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Given the prevalence of mobile device use, especially among parents of young children, the current study examines the impact of mobile device distraction (technoference) on toddlers' physiological and emotional functioning. We suspected that toddlers' would demonstrate difficultly maintaining physiological and emotional homeostasis when parents became distracted by a mobile device. In this study, we examined toddlers' (N = 129, M age = 29.05 months) physiological and behavioral responses across three conditions in an induced technoference task that mimicked elements of a traditional still face paradigm (i.e., social engagement, phone distraction, and social recovery). Similar to previous studies employing still face with younger infants, a majority of toddlers demonstrated a loss of positive affective tone mirrored by heart rate increase and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) decrease (vagal withdrawal) during the phone distraction condition relative to the initial and final social engagement conditions. However, some toddlers demonstrated vagal activation (RSA increase) to parents' phone distraction. Greater RSA withdrawal was linked to decreased positive affect and increased negative affect for children during parents' phone distraction. Parents who reported higher levels of technoference were more likely to have children who demonstrated lower vagal reactivity (greater vagal withdrawal) to parents' phone distraction while parents attitudes about technoference (e.g., "it is okay to use a mobile device in front of my child") was found to be linked to higher RSA reactivity (greater vagal activation). Findings are discussed in relation to Porges' polyvagal theory and the possible role that interactive dynamics play in children's emerging regulatory systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study investigated how foundational conversations about the body and sexuality begin, how they develop longitudinally, and whether parental body talk varies as a function of characteristics of both the parent and child. Participants included 442 mothers (M age = 32.50, SD = 5.61, 93% heterosexual, 85% White) and 337 available father-figures (M age = 33.99, SD = 5.68, 98% heterosexual, 80% White), who were the parents of infants (age at Time 1 = 28.13 months, SD = 6.85, 52% male). Factor analyses suggested that parents engaged in positive, avoidant, and scolding body talk with their young children, and growth curve analyses suggested that frequency of positive body talk increased from when the child was age two to when they were age four for both mother- and father-figures. Results also suggested that the most consistent predictors of body talk included parents’ perceptions of whether their child was too young to discuss sexuality, and the child’s own questions and behaviors about their bodies and sexuality. The discussion focuses on the frequency of parental body talk and the active role of the child in the early socialization of healthy sexuality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]