Project Summary/Abstract
Symptoms of maternal postpartum depression are common, particularly for Black mothers who may face
increased risk during the perinatal period. Previous work has demonstrated that postpartum depression can
have significant ramifications not only for maternal wellbeing but for infants’ regulatory development. Maternal
depression may influence mother-infant coregulatory interactions, or how mothers and infants reciprocally
influence one another’s affect, emotion, and physiology. In particular, the parent-child coregulation of
physiological activity (i.e., physiological synchrony or the matching of biological states) is a critical process in
the development of children’s self-regulation. Physiological synchrony between parents and infants may be a
mechanism through which postpartum depression undermines infants’ emerging regulatory capacities. The
current proposal aims to (i) determine the consequences of maternal postpartum depressive symptoms for
mother-infant physiological synchrony and infant regulatory capacity, (ii) evaluate the role of mother-infant
physiological synchrony in shaping infant regulatory capacity, and (iii) evaluate the moderating role of culturally
salient risk and resiliency factors (i.e., racial discrimination and collective coping) in shaping physiological
synchrony and infant regulatory capacity. To address these aims, the proposed study will draw a subset of
data (N = 120) from a larger, prospective longitudinal study of Black mother-infant dyads (N = 350). Maternal
self-report of collective coping will be measured in the third trimester. Maternal self-reports of depression and
racial discrimination experiences, as well as mother-infant physiological data, will be collected at 6 months
infant age. Observational measures of infant regulatory capacity will be collected at 12 months infant age.
Postpartum depressive symptoms are hypothesized to predict lower mother-infant physiological synchrony and
infant regulatory capacity. Decreased synchrony is also expected to predict lower infant regulatory capacity.
Discrimination is expected to increase risk for low physiological synchrony and low infant regulatory capacity in
the context of maternal depression, while the use of collective coping strategies is expected to mitigate risk.
The results of this study will help to delineate the developmental sequela of postpartum depression for Black
mothers and infants and identify relevant risk and protective factors that may serve as important targets for
intervention. This research will also contribute to understandings of the intergenerational transmission of racial
health disparities and help to leverage parent-child relationships as a buffer against psychosocial stress in
Black families. The conceptual, quantitative, and professional training opportunities outlined in the fellowship
training plan, in addition to collaboration with renowned experts in psychophysiology, statistical analysis, and
cultural processes, will support the success of the current proposal.
