W Roger Mills‐koonce
Biographic Data
| ID | 139533 |
|---|---|
| NAME | W Roger Mills‐koonce |
| GIVEN NAMES | W Roger |
| FAMILY NAME | Mills‐koonce |
| SIGNATURE | KOONCE W R M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9923-1831 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 40 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 193 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 40 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Prenatal Sleep Quality, Neonatal Brain Volume, and Infant Emotion at 6 Months of Age
Although pregnancy‐related sleep disturbances are known to affect maternal health and fetal development, only recently have studies focused on the impact of maternal sleep quality on fetal brain development and infant social‐emotional outcomes. The present study expands upon this work and examines associations between prenatal sleep, brain regions implicated in emotional regulation and psychopathology (hippocampus and amygdala), and infant negati…
Affirmative Parenting of Sexual and Gender Diverse Youth: Findings From an Exploratory Qualitative Study
Sexual and gender diverse youth (SGDY) face higher rates of internalizing problems than their heterosexual and cisgender peers. Positive parent–child relationships are a central influence on the development of youth internalizing problems. Yet supportive parenting of SGDY is vastly understudied. Scholars have emphasized the need for improved measures of parenting SGDY, especially in terms of identity‐specific parental support. In this qualitative…
Infant 6‐Month Psychophysiology During Interaction With Mother Is Differentiated by 12‐Month Attachment Quality
Infant–mother attachment relationships play a crucial role in shaping children's psychological and physiological well‐being. This study examined whether attachment quality at 12 months is associated with infant psychophysiological responses to mild stress at 6 months. Participants were 222 ethnically and socioeconomically diverse mother–infant dyads followed from the third trimester of pregnancy through the infant's first year. At 6 months, dyads…
Allostatic Load in Childhood, Adolescence, and Young Adulthood: Are Assumptions of Measurement Invariance Warranted
OVERVIEW: Allostatic load represents the cumulative toll of chronic mobilization of the body's stress response systems, as indexed by biomarkers. Higher levels of stress and disadvantage predict higher levels of allostatic load, which, in turn, predict poorer physical and mental health outcomes. To maximize the efficacy of prevention efforts, screening for stress- and disadvantage-associated health conditions must occur before middle age-that is,…
An Examination of the Relations Between Effortful Control in Early Childhood and Risk for Later Externalizing Psychopathology: A Bi-factor Structural Equation Modeling Approach
Awareness and equity of behavioral sacrifice and same‐sex relationship quality: Heterosexist discrimination as a distal predictor
Heterosexist discrimination and relational sacrifice of same‐sex couples
Drawing on the family stress process model and using data from 141 same‐sex couples ( N = 282 partners), we examined associations between heterosexist discrimination and relational sacrifices (i.e., willingness and behaviors). We also examined the moderating roles of both partners' internalized homophobia and state‐level liberalism on same‐sex marriage legalization. Actor‐partner interdependence moderation models were conducted. Most of our findi…
Profiles of family-based social experiences in the first 3 years predict early cognitive, behavioral, and socioemotional competencies
This study utilized latent profile analyses to identify unique configurations of children's family-based social experiences during the first 3 years of life and examine differences across profiles with respect to developmental outcomes at 36 and 48 months of age. Seven family process variables were used: maternal emotional functioning, maternal sensitivity, negative controlling parenting, cognitive stimulation, corporal punishment, adult-adult ag…
Sexual Minority Stressors and Intimate Partner Violence Among Same-Sex Couples: Commitment as a Resource
Internalized Homophobia and Relationship Quality among Same-Sex Couples: The Mediating Role of Intimate Partner Violence
Based on a geographically and socioeconomically diverse sample of 144 same-sex couples and using a dyadic approach (i.e., the Actor-Partner Interdependence Mediation Model [APIMeM] with interchangeable dyads), this study examined the association between internalized homophobia and same-sex relationship quality, and also tested the potential mediating role of intimate partner violence perpetration in this association. Results indicated that indivi…
