Longitudinal Study - Influence of Early Regulatory Problems in Infants on Their Development at 12 Months

There is copious evidence that challenges during infancy, especially maternal dysregulation (distress, mood disorders, personality disorders, and so on), can have serious development impact on the emotional and regulatory health of the infants. In the study below, the researchers noted regulatory issues in a group of infants at 4 and 6 months and then at 12 months to see if there is any prediction power of problems in the first 6 months for social and interpersonal function at one year.

Regulatory problems that persist longer than the first 3 to 4 months, present an unfavorable factor for further childhood development. The persistence and “broadening” of the child’s regulatory problems into other areas of behavior contribute to an increased risk for further social-emotional and cognitive development in infancy.

One of the leading researchers in this realm is Dr. Allan Schore, whose trilogy of Affect Regulation and the Origin of the Self: The Neurobiology of Emotional Development (1994), Affect Dysregulation and Disorders of the Self (2003), and Affect Regulation and the Repair of the Self (2003), are the best and most comprehensive books on early childhood development, how the brain develops, and how attachment patterns between infant and caregiver shape both of these.

Dr. Schore has received the 2013 Award for Outstanding Contributions to Practice in Trauma Psychology from Division 56 (Trauma Psychology) of the American Psychological Association. He has also been awarded Honorary Membership by the American Psychoanalytic Association for his outstanding contribution to psychoanalysis.
Anyway, the article below is interesting and important information. It's open access, but it's also quite long so I am only including the introductory material.

Full Citation:
Sidor, A, Fischer, C, Eickhorst, A, and Cierpka, M. (2013, Oct 12). Influence of early regulatory problems in infants on their development at 12 months: a longitudinal study in a high-risk sample. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 7:35 doi:10.1186/1753-2000-7-35

Influence of early regulatory problems in infants on their development at 12 months: a longitudinal study in a high-risk sample

Anna Sidor, Cristina Fischer, Andreas Eickhorst, and Manfred Cierpka
Author Affiliations

Abstract (provisional)

Background

This study examined the extent to which regulatory problems in infants at 4 and 6 months influence childhood development at 12 months. The second aim of the study was to examine the influence maternal distress has on 4-month-old children's subsequent development as well as gender differences with regard to regulatory problems and development.

Methods

153 mother-child dyads enrolled in the family support research project "Nobody slips through the net" constituted the comparison group. These families faced psychosocial risks (e.g. poverty, excessive demands on the mother, and mental health disorders of the mother, measured with the risk screening instrument Heidelberger Belastungsskala - HBS) and maternal stress, determined with the Parental Stress Index (PSI-SF). The children's developmental levels and possible early regulatory problems were evaluated by means of the Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQ) and a German questionnaire assessing problems of excessive crying along with sleeping and feeding difficulties (SFS).

Results

A statistically significant but only low, inverse association between excessive crying, whining and sleep problems at 4 and 6 months and the social development of one-year-olds (accounting for 5% and 8% of the variance respectively) was found. Feeding problems had no effect on development. Although regulatory problems in infants were accompanied by increased maternal stress level, these did not serve as a predictor of the child's social development at 12 months. One-year-old girls reached a higher level of development in social and fine motor skills. No gender differences were found with regard to regulatory problems, nor any moderating effect of gender on the relation between regulatory problems and level of development.

Conclusions

Our results reinforce existing knowledge pertaining to the transactional association between regulatory problems in infants, maternal distress and dysfunctionality of mother-child interactions. They also provide evidence of a slight but distinct negative influence of crying and sleeping problems on children's subsequent social development. Easily accessible support services provided by family health visitors (particularly to the so-called "at-risk families") are strongly recommended to help prevent the broadening of children's early regulatory problems into other areas of behavior.

Background

Early regulatory problems are understood as difficulties infants have in adjusting to the environment, regulating their behavior and arousal and in self-calming. These difficulties reveal themselves in symptoms characteristic of age and developmental stages such as crying or sleeping and feeding problems [1]. Crying in the first three months is regarded as the expression of the usual difficulty experienced in initial adjustment to childhood development [2]. However, according to the guidelines of the German Association for Child and Youth Psychiatry [3], excessive crying / whining beyond the first 3 to 4 months of life is seen as a regulatory problem in early infancy pertaining to interaction and regulatory contexts such as self-calming, sleeping and feeding. In such a case, the infant would fuss or cry inconsolably and to an excessive degree. The symptoms typically appear two weeks postnatal, peaking in the sixth week, and generally decreasing at the end of the third month [4,5]. As for the prevalence of excessive crying in the first three months, frequencies between 5 and 19% were determined [6]. Persistence of crying beyond the third month was reported in 5.8% of the cases and beyond the sixth month in 2.5% of them [7]. An estimated 5% of all excessive crying cases have organic causes, such as gastrointestinal problems (gastrointestinal reflux, colic), atopy or neuropediatric disorders [5].

