Association of Intimate Partner Violence Around the Time of Pregnancy With Postpartum Visits.

Objective: To examine the association between experiencing emotional or physical intimate partner violence (IPV) around the time of pregnancy and having a postpartum visit.

Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of data from 2016 to 2021 from PRAMS (Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System), a population-based surveillance system that collects self-reported information about experiences before, during, and after pregnancy among women with a recent live birth. We used multivariable logistic regression to estimate the prevalence of experiencing emotional or physical IPV around the time of pregnancy and associations with having a postpartum visit.

Effortful Control, Parent-Child Relationships, and Behavior Problems among Preschool-Aged Children Experiencing Adversity.

Young children who experience adversity are at increased risk for developing psychological difficulties across the lifespan. Among community samples, parent-child relationship dynamics interact with child effortful control to predict child behavior problems. The nature of these associations has not been examined among children who have experienced early childhood adversity and who may be particularly sensitive to familial effects on child development.

Mothers' recollections of parenting by their own mothers and fathers and maternal and infant outcomes.

Objective: Using a family network approach, we examined patterns of remembered parental rearing by both parents and associations with maternal and infant outcomes.

Background: Women's memories of how they were cared for by their own mothers in childhood are associated with important outcomes in the perinatal period. However, few studies assess women's recollections of caregiving by their fathers, despite fathers' influence on the larger family context and child adjustment.

Implementation of family centered substance use treatment for pregnant and postpartum people to prevent the intergenerational transmission of adverse childhood experiences.

Background: Family-centered substance use treatment (FCSUT) may have benefits for parents, children, and their families, and have the potential to decrease adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Few treatment programs use FCSUT, even those that aim to serve pregnant and postpartum people.

Objectives: To understand how families are integrated into FCSUT services for pregnant and postpartum people, explore the perceived benefits of FCSUT for families and parents, and identify challenges to implementing FCSUT.

Evaluating the implementation of family-centered substance use treatment for pregnant and postpartum people: A mixed-methods study.

Introduction: Family-centered substance use treatment (FCSUT) approaches for pregnant and postpartum people have the potential to prevent intergenerational transmission of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Guided by two theoretical frameworks drawn from implementation science (the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research [CFIR] and the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation and Maintenance [RE-AIM] framework), this study used a mixed methods approach to answer: (1) What is the extent to which FCSUT approaches are offered for pregnant and postpartum people seeking substance use disorder (SUD) treatment? and (2) How are FCSUT approaches for pregnant and postpartum people implemented?

Methods: This study utilized a sequential mixed methods design that began with quantitative data collection followed by qualitative data collection. The quantitative component consisted of service provision surveys of facilities that provided FCSUT to pregnant and postpartum people (n = 118).

Examining the Biological Impacts of Parent-Child Relationship Dynamics on Preschool-Aged Children who have Experienced Adversity.

Parent-child relationship dynamics have been shown to predict socioemotional and behavioral outcomes for children, but little is known about how they may affect biological development. The aim of this study was to test if observational assessments of parent-child relationship dynamics (cohesion, enmeshment, and disengagement) were associated with three biological indices of early life adversity and downstream health risk: (1) methylation of the glucocorticoid receptor gene (), (2) telomere attrition, and (3) mitochondrial biogenesis, indexed by mitochondrial DNA copy number (mtDNAcn), all of which were measured in children's saliva. We tested hypotheses using a sample of 254 preschool-aged children ( age = 51.

Understanding links between maternal perinatal posttraumatic stress symptoms and infant socioemotional and physical health.

Maternal posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) are associated with adverse consequences for older children, but very few studies have examined links between perinatal maternal PTSS and infant outcomes. Trauma exposure and psychopathology, including PTSS, is often heightened for women during pregnancy through 1 year postpartum. Therefore, the perinatal period may be a critical time for understanding the risk maternal PTSS and other mental health factors pose to the socioemotional and physical health of infants.

Beyond destructive and constructive interparental conflict: Children's psychological vulnerability to interparental disorganization.

Guided by models of family unpredictability, this study was designed to identify the distinctive sequelae of disorganized interparental conflict, a dimension of interparental conflict characterized by abrupt, inexplicable changes in parental emotional lability, conflict tactics, and verbalizations. Participants included 208 kindergarten children (M age = 5.74 years; 56% girls), mothers, and their caregiving partners from racially diverse backgrounds (e.

Family origins of distinct forms of children's involvement in interparental conflict.

Previous research has highlighted the value in parsing unidimensional assessments of children's involvement in interparental conflict into distinct forms for advancing an understanding of children's development; however, little is known about the underlying antecedents of distinct forms of involvement. The present study provides the first systematic analysis of the interparental conflict and parenting predictors of residualized change in maternal reports of three forms of children's involvement in interparental conflict (i.e.

Children's dove temperament as a differential susceptibility factor in child rearing contexts.

This multistudy article examines whether children's susceptibility to their socialization experiences varies as a function of their dove temperament dispositions, an evolutionarily informed pattern of traits marked by a low threshold of environmental stimulation and greater behavioral flexibility across environmental contexts. Participants in Study 1 consisted of 70 mothers and their 4- to 6-year-old children: M age = 4.79 years; 57% girls; 33% Black or multiracial; 14% Latinx; median annual income range = $55,000 - $74,999.