Maternal and Paternal Attachment Style and Chaos as Risk Factors for Parenting Behavior
Objective and Background Household chaos and insecure parental attachment styles are associated with lower quality parenting behaviors. However, there is a paucity of evidence regarding fathers' parenting behaviors, and no studies examine whether chaotic home environments moderate the attachment style–parenting behavior relationship. Method Using data from both mothers and fathers of 742 children (40.5% African American) living in rural, low‐reso…
Poverty, caregiving, and HPA-axis activity in early childhood
The Significance of Parenting and Parent–Child Relationships for Sexual and Gender Minority Adolescents
Adolescents in 21st century America are experiencing the emergence of their sexual and gender identities in a heteronormative society that is steadily adopting more progressive views and policies related to sexual orientation and gender. However, despite these sociocultural changes, parent–child relationships remain as one of the strongest predictors of LGBT adolescent adjustment. This article reviews the extant literature on this topic from fami…
Otitis media and respiratory sinus arrhythmia across infancy and early childhood: Polyvagal processes
Otitis media (OM)-or middle-ear inflammation-is the most widely diagnosed childhood illness, with evidence implicating OM in a range of distal problems (e.g., language delays, attention problems). Polyvagal theory (Porges, 1995, 2007) posits that there also are likely important connections between middle-ear functioning and children's developing parasympathetic nervous systems (PNS). Using prospective longitudinal data from the Family Life Projec…
Mother–child role confusion, child adjustment problems, and the moderating roles of child temperament and sex
Role confusion is a deviation in the parent-child relationship such that a parent looks to a child to meet the parent's emotional needs and abdicates, in part, the parental role in exchange for care, intimacy, or peer support from the child. In addition, a child may initiate role-confused behavior in order to gain closeness to a parent who is otherwise preoccupied by his or her own needs. The current study examined associations between mother-chi…
The Interaction Between Child Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia and Early Sensitive Parenting in the Prediction of Children's Executive Functions
This study investigated the interaction between children's parasympathetic functioning and maternal sensitive parenting behaviors during infancy and toddlerhood in the prediction of children's executive functions ( EF ) at the age of 5 years. Participants included 137 children and their mothers who were followed from the age of 3 months to 5 years. Children's cardiac activity was recorded at rest at multiple times from ages 3 to 36 months, and es…
Emotion Recognition Deficits among Children with Conduct Problems and Callous-Unemotional Behaviors
Sexual Minority Stress and Same‐Sex Relationship Well‐being: A Meta‐analysis of Research Prior to the U.S. Nationwide Legalization of Same‐Sex Marriage
Meta‐analytic methods were used to analyze 179 effect sizes retrieved from 32 research reports on the implications that sexual minority stress may have for same‐sex relationship well‐being. Sexual minority stress (aggregated across different types of stress) is moderately and negatively associated with same‐sex relationship well‐being (aggregated across different dimensions of relationship well‐being). Internalized homophobia is significantly and…
Intimate Partner Violence and Children's Attachment Representations During Middle Childhood
Despite long-standing hypotheses that intimate partner violence (IPV) may undermine children's ability to form secure attachment representations, few studies have empirically investigated this association. Particularly lacking is research that examines IPV and attachment during middle childhood, a time when the way that children understand, represent, and process the behavior of others becomes particularly important. Using data from a sample of A…
Identity Transformation During the Transition to Parenthood Among Same‐Sex Couples: An Ecological, Stress‐Strategy‐Adaptation Perspective
This article reviews the current research on the potential stressors associated with identity transformation experienced by same-sex couples during the transition to parenthood and the coping strategies they employ. By integrating disparate findings into an ecological, stress-strategy-adaptation framework, we demonstrate that the identity transformation experiences among same-sex couples during the transition to parenthood (a) involve various ada…
Maternal Childhood Sexual Trauma, Child Directed Aggression, Parenting Behavior, and the Moderating Role of Child Sex
