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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]