Ed Tronick
Biographic Data
| ID | 1464562 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ed Tronick |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ed |
| FAMILY NAME | Tronick |
| SIGNATURE | TRONICK E |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Massachusetts Boston |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 58 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 18 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1989 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Practitioner Review
Attachment theory, with its core concepts, perspectives, and insights developed over the past five decades, is influential for professionals working with young children. However, practitioners face challenges translating attachment theory and research into practical applications. This manifests in attachment myths, theoretical misinterpretations, and inconsistency of application. This state‐of‐the‐art review is authored by 47 attachment researche…
Infants show negative changes in affect and physiology when re‐experiencing a stressor, its context, and a positive event 24‐h later
Exposure to early life stress shapes further development, affects later stress reactivity, and mental health outcomes. Despite the central role of early experiences, there is little understanding of how these rapidly forgotten events gain their influence. An infant's ability to cope with everyday stressors is founded on successful co‐regulation through mother‐infant interaction. A significant disruption of this interaction through the Face‐to‐Fac…
Trauma Never Occurs Only Once
It is argued that the lack of a normal developmental perspective along with a dominant psychopathological perspective framing our thinking about trauma limits our understanding of trauma, the value of trauma theory, and trauma informed practices. A developmental perspective sees dysfunction emerging from chronic repeated experiences and processes, primarily external interpersonal relational experiences and internal somatic and brain – neurosomati…
The Repetition of the Quotidian
The commentaries by Foehl and Altman bring up many issues. Foehl emphasizes that the micro-temporal analysis needs to mooded to capture aspects of an exchange which it misses. It is an important emendation, or better said a needed addition. Altman argues that my work does not full consider the interweaving of culture into the individual or the dyad. Although I feel my work deeply considers how development is a culturated process, Altman is correc…
Acute Maternal Stress Disrupts Infant Regulation of the Autonomic Nervous System and Behavior
Exposure to maternal stress is assumed to influence infant health and development across the lifespan. The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is especially sensitive to the effects of the early caregiving environment and linked to predictors of later mental health. Understanding how exposure to maternal stress adversely affects the developing ANS could inform prevention. However, there is no agreed upon definition of maternal stress making its study …
The long shadow of violence
Early exposure to adversities, such as witnessing intimate partner violence (IPV) can have long‐lasting impact on infants behavioral, emotional, and neurological development. Yet, research so far has focused on how IPV affects the well‐being of women or on the retrospective effects in older children. The first 2 years of life are characterized by rapid development of brain and behavior, making infants even more vulnerable than women or older chil…
The power of disconnection during the Covid-19 emergency
The coronavirus disease 2019 represents an unprecedented threat to human health worldwide. In the absence of a specific available cure for this disease, countries are adopting mitigation strategies that largely depend on physical distancing, with a dramatic restriction of social contacts. Whereas the psychological burden related to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic is starting to be well characterized by population-based surveys, we would lik…
Associations Between Early Maternal Depressive Symptom Trajectories and Toddlers’ Felt Security at 18 Months
The goal of this study was to evaluate whether there are sex differences in children's vulnerability to caregiving risk, as indexed by trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms assessed from 2 to 18 months’ postpartum, and children's rated attachment security in toddlerhood, adjusting for maternal social support and demographic risk. Analyses utilized longitudinal data collected for 182 African American mother–child dyads from economically div…
Evaluating the Nature of the Still‐Face Effect in the Double Face‐to‐Face Still‐Face Paradigm Using Different Comparison Groups
The current study explored two possible comparison groups for the double Face‐to‐Face Still‐Face ( FFSF ) paradigm to evaluate their effects on infant behavior and different hypotheses about the nature of the Still‐Face ( SF ) effect, an effect not fully understood. Mothers and their 4‐month‐old infants were randomly assigned to one of three groups, a double FFSF group (Group FFSF , n = 44), a control, semi‐structured play group (Group Story , n …
Infants’ early visual attention and social engagement as developmental precursors to joint attention
This study examined infants' early visual attention (at 1 month of age) and social engagement (4 months) as predictors of their later joint attention (12 and 18 months). The sample (n = 325), drawn from the Maternal Lifestyle Study, a longitudinal multicenter project conducted at 4 centers of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Neonatal Research Network, included high-risk (cocaine-exposed) and matched noncocaine-exposed …
Infants, mothers, and dyadic contributions to stability and prediction of social stress response at 6 months
The study of infants' interactive style and social stress response to repeated stress exposures is of great interest for developmental and clinical psychologists. Stable maternal and dyadic behavior is critical to sustain infants' development of an adaptive social stress response, but the association between infants' interactive style and social stress response has received scant attention in previous literature. In the present article, overtime …
Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health
Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health
Rates and Predictors of Postpartum Depression by Race and Ethnicity
Do Patient Characteristics, Prenatal Care Setting, and Method of Payment Matter When it Comes to Provider-Patient Conversations on Perinatal Mood
The Noise Monitor”
This paper discusses a contribution of developmental theory to the psychoanalytic concept of “the talking cure.” The developmental theory presented is the dyadic expansion of consciousness model (Tronick 2007), a model consistent with the principles of nonlinear systems theory. The concept of “polysemic bundles” as a way of understanding the multiple simultaneous meaning-making processes occurring in dyadic communication is introduced. The theore…
Infants' meaning-making and the development of mental health problems
We argue that infant meaning-making processes are a central mechanism governing both typical and pathological outcomes. Infants, as open dynamic systems, must constantly garner information to increase their complexity and coherence. They fulfill this demand by making nonverbal "meaning"-affects, movements, representations-about themselves in relation to the world and themselves into a "biopsychosocial state of consciousness," which shapes their o…
When Infants Lose Exclusive Maternal Attention
To characterize infant reactions to jealousy evocation, 94 6‐month‐olds and their mothers were videotaped in an episode where the mothers directed positive attention toward a lifelike doll, and in 2 contrasting interactions: face‐to‐face play and a still‐face perturbation. Cross‐context comparisons of affects and behaviors revealed that jealousy evocation responses were distinguished by diminished joy and heightened anger and intensity of negativ…
The Caretaker‐Child Strategic Model
Infants' meaning-making and the development of mental health problems
We argue that infant meaning-making processes are a central mechanism governing both typical and pathological outcomes. Infants, as open dynamic systems, must constantly garner information to increase their complexity and coherence. They fulfill this demand by making nonverbal "meaning"-affects, movements, representations-about themselves in relation to the world and themselves into a "biopsychosocial state of consciousness," which shapes their o…
The Noise Monitor”
This paper discusses a contribution of developmental theory to the psychoanalytic concept of “the talking cure.” The developmental theory presented is the dyadic expansion of consciousness model (Tronick 2007), a model consistent with the principles of nonlinear systems theory. The concept of “polysemic bundles” as a way of understanding the multiple simultaneous meaning-making processes occurring in dyadic communication is introduced. The theore…
Associations Between Early Maternal Depressive Symptom Trajectories and Toddlers’ Felt Security at 18 Months
The goal of this study was to evaluate whether there are sex differences in children's vulnerability to caregiving risk, as indexed by trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms assessed from 2 to 18 months’ postpartum, and children's rated attachment security in toddlerhood, adjusting for maternal social support and demographic risk. Analyses utilized longitudinal data collected for 182 African American mother–child dyads from economically div…
Infants’ early visual attention and social engagement as developmental precursors to joint attention
This study examined infants' early visual attention (at 1 month of age) and social engagement (4 months) as predictors of their later joint attention (12 and 18 months). The sample (n = 325), drawn from the Maternal Lifestyle Study, a longitudinal multicenter project conducted at 4 centers of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Neonatal Research Network, included high-risk (cocaine-exposed) and matched noncocaine-exposed …
The Caretaker‐Child Strategic Model
Infants, mothers, and dyadic contributions to stability and prediction of social stress response at 6 months
The study of infants' interactive style and social stress response to repeated stress exposures is of great interest for developmental and clinical psychologists. Stable maternal and dyadic behavior is critical to sustain infants' development of an adaptive social stress response, but the association between infants' interactive style and social stress response has received scant attention in previous literature. In the present article, overtime …
The Caretaker‐Child Strategic Model
When Infants Lose Exclusive Maternal Attention
To characterize infant reactions to jealousy evocation, 94 6‐month‐olds and their mothers were videotaped in an episode where the mothers directed positive attention toward a lifelike doll, and in 2 contrasting interactions: face‐to‐face play and a still‐face perturbation. Cross‐context comparisons of affects and behaviors revealed that jealousy evocation responses were distinguished by diminished joy and heightened anger and intensity of negativ…
Infants' meaning-making and the development of mental health problems
We argue that infant meaning-making processes are a central mechanism governing both typical and pathological outcomes. Infants, as open dynamic systems, must constantly garner information to increase their complexity and coherence. They fulfill this demand by making nonverbal "meaning"-affects, movements, representations-about themselves in relation to the world and themselves into a "biopsychosocial state of consciousness," which shapes their o…
Do Patient Characteristics, Prenatal Care Setting, and Method of Payment Matter When it Comes to Provider-Patient Conversations on Perinatal Mood
The Noise Monitor”
This paper discusses a contribution of developmental theory to the psychoanalytic concept of “the talking cure.” The developmental theory presented is the dyadic expansion of consciousness model (Tronick 2007), a model consistent with the principles of nonlinear systems theory. The concept of “polysemic bundles” as a way of understanding the multiple simultaneous meaning-making processes occurring in dyadic communication is introduced. The theore…
Rates and Predictors of Postpartum Depression by Race and Ethnicity
Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health
Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health
Evaluating the Nature of the Still‐Face Effect in the Double Face‐to‐Face Still‐Face Paradigm Using Different Comparison Groups
The current study explored two possible comparison groups for the double Face‐to‐Face Still‐Face ( FFSF ) paradigm to evaluate their effects on infant behavior and different hypotheses about the nature of the Still‐Face ( SF ) effect, an effect not fully understood. Mothers and their 4‐month‐old infants were randomly assigned to one of three groups, a double FFSF group (Group FFSF , n = 44), a control, semi‐structured play group (Group Story , n …
Infants’ early visual attention and social engagement as developmental precursors to joint attention
This study examined infants' early visual attention (at 1 month of age) and social engagement (4 months) as predictors of their later joint attention (12 and 18 months). The sample (n = 325), drawn from the Maternal Lifestyle Study, a longitudinal multicenter project conducted at 4 centers of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Neonatal Research Network, included high-risk (cocaine-exposed) and matched noncocaine-exposed …
Infants, mothers, and dyadic contributions to stability and prediction of social stress response at 6 months
The study of infants' interactive style and social stress response to repeated stress exposures is of great interest for developmental and clinical psychologists. Stable maternal and dyadic behavior is critical to sustain infants' development of an adaptive social stress response, but the association between infants' interactive style and social stress response has received scant attention in previous literature. In the present article, overtime …
Associations Between Early Maternal Depressive Symptom Trajectories and Toddlers’ Felt Security at 18 Months
The goal of this study was to evaluate whether there are sex differences in children's vulnerability to caregiving risk, as indexed by trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms assessed from 2 to 18 months’ postpartum, and children's rated attachment security in toddlerhood, adjusting for maternal social support and demographic risk. Analyses utilized longitudinal data collected for 182 African American mother–child dyads from economically div…
The long shadow of violence
Early exposure to adversities, such as witnessing intimate partner violence (IPV) can have long‐lasting impact on infants behavioral, emotional, and neurological development. Yet, research so far has focused on how IPV affects the well‐being of women or on the retrospective effects in older children. The first 2 years of life are characterized by rapid development of brain and behavior, making infants even more vulnerable than women or older chil…
The power of disconnection during the Covid-19 emergency
The coronavirus disease 2019 represents an unprecedented threat to human health worldwide. In the absence of a specific available cure for this disease, countries are adopting mitigation strategies that largely depend on physical distancing, with a dramatic restriction of social contacts. Whereas the psychological burden related to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic is starting to be well characterized by population-based surveys, we would lik…
Acute Maternal Stress Disrupts Infant Regulation of the Autonomic Nervous System and Behavior
Exposure to maternal stress is assumed to influence infant health and development across the lifespan. The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is especially sensitive to the effects of the early caregiving environment and linked to predictors of later mental health. Understanding how exposure to maternal stress adversely affects the developing ANS could inform prevention. However, there is no agreed upon definition of maternal stress making its study …
Trauma Never Occurs Only Once
It is argued that the lack of a normal developmental perspective along with a dominant psychopathological perspective framing our thinking about trauma limits our understanding of trauma, the value of trauma theory, and trauma informed practices. A developmental perspective sees dysfunction emerging from chronic repeated experiences and processes, primarily external interpersonal relational experiences and internal somatic and brain – neurosomati…
The Repetition of the Quotidian
The commentaries by Foehl and Altman bring up many issues. Foehl emphasizes that the micro-temporal analysis needs to mooded to capture aspects of an exchange which it misses. It is an important emendation, or better said a needed addition. Altman argues that my work does not full consider the interweaving of culture into the individual or the dyad. Although I feel my work deeply considers how development is a culturated process, Altman is correc…
Infants show negative changes in affect and physiology when re‐experiencing a stressor, its context, and a positive event 24‐h later
Exposure to early life stress shapes further development, affects later stress reactivity, and mental health outcomes. Despite the central role of early experiences, there is little understanding of how these rapidly forgotten events gain their influence. An infant's ability to cope with everyday stressors is founded on successful co‐regulation through mother‐infant interaction. A significant disruption of this interaction through the Face‐to‐Fac…
Practitioner Review
Attachment theory, with its core concepts, perspectives, and insights developed over the past five decades, is influential for professionals working with young children. However, practitioners face challenges translating attachment theory and research into practical applications. This manifests in attachment myths, theoretical misinterpretations, and inconsistency of application. This state‐of‐the‐art review is authored by 47 attachment researche…
Psychology (14 works) · Developmental psychology (9 works) · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics (6 works) · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development (6 works) · Medicine (6 works) · Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum (5 works) · Psychiatry (5 works) · Psychoanalysis (5 works) · Social Psychology (4 works) · Child and Animal Learning Development (3 works)