Maternal Childhood Sexual Trauma and Child Conduct Problems
Sociodemographic risk, parenting, and executive functions in early childhood: The role of ethnicity
Psychobiological influences on maternal sensitivity in the context of adversity
This study evaluated prospective longitudinal relations among an index of poverty-related cumulative risk, maternal salivary cortisol, child negative affect, and maternal sensitivity across the first 2 postpartum years. Participants included 1,180 biological mothers residing in rural and predominantly low-income communities in the United States. Multilevel growth curve analyses indicated that an index of cumulative risk was positively associated …
Household chaos and children’s cognitive and socio-emotional development in early childhood: Does childcare play a buffering role
The effects of socioeconomic status, race, and parenting on language development in early childhood
The authors examined the associations between socioeconomic status (SES), race, maternal sensitivity, and maternal negative-intrusive behaviors and language development in a sample selected to reduce the typical confound between race and SES (n = 146). Mother-child interactions were observed at 12 and 24 months (coded by randomly assigned African American and European American coders); language abilities were assessed at 18, 24, 30, and 36 months…
Sexual Minority Stress and Same‐Sex Relationship Well‐being: A Meta‐analysis of Research Prior to the U.S. Nationwide Legalization of Same‐Sex Marriage
Meta‐analytic methods were used to analyze 179 effect sizes retrieved from 32 research reports on the implications that sexual minority stress may have for same‐sex relationship well‐being. Sexual minority stress (aggregated across different types of stress) is moderately and negatively associated with same‐sex relationship well‐being (aggregated across different dimensions of relationship well‐being). Internalized homophobia is significantly and…
Chaos, poverty, and parenting: Predictors of early language development
Household chaos and children’s cognitive and socio-emotional development in early childhood: Does childcare play a buffering role
Maternal and child contributions to cortisol response to emotional arousal in young children from low-income, rural communities
Relations of maternal and child characteristics to child cortisol reactivity to and recovery from emotional arousal were examined prospectively at approximately 7 months of age (infancy) and then again at approximately 15 months of age (toddlerhood). The sample was diverse and population based (N = 1,292 mother-infant dyads) and included families from predominantly low-income, rural communities. Maternal behavior, family income-to-need ratio and …
Father contributions to cortisol responses in infancy and toddlerhood
The current study is one of the first prospective examinations of longitudinal associations between observed father caregiving behaviors and child cortisol reactivity and regulation in response to emotional arousal. Observations of father and mother caregiving behaviors and child cortisol levels in response to challenges at 7 months and 24 months of child age were collected. Analyses were based on a subsample of children from the Family Life Proj…
Early Environmental Correlates of Maternal Emotion Talk
OBJECTIVE: The primary goal of this study was to examine contextual, child, and maternal factors that are associated with mothers' early emotion talk in an ethnically diverse, low-income sample. DESIGN: Emotion talk (positive and negative labels) was coded for 1111 mothers while engaged with their 7-month-olds in viewing an emotion-faces picture book. Infant attention during the interaction was also coded. Mothers' parenting style (positive engag…
Internalized Homophobia and Relationship Quality among Same-Sex Couples: The Mediating Role of Intimate Partner Violence
Based on a geographically and socioeconomically diverse sample of 144 same-sex couples and using a dyadic approach (i.e., the Actor-Partner Interdependence Mediation Model [APIMeM] with interchangeable dyads), this study examined the association between internalized homophobia and same-sex relationship quality, and also tested the potential mediating role of intimate partner violence perpetration in this association. Results indicated that indivi…
Identity Transformation During the Transition to Parenthood Among Same‐Sex Couples: An Ecological, Stress‐Strategy‐Adaptation Perspective
This article reviews the current research on the potential stressors associated with identity transformation experienced by same-sex couples during the transition to parenthood and the coping strategies they employ. By integrating disparate findings into an ecological, stress-strategy-adaptation framework, we demonstrate that the identity transformation experiences among same-sex couples during the transition to parenthood (a) involve various ada…
