Children born very prematurely have a higher risk of cognitive delays and affective and relational developmental difficulties (Allotey et al., 2018; Arpi & Ferrari, 2013). Such results have sparked significant interest in attachment-related research in order to understand and improve socio-emotional outcomes. When gestational age is extremely low, attachment relationships at two years may be less secure and more often disorganized in that insecure category (López-Maestro et al., 2017; Wolke et al., 2014). However, the mediating role of parental psychological distress in this context is still not fully understood. Moreover, current research has almost exclusively considered attachment behaviors in children younger than two years old and rarely looks beyond this age (Akkus et al., 2021; Hallin et al., 2012; López-Maestro et al., 2017). This thesis, which is at the crossroads of medicine and psychology, attempts to describe the attachment representation of children born extremely or very preterm at the age of 3 and to determine the mediating role of parenting stress.

This study includes the validated French version of the attachment story stem procedure and Q-sort Miljkovitch et al. (2003) to evaluate child attachment representations at age 3. The Parenting Stress Index (Abidin, 1995) is used to apprehend the mother’s perception of stress, and parents complete the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (Squires et al., 1997) to evaluate children’s communication, gross motor, fine motor, problem-solving, and personal-social skills. In total, 44 mother-child dyads (born < 28.6 weeks) participated in our study. Our results showed that children had less secure, more avoidant, and disorganized attachment representations than a reference population. In this presentation, we look at developmental outcomes and parenting stress. We discuss the limitations of evaluating attachment in this context. This research advances our understanding of parental psychological well-being and child socio-emotional development following very preterm birth.

Objective

Previous studies show that parental presence may buffer a child stress hormone response in stressful situations (Hostinar et al., 2015) and improve performance in emotional go/no-go tasks in children aged 4 to 10 years old but not in adolescents (Gee et al., 2014). However, there is still limited evidence on the parental presence influences on self-regulation at different ages and populations. We examined child performance in the emotional go/no-go task under two conditions: parent vs. stranger present, at 9.5 years of age.

Methods

The study is pre-registered (osf.io/cdnh7). The participants (N = 315, 49% girls, mean age=9.6±0.10 years) were a subsample of Finnish children participating in an ongoing data collection (aiming for N = 500 by May 2025) of the FinnBrain Study (www.finnbrain.fi). Parental presence effects were examined by emotional go/no-go task as previously described in Gee et al. (2014) using emotional (fearful, angry, happy and neutral) face stimuli. The parent vs. stranger conditions were presented in a randomized order. We used mixed models controlling for emotion and block type (go/no-go) effects to examine the condition differences in reaction times, false alarm rates and hit accuracy, with reaction time findings available by submission.

Results

In the available subsample with all experiments, children showed faster reaction times (improved performance) in the parent vs. stranger condition (Estimate = 4.91[95%CI 0.80,1.01], p = .013). However, when only children with >70% hit accuracy were included, this difference disappeared (Estimate = .86[5.54,-1.83], p = .32). The complete results including covariates will be presented.

Conclusion

Preliminary findings suggest that parental presence may improve child performance in emotional go/no-go task even at 9.5 years of age, but the effects may depend on the child’s performance accuracy. Combined with previous evidence, the findings indicate a dimensional change in dependency on parental regulation assistance over the middle childhood.

According to the theoretically innovative and integrative framework proposed by the Domains of Socialization Approach (Grusec & Davidov, 2010), socialization occurs within five different domains. The domains encompass the protection domain, in which the parent adopts a protective role; the reciprocity domain, characterized by the establishment of positive interactions and relationships between the parent and child; the control domain, in which the parent uses their position of authority as a figure of power to try to regulate the child's behavior; the guided learning domain, wherein the parent facilitates the development of skills and values by offering guidance and support; and finally, the group participation domain, through which the parent assists the child in engaging with the rituals, routines, and traditions of their cultural or community context. These domains arise to address evolutionary demands, are activated under specific conditions, and are characterized by unique objectives, processes, and outcomes. However, so far, there are relatively limited studies that qualitatively examine the mother-child relationship in a domain-specific manner. Such an examination has not been conducted for the relationships of gifted children and their mothers. This study will utilize the Domains of Socialization Approach to explore the parenting behaviors of mothers with gifted children for the first time. This qualitative study investigates mothers' parenting behaviors that respond to their children's needs in five different areas using vignettes. As a result, interviews with 75 mothers of gifted children aged 45-74 months were analyzed using deductive content analysis, identifying mothers' behaviors towards the needs of their children across five areas. The findings are organized in a table with frequencies, percentages, and participant discourses. This study offers a detailed examination of how the socialization approach is represented within parent-child interactions in daily life.

Parental Burnout (PB) is an exhaustion syndrome resulting from chronic stress exposure in the parental role. While research has revealed a causal link between PB and violence, not every burned-out parent is violent, suggesting that moderating variables play a role. While recent studies have explored the parent’s characteristics, the moderating potential of the child’s characteristics has not yet been investigated. Since the child’s temperament is linked to both stress in the parental role and violence, it represents a promising candidate for investigation. This study examines the role of child temperament traits as potential buffers or aggravators of violence in Belgian families using a cross-sectional design. Data were drawn from the 3.1 study of the International Investigation of Parental Burnout (IIPB) database. In a sample of N = 572 families with an only child under or equal to 8 years of age, Surgency/Extraversion was examined as a buffering variable, Negative Emotionality as an aggravating variable, and Effortful Control was investigated in an exploratory analysis. Additionally, the impact of temperament similarity or dissimilarity among siblings on violence was assessed in an independent sample of N = 510 families with two children. Findings emphasize the importance of considering the child’s characteristics in the study of parental burnout and violence. Implications for future research and clinical practice are discussed.

In recent years, large language model (LLM)-driven generative artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly become a globally recognized application tool. While literature supports the positive role of AI in training social skills for children with special needs, its application in special education remains primarily focused on assessment and diagnosis, with concrete methods for training the abilities of special children needing further development. The transition to primary education is a challenging period for young children as they must adapt to new social environments, learning styles, and daily routines. Tailored and individualized transition services will aid in the adaptation of special needs children, enhancing parental confidence and support, and creating a better learning starting point for them. AI can meet the individualized and highly interactive demands of the transition process. During the transition process, children with special needs need to learn social skills such as sharing, cooperation, and conflict resolution, which are crucial for their future learning and life. Therefore, the transition should not only prepare for learning but also promote children's social and emotional skills, helping them establish friendships and collaborate effectively. Considering the unique needs of each child, the transition process must be individually tailored. Thus, this project focuses on developing an AI system to train parents to support special needs children in their preparation for the social-emotional aspects of the transition to primary education. Preliminary findings of this study support the efficacy of the AI parent training system. However, limitations will also be discussed.