Around the third month, most children's self-regulation abilities improve in a surge of development. Excessive crying can be replaced during the course of early childhood development by other symptoms (e.g. sleep disorders) [8]. A study by Kries and colleagues [7] showed that ongoing sleep and feeding problems among children who still cried excessively at 6 months had increased by a factor of 6 to 9.

As with increased crying, the temporary problems relating to the sleep-wake cycle represent normal postnatal adjustment difficulties. According to the guidelines for the diagnosis of regulatory disorders, non-organic sleep disorders are only diagnosed from the 6th month since the day-night and sleep-wake cycles are still establishing themselves in the first half of the first year of life [6]. In the second half of the first year (between the 7th and the 9th months), the so-called reorganisation processes set in, which lead to an accumulation of sleep problems involving waking and crying at night [9]. Characteristic problems include falling and/or staying asleep (generally accompanied by crying). Sleeping problems are seen as being related to parental support for falling (and re-falling) asleep: the children are unable to fall asleep on their own. The estimated prevalence of early sleeping disorders in the first two years of life ranges between 10 and 30% [6,10].

Feeding problems are also frequently temporary disorders that occur during weaning and introduction of puréed and solid food to the diet. According to the guidelines of the German Association for Child and Youth Psychiatry, a feeding disorder is said to be present when feeding is perceived by the parents as stressful, a meal requires more than 45 minutes and/or the interval between meals is less than 2 hours [3]. The parent–child interaction during feeding is also strained. Due to fear of malnutrition, parents put pressure on the child, contributing to the perpetuation of feeding problems. Since meals in such cases require a great deal of time, the child is fed very frequently, and even during sleep, which results in infants/toddlers lacking hunger as a motivation to eat [6]. Zero to Three [1], a diagnostic system that classifies psychopathological pictures in the first three years of life, distinguished six diagnostic subtypes of feeding disorders, defined by symptoms and clinical course: “feeding disorder of state regulation”, “feeding disorder of caregiver-infant reciprocity”, “infantile anorexia”, “sensory food aversion”, “posttraumatic feeding disorder” and “feeding disorder associated with a concurrent medical condition”.

The prevalence of mild to moderate feeding disorders in the first two years of life is estimated at approx. 15-25% and of serious disorders at 3-10% [11].

Regulatory problems and parental distress

Excessive crying that continues after the first 3 to 4 months and is often accompanied by sleep-wake-cycle disorders, presents a challenge. It puts a strain on parents and can be a risk factor for the child’s further development [12-14]. In families that are considered to be psychosocially at risk and with access to relatively few resources, early regulation disorders in the children can lead to an escalation and perpetuation of symptoms as well as persistence of regulatory problems in other areas [4]. Von Hofacker and colleagues [3,9] were able to show that the relationship between parents and infant can be seriously influenced by persistent problems coupled with psychosocial pressures. The authors associate “regulatory problems” in early infancy with a triad of symptoms consisting of (1) the influence of the child’s behavior regulation, (2) the occurrence of dysfunctional interaction patterns between the infant and care-giver and (3) parents’ mental and physical stress levels, which are often linked to a current or chronic sleep deprivation. The most significant risk factor comes from interruption of sleep at night owing to irregular childhood sleeping, waking and eating cycles [15-18]. In particular, persistent crying and sleep problems in early infancy affect both the well-being of parents and the relationship between parents and infant [9]. The inability to settle their children and the feelings of helplessness, chronic fatigue, loss of self-confidence and excessive demands cause fears of failure and self-doubt among mothers and fathers with respect to their parental role [19]. Definitions of parental exhaustion vary between extreme fatigue caused by several sleepless nights, which can be remedied by making up for lost sleep, and exhaustion characterised by the fact that it persists even when there is full compensation for the lack of sleep [17]. Since childhood development takes place within the context of a relationship, both difficulties and problems in the relationship as well as the state of the attachment figure can have an effect on development, especially social-emotional development. Salomonsson and Sleed [20] found a strong association between maternal distress and the socio-emotional development of children in the first 16 months of life.

Influence of regulatory problems on childhood development

Regulatory problems that persist longer than the first 3 to 4 months, present an unfavorable factor for further childhood development. The persistence and “broadening” of the child’s regulatory problems into other areas of behavior contribute to an increased risk for further social-emotional and cognitive development in infancy. With regard to later behavioral problems in children, there are various findings. According to the meta-analysis conducted by Hemmi and colleagues [21], persistent excessive crying has the greatest effect on subsequent symptoms: on externalized problems (d = 0.51) and internalized problems (d = 0.50) and on ADHD (d = 0.42). Feeding problems (d = 0.21) and multiple regulatory disorders (d = 0.45) were only held in connection with general behavioral problems. Infant sleeping problems in this study had only a small influence on internalized disorders (d = 0.24) and general behavioral disorders (d = 0.42), while the effect for ADHD was great (d = 1.30).

