@article{b9a4bee22d864b85bd5ab17fb5accd21,
title = "Maternal Responses to Infant Distress: Linkages Between Specific Emotions and Neurophysiological Processes",
abstract = "SYNOPSIS: Objective. The goals of the current article were to test the presence of an association between mothers{\textquoteright} neural activity (measured by frontal cortical alpha asymmetry) and their specific emotions (measured by observed facial expressions) in response to infant distress and the moderation of this relation by mothers{\textquoteright} appraisal processes (measured by sense of parenting efficacy). Design. Mothers of 5- to 8-month-olds (n = 26) watched videos of their own infants expressing distress while their brain activity was recorded via electroencephalogram and their facial expressions were videotaped for later microcoding. Mothers also completed a questionnaire measure of parenting efficacy. Results. Greater neurophysiological withdrawal in response to infant distress videos, indexed by frontal alpha asymmetry, was associated with longer sad and tense expressions in mothers with average or below average parenting efficacy, but not in those with above average efficacy. Conclusions. Previous research showing that patterns of parents{\textquoteright} brain activity in response to child stimuli are associated with parenting behavior often interpret results in relation to parental emotion, but rarely measure specific concurrent emotions. The current study helps fill this gap in the literature by showing that maternal neurophysiological withdrawal (together with parenting efficacy) was associated with simultaneously measured facial expressions of negative emotion in response to infant distress stimuli.",
author = "Hajal, {Nastassia J.} and Cole, {Pamela M.} and Teti, {Douglas M.}",
note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by Penn State University{\textquoteright}s Children, Youth, and Family Consortium and by Grants F31 HD070705 and R21 HD062087 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and Grant R01 MH063188 from the National Institute of Mental Health. Role of the funders/sponsors: None of the funders or sponsors of this research had any role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; or decision to submit the manuscript for publication. Acknowledgements: This project would not have been possible without the contributions of Drs. Mark Feinberg, Ginger Moore, Lauren Killeen, Joe Stitt, William Ray, and Rick Gilmore, both to this project and to the larger Minds of Mothers Study. Thanks also go to Anneliese Bass and Aleksandr Lewicki for their detailed work on facial coding, and to Junyi Lin for his advanced programming that generated temporal variables from second-by-second facial expression data. The ideas and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors alone, and endorsement by the authors{\textquoteright} institutions, the Penn State Children, Youth, and Family Consortium, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the National Institute of Mental Health is not intended and should not be inferred. Publisher Copyright: Copyright {\textcopyright} 2017 Taylor & Francis.",
year = "2017",
month = jul,
day = "3",
doi = "10.1080/15295192.2017.1336001",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "17",
pages = "200--224",
journal = "Parenting",
issn = "1529-5192",
publisher = "Psychology Press Ltd",
number = "3",
}