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Pain is influenced by biological, social, emotional and cognitive factors. Emotions are not simply a consequence of pain but rather a fundamental part of the pain experience. In addition, the social context cannot be isolated when constructing the meaning of the child’s pain, and in understanding the influence of mother-child interactions on children’s physiology. This research consists of two studies, study one investigated the relationship between anxiety, depression and physical functioning in children and adolescents experiencing chronic pain. The participants were 73 childen and adolescents who were referred to either the Children’s Pain Management Clinic at the Royal Children’s Hospital or the Sydney Westmead Children’s Hospital aged between 7-18 years old. The results indicated that these young people were reporting anxiety and depression within the normal range with significant anxiety and depression levels both below prevalent rates found in the normal population. Furthermore, depression but not anxiety was associated with increasing leves of physical disablity in children and adolescents. This led to the investigation of the relationship between maternal emotions on children and adolescents’ anxiety, depression, somatic symptoms and physical functioing in children and adolescents experiencing chronic pain. Study two investigated the association of maternal and child emotions in children and adolescents with chronic pain. Participants included 62 mothers and 62 children and adolescents between the ages of 7-18 years (M=13). Mothers’ emotional distress (empathy, emotional involvement, and distress) was examined as a significant factor to be associated with children’s pain sensitive temperament and functional outcomes (anxiety, depression, somatisation, and physical functioning). Children’s perceptual sensitivity and avoidance of sensation, which are components of children’s pain sensitive temperament, were investigated in relation to children’s ability to regulate emotions. The association between maternal and child emotional regulation and children’s functional outcomes was also explored. Mothers completed questionnaires assessing children’s somatisation, their own difficulties with having a child with persisting pain and an empathy scale. Mothers also completed a semi-structured interview by Katz and Gottman (1991) the Meta-Emotion Interview which discusses mothers’ awareness of their own and their child’s emotions, mothers acceptance of their own and their child’s emotions, the regulation of their own and their child’s emotions and coaching of their child’s emotions. Children and adolescents completed quesionnaires measuring anxiety, depression, emotional involvement, somatisation and pain sensitive temperament. The results indicated low maternal emotional regulation was significantly associated with children's depression, anxiety and somatisation scores, whilst children’s emotional regulation was associated with children’s anxiety and depression, but not with somatisation scores. Maternal emotional distress was associated with children's pain sensitive temperament, emotional distress and reduced physical functioning. Furthermore, emotional regulation in children was associated with children's pain sensitive temperaments. It is proposed that young people with chronic pain may have a biological vulnerability to respond to stress and traumatic events as pain, and pain related symptoms. This biological sensitivity may be associated with children’s threshold of pain, whereby children’s perceptual sensitivity may be associated with reporting of somatic complaints. Thus, maternal emotions and social factors may be associated with children’s somatosensory processing and the chronic pain experience.

Individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) experience severe and pervasive disturbances in the development of attachment relationships, identity, and emotion regulation. Given these deficits, mothers diagnosed with BPD are likely to experience significant difficulties in parenting their children. The present study examined the effect of maternal BPD and borderline personality features on emotional availability in interactions between mothers with BPD and their 4- to 7-year-old children. In a low socioeconomic status (SES) sample of n = 35 children of mothers diagnosed with BPD and n = 35 normative comparisons, groups were compared on maternal and child emotional availability, and self-reported maternal borderline personality features were assessed across the sample as a whole. No significant differences in emotional availability were found between groups. Across the sample as whole, however, maternal borderline personality features of affective instability, identity disturbance, negative relationships, and self-harm were significantly correlated with maternal intrusiveness and maternal hostility. Maternal borderline personality features of affective instability and negative relationships were significantly associated with maternal sensitivity, child responsiveness, and child involvement. Results are discussed in terms of putative precursors to BPD and preventive interventions.

