An Examination of Father-Infant Co-Regulation in the Context of Maternal Depression and Risk for Toddler Emotional Problems

About This Grant

PROJECT SUMMARY The overarching goal of my program of research is to understand how positive aspects of the parent-child relationship can be leveraged to increase child resiliency in the context of early life adversity, considering the impact of both mothers and fathers. The focus of this K01 award is to characterize father-infant co-regulation at the neural and behavioral level and test its impact on the development of early emotional problems among children exposed to maternal depression in the first year postpartum (postpartum depression; PPD). Infants depend on their caregivers to learn foundational emotional self-regulation skills. Through co-regulation, infants and their caregivers coordinate behavioral, affective, physiological signals that over time support the infant’s ability to self-regulate. Maternal PPD has been found to disrupt mother-infant co-regulation and is associated with significantly increased risk for the development of emotional problems in the child. However, very little research has examined how father-infant co-regulation may influence the risk of emotional problems following exposure to maternal PPD. Recent advancements in neuroimaging technology, specifically the use of near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) during in vivo naturalistic parent-child interactions, have made it possible to examine neural mechanisms that underlie the development of early emotional self-regulation via parent-infant co-regulation. The Aims of this K01 are to 1) examine how father-infant neural and behavioral co-regulation associate with one another and with fathers’ depression symptoms and coparenting relationship quality, 2) examine maternal PPD as a predictor of father-infant neural and behavioral co- regulation, and sources of heterogeneity and 3) examine the prospective association of father-infant neural and behavioral co-regulation on early emotional problems among infants exposed to maternal PPD. All mothers in the sample (n = 100) will have elevated symptoms of PPD (i.e., EPDS > 10), and must be cohabitating with the infant’s father. Father-infant neural and behavioral co-regulation will be measured during an in-home face-to-face interaction (i.e., play and recovery from a stressor) when infants are 9 months old. The interaction will be assessed using NIRS and videorecorded for later behavioral coding. Child emotional problems will be assessed at 18 months via parental and close caregiver report using clinically validated measures and via in-home observational assessment. To achieve the proposed goals and transition to independence, Dr. Taraban will receive mentored training in 1) developmental affective neuroscience, 2) engaging fathers in research and measurement of the father-infant relationship, and 3) statistical analysis of dyadic neural and moment-to- moment affective data. Dr. Taraban will be supported by a strong team of mentors (Drs. Morgan, Lunkenheimer, Schoppe- Sullivan, and Silk) and consultants (Drs. Goodman, Huppert, and Iyengar) with expertise that spans domains of developmental affective neuroscience, co-regulation, fathering, NIRS, maternal PPD, and time-series analysis. The proposed K01 research aligns with Goals 1 and 2 of NIMH’s strategic plan (Objectives 1.1, 2.1 and 2.2) and is a vital step toward Dr. Taraban’s long-term goal of tailoring parenting-focused interventions to reduce the risk of emotional problems among children exposed to early life adversity.