Wurmser and colleagues [8] reported that infants who had received a diagnosis of excessive crying were also judged to be temperamentally “more challenging” at 30 months in comparison to other children. In addition, a greater frequency of both externalizing and internalizing disorders were found in mid-childhood among children who had cried excessively as babies. Desantis and colleagues [22] found an association between duration of whining and unease in the first weeks of life, emotional reactivity and externalizing disorders from the ages of 3 to 8.

In a study by Schmid and colleagues [13], persistent multiple regulatory disorders (increased crying, sleeping and feeding problems in the 5th month) were a predictor of adjustment difficulties and a negative predictor of social skills for pre-school children (56 months). However, this association applied only to boys. The results of the Mannheim Child Risk Study [23] point to an overall more favorable prognosis for an isolated regulatory problem: the behavioral problems rate in later childhood was only slightly higher than among children from the control group. Children with multiple regulatory disorders showed significantly higher rates of subsequent disorders, both internalizing and externalizing. These multiple regulatory disorders nevertheless played a minor role in comparison to the psychosocial pressures on the families involved in the study: the highest rate of mental abnormalities was found among children who had suffered multiple regulatory disorders as infants and who were also subject to high psychosocial risks.

With regard to the long-term effects of early regulatory problems on cognitive development, there is only limited evidence to date and the studies that have been carried out thus far have shown only small or very small effects. Rao and colleagues [12] found a comparatively low cognitive performance (IQ recorded with WPPSI-R) in areas of verbal communication and interaction among five-year-old children with a history of prolonged excessive crying as babies. These children also scored less on fine motor skill development in comparison to other children of the same age. Increased crying only in the first 12 weeks, on the other hand, had no effect on cognitive development.

Wolke and colleagues [14] reported a lower level of development among 20-month-old infants who at the age of 5 months had been diagnosed with multiple regulatory disorders, in comparison to other infants. This association was more pronounced among boys (small effect) than among girls (very small effect) but was significant for both genders. Among 56-month-old girls, a direct inverse association was found between early regulatory problems and cognitive development. In boys, multiple regulatory problems predicted lower mental development at 20 months. The negative influence of early regulatory problems on cognitive development was nevertheless very small. In another study [22], an association was found between duration of whining and unease during the first 12 weeks and sensory perception/stimulus processing at 3 to 8 years old, but no effects of excessive crying were observed.

The etiological mechanisms involved in the long-term effects of early regulatory problems on subsequent emotional and cognitive development in children remain unclear. Excessive crying beyond 3 months is regarded as an indicator of dysfunctional regulatory capacities and potentially low behavioral inhibition, and as an overall predictor of subsequent behavioral abnormalities. It is suspected that ineffective regulatory mechanisms, stimulus hypersensitivity and deficits in behavior regulation play distinct roles in the formation of regulatory disorders (see overview in [21]).

The present study involved children raised in high-risk families, and thus more vulnerable to further stressors and maladaptive outcomes (i.e. [24]). Laucht and colleagues (2004) found the highest rate of mental problems among children who had suffered multiple regulatory disorders as infants; they were also found to be susceptible to high psychosocial risks [23].

Study aims and hypothesis

This study investigates how and to what extent regulatory problems in 4- and 6-month-old infants affect the children's development at 12 months. Given the limited evidence in the literature, we hypothesize a week association. A differential influence on various aspects of infant’s development, such as motor skills, problem-solving skills and social development is also investigated. On the basis of previous findings, regulatory disorders in the first six months are expected to be associated with a lower level of childhood development at one year. Compared to previous studies [12,14], which used only one measure of cognitive development or general development, the strength of this study is that it seeks to investigate different facets of infant development in the context of regulatory disorders. Due to the paucity of evidence in the literature, the differential influence among the developmental scales is investigated only exploratively.

In addition, given the slight gender-based differences in the link between regulatory disorders and developmental levels [14], we expect to observe a more pronounced association in boys. Based on other findings [20], we expect, also, to see a link between maternal distress during the children’s 4th month and their subsequent social development at 12 months. On the basis of the concept of “triad of symptoms” [3,9], we anticipate an association between regulatory problems in infants, maternal distress and dysfunctionality of mother-child interaction.

As the children involved in our study are raised in high-risk families, we seek to investigate to what extent the occurrence of psychosocial risks, such as poverty or low maternal education levels, have an additional effect on the child`s development. If any evidence of a negative impact of early regulatory problems on a child’s development could be found around the infant's first birthday, it would emphasize the importance of early preventive measures in the first year of the child`s life, particularly for those in high-risk families. The present study builds uniquely upon previous research by examining different facets of infant development in the context of regulatory disorders in a group of younger children raised in high-risk families up to the age of 12 months.

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