mixed-effects regression analysis indicated that caregivers' use of Lazuri and their use of labels predicted children's use of Lazuri, along with child age. Notably, older children were less likely to use the ancestral language than younger children. The children's strong preference for speaking Turkish highlights the urgency of interventions to ensure language preservation in Laz communities. Interactions that promote labeling may serve as an effective first step in encouraging children's use of the Lazuri vocabulary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Numerous years of theory and research have informed our understanding of the caregiving experiences that confer vulnerability for dissociation. This work has resulted in widespread agreement on the role of childhood maltreatment as an aetiological factor. Objective: With clear integration of this perspective, the current paper draws attention to the spectrum of vulnerability that can exist over and above the trauma of maltreatment within early caregiving experiences. Method: An integrative review of the developmental literature on dissociation is presented. Results: We first review and integrate existing developmental theories of dissociation into a more unified perspective, highlighting a combination of defensive and intersubjective pathways towards dissociative outcomes. Next, we present empirical research demonstrating which specific caregiving experiences are associated with dissociation. Lastly, we review recent neurodevelopmental research demonstrating that (non-extreme) caregiving stressors during infancy impact the developing limbic structures in the brain. We conclude by offering directions for future research. Conclusion: Findings make the case for approaching assessments of the caregiver-child relationship with discernment of factors beyond the presence/absence of maltreatment when conceptualizing risk pathways toward dissociation.

This study aimed to determine and compare the nature of supervision children received in two settings that have different levels of environmental risk, an aquatic setting (public pools) and a nonaquatic setting (playgrounds). An observational design was implemented to examine caregiver and child behaviors at six indoor public pools and four playgrounds. Chi-square tests of homogeneity were conducted to determine associations between caregiver and child variables. Preschool children received significantly higher levels of supervision than school-aged children in both settings. For school-aged children the level of supervision varied between settings, with children significantly more likely to be unsupervised in public pools and poorly supervised on playgrounds. Reasons for the lack of supervision in aquatic settings remain unclear, particularly as this setting was considered to present higher environmental risk, because drowning rates are high for young children. Because evidence indicates inadequate supervision is common in aquatic settings, further investigations are required to identify ways to promote closer supervision practices and determine caregiver perceptions regarding their responsibilities when supervising young children in aquatic settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This article consists of 2 separate studies in which the overarching aim was to examine the relationships between caregiver-child behaviours in the vaccination context (infant and preschool) and preschool attachment outcomes. It provides for the first time an examination of acute pain behaviours during early childhood and how it relates to a critical aspect of child development (ie, attachment status) at the end of early childhood. Study 1 examined the longitudinal relationships between caregiver-infant behaviours during infants' first routine vaccination (2 months) and preschool attachment (n = 84). Study 2 examined the concurrent relationships between caregiver-preschooler behaviours during the last routine vaccination of preschool (4-5 years) and preschool attachment (n = 117). Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used. Although there were several nonsignificant findings, the results revealed that higher caregiver sensitivity and higher proximal soothing 1 minute before the needle during infants' 2-month vaccinations predicted higher levels of preschooler avoidance and lower levels of preschooler ambivalence, respectively. In addition, higher infant pain-related distress at 2 minutes after the needle was related to higher preschooler security and lower preschooler disorganization and controlling-punitive attachments. In terms of concurrent relationships, only caregiver sensitivity was significantly related to preschool attachment outcomes. Specifically, higher caregiver sensitivity at preschoolers' 4- to 5-year vaccinations was related to higher preschooler attachment security. The study findings provide evidence that child-caregiver behavioural patterns during the infant and preschool routine vaccination relate to preschoolers' patterns of attachment. Moreover, it underscores the potential importance of health professionals teaching and supporting attuned caregiving to the child in pain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early interventions and parenting programs have been found to be the most effective interventions in promoting wellbeing and preventing difficulties during childhood and adulthood, mainly because they operate in a sensitive period. Mentalization-based and video feedback interventions have