Wright Kira R, Bruce Madeleine, Zhou Anna M, Maylott Sarah E, Raby K Lee, Conradt Elisabeth, Crowell Sheila E
Department of Psychology, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
Dev Psychobiol. 2025 Jan;67(1):e70018. doi: 10.1002/dev.70018.
Early language is shaped by parent-child interactions and has been examined in relation to maternal psychopathology and parenting stress. Minimal work has examined the relation between maternal emotion dysregulation and toddler vocabulary development. This longitudinal study examined associations between maternal emotion dysregulation prenatally, maternal everyday stress at 7 months postpartum, and toddler vocabulary at 18 months. Data were collected from 289 typically developing, monolingual children (54% female) and their mothers (63% White and non-Hispanic; 56% held a college degree). During pregnancy, maternal emotion dysregulation was measured via self-report and resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). Mothers completed questionnaires about their perceived everyday stress and their child's vocabulary at 7 and 18 months postpartum, respectively. Path analysis revealed that expectant mothers' self-reported emotion dysregulation was indirectly associated with toddlers' expressive vocabulary via their level of postpartum perceived everyday stress. In addition, prenatal maternal resting RSA directly predicted toddlers' expressive vocabulary size. These findings yield insights into the mechanisms by which perinatal mental health may shape early language development and highlight the potential utility of interventions targeting emotion dysregulation during pregnancy.
早期语言受亲子互动的影响，并且已经针对母亲的精神病理学和育儿压力进行了研究。关于母亲情绪调节障碍与幼儿词汇发展之间的关系，相关研究极少。这项纵向研究考察了产前母亲情绪调节障碍、产后7个月时母亲的日常压力与18个月大幼儿词汇量之间的关联。研究数据来自289名发育正常的单语儿童（54%为女性）及其母亲（63%为非西班牙裔白人；56%拥有大学学位）。在孕期，通过自我报告和静息状态下的呼吸性窦性心律不齐（RSA）来测量母亲的情绪调节障碍。母亲们分别在产后7个月和18个月时填写关于自身日常压力感受以及孩子词汇量的问卷。路径分析显示，准母亲自我报告的情绪调节障碍通过产后日常压力感受水平与幼儿的表达性词汇量间接相关。此外，产前母亲静息状态下的RSA直接预测了幼儿表达性词汇量的大小。这些发现为围产期心理健康影响早期语言发展的机制提供了见解，并凸显了针对孕期情绪调节障碍进行干预的潜在效用。