Child care and cortisol across early childhood: Context matters
A considerable body of literature suggests that children's child-care experiences may impact adrenocortical functioning in early childhood. Yet emerging findings also suggest that the magnitude and sometimes the direction of child-care effects on development may be markedly different for children from higher risk contexts. Using data from a large population-based sample of families from predominantly low-income backgrounds in rural communities, w…
Fathers' Early Emotion Talk: Associations With Income, Ethnicity, and Family Factors
Contextual, mother-, child-, and father-level variables were examined in association with fathers' emotion talk to infants during a shared picture book activity, in an ethnically diverse, low-income sample (N = 549). Significant main effects included the rate of emotion talk from fathers' romantic partners (i.e., the infant's mother), infant attention and distress, and sensitive parenting. Significant interactions were also found. Higher income A…
Adult attachment style and stress as risk factors for early maternal sensitivity and negativity
The current study examined the individual and joint effects of self‐reported adult attachment style, psychological distress, and parenting stress on maternal caregiving behaviors at 6 and 12 months of child age. We proposed a diathesis‐stress model to examine the potential deleterious effects of stress for mothers with insecure adult attachment styles. Data from 137 mothers were gathered by the longitudinal Durham Child Health and Development Stu…
Profiles of family-based social experiences in the first 3 years predict early cognitive, behavioral, and socioemotional competencies
This study utilized latent profile analyses to identify unique configurations of children's family-based social experiences during the first 3 years of life and examine differences across profiles with respect to developmental outcomes at 36 and 48 months of age. Seven family process variables were used: maternal emotional functioning, maternal sensitivity, negative controlling parenting, cognitive stimulation, corporal punishment, adult-adult ag…
Mother–child role confusion, child adjustment problems, and the moderating roles of child temperament and sex
Role confusion is a deviation in the parent-child relationship such that a parent looks to a child to meet the parent's emotional needs and abdicates, in part, the parental role in exchange for care, intimacy, or peer support from the child. In addition, a child may initiate role-confused behavior in order to gain closeness to a parent who is otherwise preoccupied by his or her own needs. The current study examined associations between mother-chi…
Intimate Partner Violence and Children's Attachment Representations During Middle Childhood
Despite long-standing hypotheses that intimate partner violence (IPV) may undermine children's ability to form secure attachment representations, few studies have empirically investigated this association. Particularly lacking is research that examines IPV and attachment during middle childhood, a time when the way that children understand, represent, and process the behavior of others becomes particularly important. Using data from a sample of A…
Sociodemographic risk, parenting, and executive functions in early childhood: The role of ethnicity
Parenting and children’s representations of family predict disruptive and callous-unemotional behaviors
Data from a large prospective longitudinal study (n = 1,239) was used to investigate the association between observed sensitive parenting in early childhood and children's representations of family relationships as measured by the Family Drawing Paradigm (FDP) in first grade as well as the extent to which these representations partially mediate the influences of early caregiving experiences on later conduct problems and callous-unemotional behavi…
Emotional reactivity and parenting sensitivity interact to predict cortisol output in toddlers
Cortisol output in response to emotion induction procedures was examined at child age 24 months in a prospective longitudinal sample of 1,292 children and families in predominantly low-income and nonurban communities in two regions of high poverty in the United States. Multilevel analysis indicated that observed emotional reactivity to a mask presentation but not a toy removal procedure interacted with sensitive parenting to predict cortisol leve…
Family Violence and Children’s Behavior Problems: Independent Contributions of Intimate Partner and Child-Directed Physical Aggression
