The regulation of emotions lays the foundation for long-term physical, cognitive, and psychological health. Research reveals much about the role of parenting behavior in shaping an infant's emerging ability to display and modulate emotions. However, our understanding of the biological processes that accompany and influence mothers' ability to respond optimally to their infants, and, in turn, foster the development of emotional regulation is limited. The central goal of this study is to identify markers of risk for insensitive or unresponsive parenting in first-time expectant women. 80 primiparous women will enter the study during their third trimester of pregnancy and complete two assessments; at 32 weeks gestation (Time 1) and 2 months postnatal (Time 2). Time 1 is focused on the identification of pre-existing maternal factors that can potentially influence first-time mothers' parenting. These factors include physiological arousal to an infant's emotional signals (e.g., cry), as well as contextual factors (e.g., social support). We hypothesize that directly, and in combination with contextual variables, prenatal arousal patterns are markers of risk for maternal physiological dysregulation, insensitive parenting and parenting difficulties. The second phase of this study will examine whether variation in new mothers' behavioral sensitivity to their own infants' emotional signals and postnatal autonomic reactivity during cognitively and socially challenging tasks is predicted by mothers' prenatal behavior and reactivity. Furthermore, we will examine how the interaction between mother and infant patterns of arousal contribute to infant emotional and physiological regulation and dysregulation. Results from this study will inform a more coherent formulation of mothers' capacities for optimally influencing infant's emotion regulation. The identification of markers of risk for unresponsive parenting and improved understanding of mothers' contributions to the development of infant emotional regulation will help in the design of early intervention strategies aimed at enhancing mothers' sensitive caregiving.