shown their effectiveness in caregiver-child relationships. This study aimed to analyze the effect of a preventive mentalization-based intervention with video feedback on a group of Chilean mothers of preschool children compared with a control group. Fifthy mothers were assessed at baseline and at follow-up. Results showed that mothers of the experimental group reached lower levels of maternal stress and higher use of mental language, and that their children showed lower risk in their socio-emotional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teaching supports the high‐fidelity transmission of knowledge and skills. This study examined similarities and differences in caregiver teaching practices in the United States and Vanuatu (N = 125 caregiver and 3‐ to 8‐year‐old child pairs) during a collaborative problem‐solving task. Caregivers used diverse verbal and nonverbal teaching practices and adjusted their behaviors in response to task difficulty and child age in both populations. U.S. caregivers used practices consistent with a direct active teaching style typical of formal education, including guiding children's participation, frequent praise, and facilitation. In contrast, Ni‐Vanuatu caregivers used practices associated with informal education and divided tasks with children based on difficulty. The implications of these findings for claims about the universality and diversity of caregiver teaching are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Western worldview pervades the social and psychological study of children. The current study employed a story-stem method to qualitatively explore the daily and family life experiences of young Ghanaian primary school children in urban Ghana through their story narratives. The recorded narratives of 69 5- to 8-year-old children were elicited through presenting stems of common child-caregiver scenarios and thematically analysed. Five overarching themes were identified: daily routines and concerns, child-caregiver interactions, spirituality, death-related fears and depictions, and responses to injury. The narrative themes reveal the likely mental and physical occupations of these children, as characterized by household chores, financial concerns and school concerns, as well as underlying cultural values through their portrayals of parenting values, parental discipline and spiritual beliefs. Story stems depicting common childhood problems (e.g. knee injury) sometimes evoked death and hospitalization subthemes following an escalation of health problems. Possible interpretations for these findings are discussed, taking into account cultural, developmental and emotional factors. Story stems are a promising and developmentally appropriate tool for qualitative analysts to investigate the experiences and worldview of young children in non-Western cultures. Highlights: Children's daily-life accounts provide a window into life experiences, beliefs, coping strategies, and empathic understanding. Children's story stem narratives reveal understanding of culturally-embedded values; e.g. family duty, spirituality, and caregiver discipline. Children perceive their caregiver's instrumental support as a form of affection and emotional care. Story stems are a developmentally appropriate tool for qualitative explorations of culturally-mediated experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study considered the quality and stability of infant and toddler nonparental child care from 6 to 36 months in relation to language, social, and academic skills measured proximally at 36 months and distally at kindergarten. Quality was measured separately as caregiver–child verbal interactions and caregiver sensitivity, and stability was measured as having fewer sequential child‐care caregivers. This longitudinal examination involved a subsample (N = 1,055) from the Family Life Project, a representative sample of families living in rural counties in the United States. Structural equation modeling revealed that children who experienced more positive caregiver–child verbal interactions had higher 36‐month language skills, which indirectly led to higher kindergarten academic and social skills. Children who experienced more caregiver stability had higher kindergarten social skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the present study is to determine if connection with female (FC) and male caregivers (MC) could buffer the negative effects of intergenerational acculturative conflict (IAC) on suicide risk among Mexican descent adolescents and emerging adults. The sample included 722 Mexican descent adolescents and emerging adults (age range: 14-25 years, M=19.69; SD = 1.75) from a U.S. high school and public university located near the United States-Mexico border. The majority of the sample were women (65.9%) and born in the United States (92.8%). Data were collected via self-report measures. The significant findings of linear regression analyses were: 1) Higher MC-IAC was related to higher levels of past year suicide risk, while higher levels of FC and MC connection were related to lower levels; and 2) Both MC and FC connection protected youth against the negative impact of IAC on suicide risk. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of both the MC and FC relationship quality in the context of IAC on suicide risk among Latinx youth. Suggestions will be made to include both MC and FC caregivers in research, prevention, and intervention efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]