Psychobiological influences on maternal sensitivity in the context of adversity
This study evaluated prospective longitudinal relations among an index of poverty-related cumulative risk, maternal salivary cortisol, child negative affect, and maternal sensitivity across the first 2 postpartum years. Participants included 1,180 biological mothers residing in rural and predominantly low-income communities in the United States. Multilevel growth curve analyses indicated that an index of cumulative risk was positively associated …
Sexual Minority Stressors and Intimate Partner Violence Among Same-Sex Couples: Commitment as a Resource
Emotion Recognition Deficits among Children with Conduct Problems and Callous-Unemotional Behaviors
Infant and parent factors associated with early maternal sensitivity: A caregiver-attachment systems approach
Early Environmental Correlates of Maternal Emotion Talk
OBJECTIVE: The primary goal of this study was to examine contextual, child, and maternal factors that are associated with mothers' early emotion talk in an ethnically diverse, low-income sample. DESIGN: Emotion talk (positive and negative labels) was coded for 1111 mothers while engaged with their 7-month-olds in viewing an emotion-faces picture book. Infant attention during the interaction was also coded. Mothers' parenting style (positive engag…
Maternal and child contributions to cortisol response to emotional arousal in young children from low-income, rural communities
Relations of maternal and child characteristics to child cortisol reactivity to and recovery from emotional arousal were examined prospectively at approximately 7 months of age (infancy) and then again at approximately 15 months of age (toddlerhood). The sample was diverse and population based (N = 1,292 mother-infant dyads) and included families from predominantly low-income, rural communities. Maternal behavior, family income-to-need ratio and …
The effects of socioeconomic status, race, and parenting on language development in early childhood
The authors examined the associations between socioeconomic status (SES), race, maternal sensitivity, and maternal negative-intrusive behaviors and language development in a sample selected to reduce the typical confound between race and SES (n = 146). Mother-child interactions were observed at 12 and 24 months (coded by randomly assigned African American and European American coders); language abilities were assessed at 18, 24, 30, and 36 months…
Salivary Cortisol Mediates Effects of Poverty and Parenting on Executive Functions in Early Childhood
In a predominantly low-income population-based longitudinal sample of 1,292 children followed from birth, higher level of salivary cortisol assessed at ages 7, 15, and 24 months was uniquely associated with lower executive function ability and to a lesser extent IQ at age 3 years. Measures of positive and negative aspects of parenting and household risk were also uniquely related to both executive functions and IQ. The effect of positive parentin…
Chaos, poverty, and parenting: Predictors of early language development
Adult attachment style and stress as risk factors for early maternal sensitivity and negativity
The current study examined the individual and joint effects of self‐reported adult attachment style, psychological distress, and parenting stress on maternal caregiving behaviors at 6 and 12 months of child age. We proposed a diathesis‐stress model to examine the potential deleterious effects of stress for mothers with insecure adult attachment styles. Data from 137 mothers were gathered by the longitudinal Durham Child Health and Development Stu…
Father contributions to cortisol responses in infancy and toddlerhood
The current study is one of the first prospective examinations of longitudinal associations between observed father caregiving behaviors and child cortisol reactivity and regulation in response to emotional arousal. Observations of father and mother caregiving behaviors and child cortisol levels in response to challenges at 7 months and 24 months of child age were collected. Analyses were based on a subsample of children from the Family Life Proj…
Fathers' Early Emotion Talk: Associations With Income, Ethnicity, and Family Factors
Contextual, mother-, child-, and father-level variables were examined in association with fathers' emotion talk to infants during a shared picture book activity, in an ethnically diverse, low-income sample (N = 549). Significant main effects included the rate of emotion talk from fathers' romantic partners (i.e., the infant's mother), infant attention and distress, and sensitive parenting. Significant interactions were also found. Higher income A…
The family model stress and maternal psychological symptoms: Mediated pathways from economic hardship to parenting.
