This application is for five years of funding through the Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23). The main goal is to establish the candidate as an independent researcher in the area of promotion of emotional regulation in vulnerable populations of infants. The training obtained during the period of the K23 Award will be directed toward conducting an intervention that will enhance emotional regulation, in infants born prematurely, and to acquire expertise in assessing psychophysiologic regulators of emotion. The primary goal of the intervention is to provide a more attuned environment for preterm infants through social support of the mother while the infant is hospitalized and at home. The candidate possesses has clinical background in neonatal intensive care that provides her with an understanding of the risks of prematurity and cares of the infant born prematurely. The main objective will be achieved through training in intervention with vulnerable families, conduct of intervention research and assessment, seminars in emotional regulation and psychobiology, training in behavioral and psychophysiologic (vagal tone and cortisol levels) indicators of emotion, courses in advanced statistics, and supervised research experience. Training and conducting a pilot study during the first year of the award will inform the design of the main study proposed for this award. The study will examine whether an intervention promoting skin-to-skin (kangaroo) holding of healthy preterm infants by their mothers, over an extended period of time, will facilitate attunement between mother and infant that will result in subsequent enhanced emotional regulation in these vulnerable infants compared to supported traditional blanket-holding and no support control groups. The candidate will submit an R01 application near the end of the training period based on findings from this study. The proposed training program, mentorship, and institutional resources coupled with the candidate's previous research and clinical experience will enable her to be a productive clinical researcher capable of conducting independent interdisciplinary research. .
