Select Publications, Annotated

Safyer, P., Volling, B. L., Bader, L. R., Gonzalez, R., McDonough, S., &

Vazquez, D. (Under Review). At face value: Developmental trajectories of emotion regulation in the Face-to-Face Still-Face Paradigm in the first year of infancy. Child Development. 

​

• Summary: Infant regulatory strategies during the Face-to-Face Still-Face Paradigm (FFSF) were examined at 3 and 7 months as precursors to the development of infant-mother attachment security. Person-centered analyses were conducted to identify individual differences in infant negative and positive affect trajectories across the three episodes (free play, still face, reengagement) of the FFSF. Four classes were found at both 3 and 7 months, however, class membership at neither time point predicted infant-mother attachment security at 14 months. 

​​

• Impact: The current study extended prior research on infant emotion regulation in the FFSF by examining both infant positive and negative affect in combination to create regulatory profiles, and then predict infant-mother attachment security at the end of the first year.​​

​​

• Responsibilities: Utilizing secondary data I designed and conceptualized this study and data analytic approach, ultimately using latent profile analysis to highlight group trajectories and repeated measures ANOVA to examine mean differences. 

Safyer, P., Volling, B. L., Hu, S. X. Wagley, N., Swain, J., Arredondo, M. M, &

Kovelman, I. (2020). More than meets the eye: The neural development of emotion face processing during infancy. Infant Behavior and Development, 59, 10143.

​

• Summary: This study explored the impact of infant temperament and maternal stress on the development of the infant medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) among sixteen 6-8-month-old infants. Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to measure activation of the infant mPFC in response to angry, happy, and sad faces. Mother-infant dysfunctional interaction was related to increased mPFC activation associated with happy faces, supporting the “novelty hypothesis”, in which the mPFC responds more strongly to unique experiences.

​

• Impact: This study provides additional evidence that infant temperament and the quality of the mother-infant relationship influence the development of the mPFC and how infants process emotions. Similar models could be used to examine the impact of abuse, neglect, and trauma on the infant brain.

​​​​

• Responsibilities: I designed this study, recruited participants, collected the data, and took the lead on the analyses which used multiple regression to identify significant predictors of brain activation. I was also the lead author of this manuscript. ​​

Safyer, P., Volling, B.L., Schultheiss, O.C., Tolman, R.M. (2019). Adult

attachment, implicit motives and mothers’ and fathers’ parenting behaviors. Motivation Science, 5, 220-234.

​

• Summary: This study investigated connections between implicit motives of power and affiliation, adult attachment styles, and parenting behaviors using self-report and observational data from 191 mothers, fathers, and their 12-month-old infants. An interaction between avoidant attachment and nAffiliation indicated that implicit affiliation motives predicted positive maternal behaviors, but only for highly avoidant mothers. For fathers, lower attachment anxiety and nPower were associated with positive parenting behaviors, whereas high levels of attachment anxiety and nPower were associated with negative parenting behaviors. Attachment styles of avoidance and anxiety, as well as implicit motives of power and affiliation, were unique predictors of parenting behaviors.

​​

• Impact: Overall, the findings provide evidence that multiple cognitive schemas influence parenting practices in the first year of infancy.

​​

• Responsibilities: This study used secondary data and I took the lead on the analyses and writing of the manuscript. Multiple regression and simple slopes analysis was used to probe connections between constructs. ​

Volling B.L., Stevenson, M. M., Safyer, P., Gonzalez, R., & Lee, J. (2019).

In Search of Father-Infant Activation Relationship: Variable-Centered versus Person-Centered Analytic Approaches. In Volling, B.L., & Cabrera, N.J. Advancing research and measurement on fathering and child development. Monographs of the Society for Research on Child Development, 84, 50-63.

​

• Summary: The current study explored whether fathers and mothers from 195 two-parent U.S. families engaged in a form of activation parenting (i.e., sensitivity, cognitive stimulation, and moderate intrusiveness) with their second born, and to determine if this type of interaction was more common among fathers. Latent Profile Analyses revealed similar supportive, disengaged, and activation parenting profiles for fathers and mothers, with more fathers in the activation class.

​

• Impact: This article contributes to research on father–child relationships by advancing theory and presenting varied methods and analysis strategies that assist in understanding the father–child relationship and its impact on child development.

​​​

• Responsibilities: For this study, I assisted with the data analyses which centered on using latent profile analysis to create groups of parenting behaviors. I also collaborated on the writing of the manuscript.​

Reed, L. A., Tolman, R. M., Ward, L. M. & Safyer, P. (2016). Keeping tabs:

Attachment anxiety and electronic intrusion behaviors in high school dating relationships. Computers in Human Behavior, 58, 259-268.

​

• Summary: Social media have become significant contexts for dating relationships among high school students. These media may put teens at risk for problematic digital dating behaviors. This study sought to replicate and expand on research with college students to examine the association between attachment insecurity and electronic intrusion in high school dating relationships. A survey study of 703 high school girls and boys found that higher levels of attachment anxiety were associated with more frequent perpetration of EI for both girls and boys.

 

• Impact: For anxiously attached teens, social media may create a “cycle of anxiety” in which social media serve as both a trigger for relationship anxiety and a tool for partner surveillance in an attempt to alleviate anxiety.

​​​

• Responsibilities: I aided in the theoretical conceptualization and writing of this manuscript. ​

Reed, L. A., Tolman, R. M., & Safyer, P. (2015). Too close for comfort: The

role of attachment insecurity in intrusive digital media behaviors in dating relationships among college students. Computers in Human Behavior, 50, 431-438.

​

• Summary: Social media has become an important context for dating relationships among young adults. This study sought to explore how the ubiquitous and public nature of social media may interact with college students’ individual characteristics to contribute to intrusiveness and invasion of privacy in dating relationships. A survey of 307 college students asked participants about their adult romantic attachment style and engagement in "electronic intrusion" (EI). Results showed that level of attachment anxiety was positively associated with EI for women and men, and level of avoidance was negatively associated with EI for women.

​

• Impact: Results suggest that attachment style influences intrusive electronic dating behaviors, and social media may increase risk for anxiously attached college students to engage in EI for anxiety relief.

​​​

• Responsibilities: I aided in the theoretical conceptualization and writing of this manuscript.​

Rescorla, L., & Safyer, P. (2013). Lexical development in children with

Autism Spectrum Disorders. Journal of Child Language, 40, 47-68.

​

• Summary: The current study examined the composition of lexicons for a sample of sixty-seven children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The central question investigated was how similar in composition the lexicons of the ASD children were in comparison to lexicons reported for typically developing young children. This central question relates to the broader issue of whether children with ASD are ‘deviant’ in their lexical development or merely just ‘delayed’.

​

• Impact: Results indicated that the children with ASD were acquiring essentially the same words as typically developing children, suggesting delayed but not deviant lexical composition.

​​​

• Responsibilities: I collected the data for this study and assisted in data analyses and writing of the manuscript.​