Although much of the extant research on low-income families has targeted parental depression as the predominant psychological response to economic hardship, the current study examined a range of maternal psychological symptoms that may mediate the relations between early economic pressure and later parenting behaviors. A family stress model was examined using data from 1,142 mothers living in 2 areas of high rural poverty, focusing on the infancy…
Trajectories of intrusive parenting during infancy and toddlerhood as predictors of rural, low‐income African American boys' school‐related outcomes
Stability and change in maternal intrusiveness during early childhood is rarely explored, particularly within African American families. The current study examined the prediction of maternal intrusiveness during the first 3 years of life among mothers of rural, low-income African American boys and its relation to school-related outcomes. Observations of mothers (N = 230) interacting with children at 6, 24, and 36 months were coded and analyzed. P…
Family Violence and Children’s Behavior Problems: Independent Contributions of Intimate Partner and Child-Directed Physical Aggression
Child care and cortisol across early childhood: Context matters
A considerable body of literature suggests that children's child-care experiences may impact adrenocortical functioning in early childhood. Yet emerging findings also suggest that the magnitude and sometimes the direction of child-care effects on development may be markedly different for children from higher risk contexts. Using data from a large population-based sample of families from predominantly low-income backgrounds in rural communities, w…
Household chaos and children’s cognitive and socio-emotional development in early childhood: Does childcare play a buffering role
Parenting and children’s representations of family predict disruptive and callous-unemotional behaviors
Data from a large prospective longitudinal study (n = 1,239) was used to investigate the association between observed sensitive parenting in early childhood and children's representations of family relationships as measured by the Family Drawing Paradigm (FDP) in first grade as well as the extent to which these representations partially mediate the influences of early caregiving experiences on later conduct problems and callous-unemotional behavi…
Emotional reactivity and parenting sensitivity interact to predict cortisol output in toddlers
Cortisol output in response to emotion induction procedures was examined at child age 24 months in a prospective longitudinal sample of 1,292 children and families in predominantly low-income and nonurban communities in two regions of high poverty in the United States. Multilevel analysis indicated that observed emotional reactivity to a mask presentation but not a toy removal procedure interacted with sensitive parenting to predict cortisol leve…
Identity Transformation During the Transition to Parenthood Among Same‐Sex Couples: An Ecological, Stress‐Strategy‐Adaptation Perspective
This article reviews the current research on the potential stressors associated with identity transformation experienced by same-sex couples during the transition to parenthood and the coping strategies they employ. By integrating disparate findings into an ecological, stress-strategy-adaptation framework, we demonstrate that the identity transformation experiences among same-sex couples during the transition to parenthood (a) involve various ada…
Maternal Childhood Sexual Trauma, Child Directed Aggression, Parenting Behavior, and the Moderating Role of Child Sex
Maternal Childhood Sexual Trauma and Child Conduct Problems
Sociodemographic risk, parenting, and executive functions in early childhood: The role of ethnicity
Psychobiological influences on maternal sensitivity in the context of adversity
This study evaluated prospective longitudinal relations among an index of poverty-related cumulative risk, maternal salivary cortisol, child negative affect, and maternal sensitivity across the first 2 postpartum years. Participants included 1,180 biological mothers residing in rural and predominantly low-income communities in the United States. Multilevel growth curve analyses indicated that an index of cumulative risk was positively associated …
The Interaction Between Child Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia and Early Sensitive Parenting in the Prediction of Children's Executive Functions
This study investigated the interaction between children's parasympathetic functioning and maternal sensitive parenting behaviors during infancy and toddlerhood in the prediction of children's executive functions ( EF ) at the age of 5 years. Participants included 137 children and their mothers who were followed from the age of 3 months to 5 years. Children's cardiac activity was recorded at rest at multiple times from ages 3 to 36 months, and es…
Emotion Recognition Deficits among Children with Conduct Problems and Callous-Unemotional Behaviors
Sexual Minority Stress and Same‐Sex Relationship Well‐being: A Meta‐analysis of Research Prior to the U.S. Nationwide Legalization of Same‐Sex Marriage
Meta‐analytic methods were used to analyze 179 effect sizes retrieved from 32 research reports on the implications that sexual minority stress may have for same‐sex relationship well‐being. Sexual minority stress (aggregated across different types of stress) is moderately and negatively associated with same‐sex relationship well‐being (aggregated across different dimensions of relationship well‐being). Internalized homophobia is significantly and…
Intimate Partner Violence and Children's Attachment Representations During Middle Childhood
Despite long-standing hypotheses that intimate partner violence (IPV) may undermine children's ability to form secure attachment representations, few studies have empirically investigated this association. Particularly lacking is research that examines IPV and attachment during middle childhood, a time when the way that children understand, represent, and process the behavior of others becomes particularly important. Using data from a sample of A…
Psychology (37 works) · Developmental psychology (35 works) · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development (23 works) · Clinical Psychology (18 works) · Medicine (16 works) · Social Psychology (14 works) · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics (13 works) · Early Childhood Education and Development (13 works) · Clinical Psychology (12 works) · Demography (10 works)