CoordenaÃÃo de AperfeiÃoamento de Pessoal de NÃvel Superior / Como toda crise de desenvolvimento, a gravidez desequilibra o ciclo de vida do indivÃduo. Para a mulher portadora de HIV/aids, a este desequilÃbrio da geraÃÃo de um filho acrescentam-se as especificidades da soropositividade. Dessa forma, vÃrios podem ser os fatores que influenciam a relaÃÃo entre mÃe HIV positiva e seu filho. Por ser a comunicaÃÃo nÃo-verbal o tipo de linguagem predominante na relaÃÃo entre mÃe e filho, a presente pesquisa objetivou analisar a comunicaÃÃo nÃo-verbal mÃe-filho na vigÃncia do HIV materno em ambiente experimental. Estudo descritivo-explorÃtorio desenvolvido com cinco binÃmios cuja mÃe era sabidamente HIV positivo, em ambiente simulado no LaboratÃrio de ComunicaÃÃo em SaÃde, localizado no Departamento de Enfermagem, no segundo semestre de 2007. Utilizou-se a filmagem como recurso de coleta de dados. Cada mÃe foi filmada uma Ãnica vez, no desenvolvimento dos cinco principais cuidados maternos: troca de roupa, banho, alimentar, ninar e brincar. A cada trinta segundos, os vÃdeos foram analisados por dois juÃzes, os quais preenchiam roteiro de observaÃÃo baseado em aspectos referentes à comunicaÃÃo nÃo-verbal e à teoria do Apego. Os dados foram analisados mediante utilizaÃÃo de testes estatÃsticos apropriados e as anÃlises foram confrontadas com a histÃria de vida do binÃmio. Foram observados alguns fatores ligados à soropositividade que influenciaram a comunicaÃÃo nÃo-verbal entre mÃe e filho, a saber: o diagnÃstico recente de soropositividade, a discriminaÃÃo sofrida por portar o HIV, o medo de repreensÃo no cuidado ao filho e o desejo de cuidar do seu bebà cujo diagnÃstico ainda à incerto, valendo-se de outros estÃmulos nÃo-verbais para suprir a falta do contato da crianÃa ao seio. Como se percebe, a filmagem em ambiente simulado provavelmente influenciou o comportamento materno no cuidado ao filho. Quanto à comunicaÃÃo nÃo-verbal durante os cuidados maternos foi verificado que o brincar à a atividade de maior interaÃÃo entre mÃe e filho. Nesta atividade predomina a variedade de signos comunicativos, principalmente iniciados pela mÃe, como forma de estimular o filho pequeno no desenvolvimento de habilidade e de avaliÃ-lo com vistas a detectar precocemente qualquer anormalidade que poderia sugerir soropositividade ao HIV. / Like all development crisis, pregnancy provokes an unbalance in a personâs life cycle. For an HIV-positive woman, specific aspects of seropositivity add to the unbalance caused by the birth of a child. Thus, there are many factors affecting the relationship between an HIV-positive mother and her child. Non-verbal communication may be the predominant means of communication in mother-child interaction. This study aims at analyzing non-verbal mother-child communication in HIV maternal presence in an experimental environment. Itâs a descriptive- investigative study, developed with five binomials of HIV- positive mothers and it was carried out at the Nursery Department of the Laboratory of Health Communication during the second semester of 2007. Videotaping was used as the main data collection resource. Each mother was videotaped once, performing the five main maternal activities: dressing and undressing the child, bathing, playing, feeding and lulling. Videos were analyzed by two evaluators every thirty seconds, completing an observation plan form based on aspects related to non-verbal communication and the attachment theory. Data was analyzed with adequate statistical tests. Analysis was confronted with each binomialâs life history. Some aspects related to seropositivity that affected mother-child non-verbal communication were observed, such as recent seropositivity diagnosis, discrimination suffered due to being HIV-positive, scolding freight in child care and the desire of looking after the child whose diagnosis is still uncertain using other non-verbal stimuli to compensate for the childâs lack of contact with the motherâs breast. Videotaping in a simulated environment may have affected mother behavior during child care. As for non-verbal communication during child care, it was verified that playing is the most interactive mother-child activity, in which various communicative signs, mainly started by the mother, are predominant as a means to stimulate the small child in skill development and to evaluate him/her for early detection of any abnormality that might suggest HIV seropositivity.