Cascades of Risk Linking Intimate Partner Violence and Adverse Childhood Experiences to Less Sensitive Caregiving During Infancy.

This study evaluated if maternal intimate partner violence (IPV) had indirect effects on sensitive parenting in infancy through prenatal depressive symptoms and postpartum parenting stress and if maternal adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) moderated these indirect effects. We hypothesized that: (a) IPV would be associated with greater prenatal depressive symptoms, which would predict greater postpartum parenting stress, and ultimately less sensitive parenting and (b) the link between IPV and depressive symptoms would be strongest for mothers with high ACEs. Participants included 295 mothers and their infants who were assessed prenatally and at 12 months postpartum.

Sex Differences in Associations between Early Adversity, Child Temperament, and Behavior Problems.

Early adversity is associated with both internalizing and externalizing problems among children, and effects of adversity on dimensions of child temperament may underlie these links. However, very little is known about the role of child sex in these processes. The current study examined if there are indirect effects of early adversity on behavior problems through dimensions of child temperament and if these indirect effects vary across child sex.

Intergenerational Effects of Maternal Childhood Experiences on Maternal Parenting and Infant Developmental Progress.

Objective: This study evaluated the intergenerational indirect effects of maternal childhood experiences on infant progress in reaching developmental milestones through maternal scaffolding behaviors. We hypothesized that mothers who perceived their own mothers as highly supportive in childhood, even in the context of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), would be more likely to engage in scaffolding with their infants, which in turn would predict greater infant developmental progress (e.g.

Household Chaos Moderates Indirect Pathways Involving Domestic Violence, Parenting Practices, and Behavior Problems among Preschool Children.

Purpose: This study examined the moderating role of household chaos in indirect pathways involving domestic violence (DV), parenting practices (punitive discipline and responsive), and preschool children's internalizing and externalizing symptoms. We hypothesized that high levels of household chaos would amplify links between domestic violence and parenting difficulties, and that parenting difficulties would in turn predict child behavior problems.

Method: Participants in this multimethod (survey, semi-structured interview, child protection records) study included 274 preschool children ( = 50.

Detouring in the family system as an antecedent of children's adjustment problems.

Guided by conceptualizations of relational boundaries from family systems theory, this study examined unique links between detouring (e.g., alliance between parents against child) and young children's psychological functioning after accounting for general family negativity and conflict.

Children's attentional biases to emotions as sources of variability in their vulnerability to interparental conflict.

Little is known about the role children's processing of emotions plays in altering children's vulnerability to interparental conflict. To address this gap, the present study examined whether the mediational cascade involving children's exposure to interparental conflict, their insecure responses to interparental conflict, and their psychological problems varied as a function of children's preexisting biases to attend to angry, fearful, sad, and happy expressions. Participants included 243 children ( age = 4.

Molecular markers of neuroendocrine function and mitochondrial biogenesis associated with early life stress.

Objective: Glucocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C1) promoter methylation influences cellular expression of the glucocorticoid receptor and is a proposed mechanism by which early life stress impacts neuroendocrine function. Mitochondria are sensitive and responsive to neuroendocrine stress signaling through the glucocorticoid receptor, and recent evidence with this sample and others shows that mitochondrial DNA copy number (mtDNAcn) is increased in adults with a history of early stress. No prior work has examined the role of NR3C1 methylation in the association between early life stress and mtDNAcn alterations.

Coparental discord and children's behavior problems: Children's negative family representations as an explanatory mechanism.

This study examined children's insecure representations of the family as a mechanism accounting for the association between coparental discord and children's externalizing problems in a diverse sample of 243 preschool children (mean [M] age = 4.60 years). The results from a multimethod, multi-informant, prospective design indicated that coparental discord was indirectly related to children's externalizing behaviors through their insecure representations of the family.

Child response processes as mediators of the association between caregiver intimate relationship instability and children's externalizing symptoms.

Guided primarily by life history theory, this study was designed to identify how and why early exposure to caregiver intimate relationship instability uniquely predicts children's externalizing symptoms in the context of other dimensions of unpredictability characterized by residential and parental job transitions. Participants included 243 preschool children ( = 4.60 years) and their mothers who participated in 3 annual measurement occasions (i.

Understanding the nature of associations between family instability, unsupportive parenting, and children's externalizing symptoms.

This study examined the mediating role of maternal unsupportive parenting in explaining associations between family instability and children's externalizing symptoms during the transition to formal schooling in early childhood. Participants included 243 preschool children (M age = 4.60 years) and their parents.

Temperamental Emotionality Attributes as Antecedents of Children's Social Information Processing.

This study examined temperament dimensions of emotion as precursors of children's social information processing (SIP) of stressful peer events. Two hundred and forty-three preschool children (M = 4.60 years) and their primary caregivers participated in two measurement occasions spaced 2 years apart.

Family cohesion and enmeshment moderate associations between maternal relationship instability and children's externalizing problems.

This study examined the moderating roles of 2 different types of family-level closeness (i.e., family cohesion and enmeshment) in associations between maternal relationship instability and children's externalizing problems in early childhood.

Interparental hostility and children's externalizing symptoms: Attention to anger as a mediator.

This study examined children's attention biases to negative emotional stimuli as mediators of associations between interparental hostility and children's externalizing symptoms. Participants included 243 children (Mage = 4.60 years) and their parents and teachers across three annual measurement occasions.