Evaluating Objective Assessment of Daily Holding as a Predictor of Parasympathetic Tone in Mother-Infant Dyads

• In Event: Poster Session 14
  In Poster Session: PS 14 Topic - Biological Processes: Psychophysiology

Abstract

Background: Skin-to-skin contact between mother and infant immediately post-birth is related to enhanced physical and emotional development, including increased infant regulation (Bystrova, et al., 2009). However, studies into the relationship of physical contact and development are typically limited to short-term hospital observations and self-reports (Anisfeld et al., 1990 and Conde-Agudelo & Diaz-Rossello, 2016). Thus, we know little about individual differences in holding behaviors across the first year and their impact on children’s regulation, and even less about the reciprocity effect that holding may have on mother’s regulation. To investigate the impacts of physical holding on children’s development, our lab previously developed motion-sensor algorithms that can be used to automatically detect the duration that an infant is held (Yao et al., 2019). Across a 90-minute session including structured tasks and naturalistic everyday activities, holding duration detected by our algorithm showed a R2 =.815 correlation with holding duration as annotated by trained research assistants, indicating its reliability to capture individual differences across naturalistic holding and carrying behaviors.

Aims: The first aim of this study is to generate descriptive data of objective naturalistic holding behaviors in a cross-sectional sample of infants. The second aim of this study is to determine whether individual differences in everyday infant holding behavior captured in the home predicts infants’ baseline RSA, a measure of the parasympathetic nervous system, and a well-established marker of physiological regulation (Beauchaine, 2001). We hypothesize that more holding is associated with higher baseline RSA, given that physical contact is known to be related to better regulation (Bystrova, et al., 2009) and better regulation is known to be related to higher baseline RSA in infants (Kagan et al., 1987).

Methods: 87 mother-infant dyads participated in a study leveraging mobile sensors to study daily activity. All families participated in a session that included 3-minute resting baseline. Mother and infant baseline RSA are derived from heart rate data collected during this task. Additionally, a motion sensor (Movisens Move 4) was worn by mothers (M=61 hrs, SD=24) and infants (M=65 hrs, SD=24) at home over the course of a week. Mother and infant motion data will be processed with our holding detection algorithm which automatically detects whether an infant is being held by their mother on a second by second basis (Yao et al., 2019).

Analysis Plan: In this study, only wake time holding will be assessed to control for differences in wake and sleep holding activity. The threshold of inclusion of dyad data is at least 12 hours total of synchronous wearing of the motion device across the 72 hours of recording. Daily summaries of holding will be normalized for the total time of joint wearing during wake times of each day. Correlations will be used to assess the relationships between baseline RSA and the frequency and duration of holding. All data has already been collected. Preprocessing of baseline RSA is completed. Pre-processing and holding detection will be completed by December 2020. All analyses and reporting will be completed before the meeting.

Authors

• Anna Madden-Rusnak, University of Texas at Austin
  Presenting Author

• Xuewen Yao
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kaya Anna De Barbaro
  Non-Presenting Author