Past research has focused extensively on the influence of temperament and mother-child interactions for the development of psychopathology. However, there is a paucity of research that has examined the role of natural variations in temperament and mother-child interactions on socioemotional outcome in samples of low-risk typically developing children. Furthermore, most research has investigated temperament and mother-child interactions in separate studies. Accordingly, the present work addressed three issues: 1) the short-term and long-term continuity of temperament and joint attention in typically developing children; 2) the predictive value of temperament and joint attention for socioemotional outcome in typically developing children; and 3) joint attention behaviours in a clinical sample of children. Temperament was assessed through maternal report on the Infant Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ) beginning when children were between 18 and 3 7 months of age while joint attention was assessed through direct observation. All the IBQ subscales showed 9-month continuity and 4 of the 6 IBQ subscales showed moderate to high stability. Although there was 9-month continuity for all the joint attention measures, only 4 out of the 7 joint attention behaviors showed low to moderate levels of stability. There was little 4-year continuity or stability of temperament. Cross-sectional relations were found between temperament and socioemotional outcome at both 18 and 37 months of age as well as 69 and 88 months of age. Established joint attention, measured when children were between 18 and 37 months of age, significantly predicted internalizing behaviours in typically developing children between the ages of 69 and 88 months. Significant differences in joint attention were also found in a clinical sample of children with internalizing disorders between the ages of 5 and 8 years. The present results suggest that some ofthe same temperament and joint attention behaviours that are associated with atypical development are also associated with typical variations in socioemotional development. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>Scholars and laypersons are increasingly concerned about the marketing of inappropriate adult fashions directly to <em>tweens</em>, children between the ages of eight and thirteen. Using a symbolic interactionist approach, I consider strategies used to market tween fashion images, and their influence on tween self-image and mother-child relationships.</p> <p>Through content analysis of images in two magazines, <em>Today's Parent</em> and <em>Tiger Beat</em>, I establish that contradictions exist between traditional images of childhood as a time of innocence, and more recent adult or sexualized images of tweenhood; that both these types of representations are gendered; and that both reinforce gender roles in childhood and tweenhood alike.</p> <p>Through qualitative interviews with mothers and tweens, I explore the meanings they associate with tween fashion and their influence on tween self-image. Both mothers and tweens are somewhat influenced by marketing strategies that use brands, logos and celebrity role models to market tween fashion. However, mothers use maternal "gatekeeping" strategies such as solo shopping, and control of financial resources, to mitigate the influence of fashion marketing on their tweens, and to avoid disagreements with their children over potentially inappropriate fashion styles.</p> <p>Tweens themselves actively filter corporate messages based on their own internalized gendered meanings learned through socialization. The opinions of their mothers, primarily, and their peers, influence their assessments of clothing as appropriate or inappropriate, regardless of marketing strategies. Notably, tween girls use internalized gendered meanings to differentiate between fashions that convey a "good girl" image or a "trampy" image, reproducing patriarchal versions of women as madonnas or whores, even at this age. Despite moral panics, a symbolic interactionist approach inspired by the principles of the new sociology of childhood, privileges tweens' voices and reveals them to be embedded within social networks that temper the influence of tween fashion.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Researchers have long argued the importance of shared book reading and its potential impact on future reading growth. With the increasing popularity of e-books and the introduction of interactive iPad books, more and more parents are sharing books with their children in digital format. This may have a direct impact on the nature of the interactions that occur during young children's early book sharing experiences. This multiple-case study examined the nature of the interactions between six mother-child dyads as they read a story on an iPad compared with the interactions that happened during a traditional book reading. A coding system was developed to categorize behaviors during the reading sessions. The categories included (a) meaning talk, (b) text and print talk, (c) technology talk, and (d) the nature of the affective climate.The results of this study indicate that mother-child traditional read-alouds and digital iPad read-alouds are different experiences. During digital readings there was an increase in the number of vocabulary-related (a subcategory of meaning) interactions but a decrease in the number of interactions related to text and print. The results also showed that as the dyad shared a digital storybook, they engaged in many interactions about the technological elements of the iPad texts, which may be important to the development of digital literacies in young children. The findings also indicate that a child is more engaged with digital texts than with traditional texts, which is important because engagement is an essential component in literacy development. However, sometimes the child's increased engagement with the digital texts resulted in both members of the dyad being less sensitive to the other. Digital storybook reading is a relatively new experience for many parents and thus, they may not know how to interact with their children in ways that promote the development of traditional and digital literacies.

Little is known about how maternal positive affect (PA) relates to maternal patterns of emotion socialization about positive emotions. The current study examined the hypothesis that mothers’ self-reported PA, independent of their negative affect (NA), is associated with increased and more appropriate modeling of verbal and nonverbal expressions of positive emotions in mothers. I examined associations between self-reported maternal PA and behaviors during video-taped discussions of times when the mothers and children were happy in 53 healthy mother-child dyads. These tapes were coded using standard observational coding schemes. Results suggest that mothers with higher ratings of PA, independent of NA, positively predicted levels of observed maternal positive involvement and communication while reminiscing. Maternal PA was unrelated to observed dyadic mutual enjoyment, positive emotion words and teaching during mother-child reminiscing. Results add to the existing literature on positive psychology in important ways. Theoretical implications for understanding positive emotions are discussed.

It is well documented that exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) negatively affects children’s developmental outcomes (Chan & Yeung, 2009; Evans, Davies & DiLillo, 2008) and may lead to the expression of symptomatology consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Graham-Bermann, De Voe, Mattis, Lynch & Thomas, 2006; Kilpatrick & Williams,1998). Currently there is no consensus as to the nature of the influence of mother-child relationships on child outcomes such as post-traumatic stress symptoms in IPV-exposed families. The present study examined the role of maternal influences, such as the quality of mother-child interaction, maternal depression, and maternal violence history on sibling trauma outcomes. Results indicated that increased maternal depressive symptoms, maternal violence history, and negative mother-child interactions did not significantly predict post-traumatic stress symptoms in siblings exposed to IPV. Findings provided support for the notion of maternal compensatory strategies used to protect siblings from the detrimental consequences of IPV exposure.

It is well documented that exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) negatively affects children’s developmental outcomes (Chan & Yeung, 2009; Evans, Davies & DiLillo, 2008) and may lead to the expression of symptomatology consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Graham-Bermann, De Voe, Mattis, Lynch & Thomas, 2006; Kilpatrick & Williams,1998). Currently there is no consensus as to the nature of the influence of mother-child relationships on child outcomes such as post-traumatic stress symptoms in IPV-exposed families. The present study examined the role of maternal influences, such as the quality of mother-child interaction, maternal depression, and maternal violence history on sibling trauma outcomes. Results indicated that increased maternal depressive symptoms, maternal violence history, and negative mother-child interactions did not significantly predict post-traumatic stress symptoms in siblings exposed to IPV. Findings provided support for the notion of maternal compensatory strategies used to protect siblings from the detrimental consequences of IPV exposure.