Preterm-infant emotion regulation during the still-face interaction.

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Neonatal Care
• Child Development

Background:

• Emotion regulation is crucial for infant social and cognitive development.
• Very preterm (VPT) infants often face emotion regulation challenges.
• Limited research exists on moderately preterm (MPT) infants' emotion regulation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare emotion-regulation behaviors in very preterm, moderately preterm, and full-term infants.
• To investigate emotion regulation capabilities in MPT infants.
• To identify potential differences in emotion regulation strategies among preterm and full-term infants.

Main Methods:

• Assessed emotion-regulation behaviors using the Still-Face procedure at four months corrected age.
• Included 135 parent-infant dyads: 46 VPT, 51 MPT, and 38 FT.
• Coded infant affect, gaze aversion, and self-comforting behaviors.

Main Results:

• Preterm infants exhibited robust still-face and recovery effects, similar to full-term infants.
• Preterm infants showed less positive affect and more gaze aversion than full-term infants.
• MPT infants displayed better emotion regulation skills than VPT infants, indicated by self-comforting behaviors.

Conclusions:

• Preterm infants, particularly VPT, exhibit less developed emotion regulation behaviors.
• MPT infants may possess better emotion regulation skills compared to VPT infants.
• Findings can inform interventions to support infant emotion regulation development.