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IntroductionExcessive crying, sleeping, and eating disorders are among the most prevalent mental health diagnoses in the first 3 years of life and involve significant health service use. Parents of infants with excessive crying/sleeping/eating disorders report high levels of stress, since they feel incapable of soothing and/or nurturing their baby. Infants' distress can lead to a breakdown in parents' mentalizing abilities and, more specifically, parental mind-mindedness in the parent-child interaction. Moreover, the signals of infants with excessive crying/sleeping/eating disorders tend to be equivocal and difficult to read. This also might contribute to lower parent-child interaction quality. Until now, parental mind-mindedness, which is regarded as a prerequisite for sensitivity, has not been investigated in mothers of infants with excessive crying/sleeping/eating disorders. We investigated whether mind-mindedness in mothers of infants with excessive crying, sleeping and/or eating disorders differed from a healthy control group. We supposed that mothers of infants with excessive crying/sleeping/eating disorders would use (1) less appropriate mind-related comments (AMRCs), and (2) more non-attuned mind-related comments (NAMRCs) than mothers in the control group.MethodsOur sample consisted of 44 mothers and their infants who were patients in a socio-paediatric clinic in Germany. The children were diagnosed with excessive crying, sleeping and/or eating disorders according to DC:0-5 (= clinical group). The control group was composed of 64 healthy children and their mothers. Maternal mind-mindedness was coded during a free-play interaction.ResultsResults showed that mothers of infants with excessive crying, sleeping and/or eating disorders used both more AMRCs (p = .029) as well as more NAMRCs (p = .006) than mothers in the control group.DiscussionThe findings are discussed in terms of implications for interventions (e.g., enhancing mind-mindedness trough video-feedback).

BackgroundOver nearly three years, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a lasting impact on people's lives and mental health worldwide with its far-reaching restrictions and concerns about infections and other personal consequences. Families were particularly affected and showed increased stress and psychological problems. Long-term effects cannot be ruled out. So far, data on young families are sparse. The present longitudinal analysis (n = 932) of the CoronabaBY study investigated the development of parenting stress, parental affective symptoms, and child's mental health in young families with children aged 0–3 years in Germany as well as potential influencing factors.MethodsThe observational study includes two measurement points over the course of the pandemic (baseline and follow-up). Data was collected by app using standardized questionnaires.ResultsN = 932 participants, mainly mothers (94.7%) born in Germany (93.1%) with higher education (61.3% with at least high school diploma) and a comfortable financial situation participated in the longitudinal study. Children were on average 14.7 months old at baseline (SD: 12, range: 1–39 months). While the proportion of parents who perceived the pandemic as stressful decreased significantly from baseline (60%) to follow-up (52.3%), the proportion with parenting stress increased significantly (from 40.1% to 45.4%). Both parental and child mental health problems remained constant over time, with infants crying/feeding/sleeping problems ranging above pre-pandemic comparative data. Most predictive for high parenting stress at follow-up was high parenting stress at baseline. This was also true for parental affective symptoms (depression/anxiety) and child mental health problems.ConclusionsDespite faded pandemic restrictions, parents remained burdened. Support services do not appear to have been sufficient to help families out of their stressful situation. Our results indicate a need for action regarding low-threshold services that effectively reach affected families.Trial registrationThe study was pre-registered in OSF (https://osf.io/search/?q=tksh5&page=1).

BackgroundThe use of digital media (e.g., smartphones, tablets, etc.) and the Internet have become omnipresent for every age group and are part of children’s and parents’ everyday life. Focusing on young children, the availability of media devices, their use as well as associated problems (e.g., in social, emotional and motor development) have increased in recent years. Of particular interest for prevention of these problems in early childhood is the relationship between the familial context (parental digital media use, Problematic Internet Use, school graduation, presence of siblings) and the digital media use of infants and toddlers. The present study’s goal was to describe media usage in 0–4-year-old children and to identify the potential relationship between familial context factors and child media usage.MethodsThe sample included N = 3,035 children aged 0 to 3;11 years (M = 17.37 months, SD = 13.68; 49.13% female). Recruitment took place within the framework of a restandardization study for a German developmental test. The parents of the participants answered a questionnaire on socio-demographics, on child media use, and on parental media use. Questions on parental media use included the full version of the Short Compulsive Internet Use Scale (S-CIUS).ResultsSignificant increases in media usage times with child age were identified, but no significant gender differences. A multiple regression analysis revealed that increasing maternal total media usage time, a higher parental S-CIUS score, lower school leaving certificate of both mother and father, and increasing child’s age led to higher child media usage time. Having siblings diminished young children’s media usage in this study. Having more than one child and having children aged over a year was associated with a higher parental S-CIUS score.ConclusionFamily factors such as maternal media use time, Problematic Internet Use and lower school graduation are significantly associated with young children’s digital media use. Parents should be aware of their personal influence on their children’s media use which might be due their role in terms of model learning.

Neuronal plasticity is considered to be the neurophysiological correlate of learning and memory and changes in corticospinal excitability play a key role in the normal development of the central nervous system as well as in developmental disorders. In a previous study, it was shown that quadri-pulse theta burst stimulation (qTBS) can induce bidirectional changes in corticospinal excitability (1). There, a quadruple burst consisted of four single-sine-wave (SSW) pulses with a duration of 160 μs and inter-pulse intervals of 1.5 ms to match I-wave periodicity (666 Hz). In the present study, the pulse shape was modified applying double-sine-waves (DSW) rather than SSW pulses, while keeping the pulse duration at 160 μs. In two separate sessions, we reversed the current direction of the DSW pulse, so that its second component elicited either a mainly posterior-to-anterior (DSW PA-qTBS) or anterior-to-posterior (DSW AP-qTBS) directed current in the precentral gyrus. The after-effects of DSW qTBS on corticospinal excitability were examined in healthy individuals (n = 10) with single SSW TMS pulses. For single-pulse SSW TMS, the second component produced the same preferential current direction as DSW qTBS but had a suprathreshold intensity, thus eliciting motor evoked potentials (PA-MEP or AP-MEP). Single-pulse SSW TMS revealed bidirectional changes in corticospinal excitability after DSW qTBS, which depended on the preferentially induced current direction. DSW PA-qTBS at 666 Hz caused a stable increase in PA-MEP, whereas AP-qTBS at 666 Hz induced a transient decrease in AP-MEP. The sign of excitability following DSW qTBS at I-wave periodicity was opposite to the bidirectional changes after SSW qTBS. The results show that the pulse configuration and induced current direction determine the plasticity-effects of ultra-high frequency SSW and DSW qTBS at I-wave periodicity. These findings may offer new opportunities for short non-invasive brain stimulation protocols that are especially suited for stimulation in children and patients with neurological or neurodevelopmental disorders.