Erika L Bocknek
Biographic Data
| ID | 5764336 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Erika L Bocknek |
| GIVEN NAMES | Erika L |
| FAMILY NAME | Bocknek |
| SIGNATURE | BOCKNEK E L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Wayne State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7205-0125 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 59 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
A Thematic Analysis of Low-Income African American Fathers’ Meta-Emotion Interview Responses
This study explored African American fathers’ beliefs about and experiences with their own and their children’s negative emotions. Participants included 58 African American fathers in the Midwestern region of the United States between the ages of 29 and 40 ( M age = 30.94). Participants completed the Meta-Emotion Interview, a semi-structured interview of parents’ and their children’s negative emotion. A theoretical thematic analysis of participan…
Coming Together Educationally Creates a Bond Like No Other: Exploring How Families Engage in Black History Home Learning
Black home learning environments during the COVID-19 pandemic may have played a significant role in children's learning. We piloted Brilliant Joy in a Box, caregiver-child Black history home learning boxes, with a sample of 100 families in a predominantly Black, midwestern city. Families received boxes for six months and completed whole family activities during virtual "unboxings." In the current study, we explored caregivers' ( n = 57) open-ende…
Call to action: Centering blackness and disrupting systemic racism in infant mental health research and academic publishing
The Infant Mental Health Journal is committed to ending systemic racism and promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in academic publishing. IMHJ unequivocally denounces all forms of racism and white supremacy, including systemic racism in academic publishing. We commit to investigating and working to terminate the ways in which systemic racism has become normalized in academic publishing, including examining our practices and processes at IMHJ…
Adaptive Parenting Among Low-Income Black Mothers and Toddlers’ Regulation of Distress
Parenting differs in purpose and strategy according to cultural background (Brooks-Gunn & Markman, 2005; Iruka, LaForett, & Odom, 2012). The current study tests a unique latent factor score, Adaptive Parenting, that represents culturally-relevant, positive parenting behaviors: maternal coping with stress through reframing, maternal scaffolding of toddlers’ learning during a low-stress task, and maternal commands during a high-stress task. Partici…
Collective trauma and community support: Lessons from Detroit
The COVID-19 crisis can be defined as a collective trauma, which contributes to an upheaval of community connection and functioning. The current pandemic has also illuminated disparities in mental health supports. In this commentary, we highlight one community organization, located in metro Detroit, that has responded to the trauma by bolstering resources and supports for residents, many of whom are ethnoracial minorities. (PsycInfo Database Reco…
Associations between oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) polymorphisms, childhood trauma, and parenting behavior
Maternal oxytocin is connected to aspects of parenting including sensitivity, warmth, positive affect, and affectionate touch. Oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) polymorphisms are associated with circulating oxytocin levels, altered brain activity, and parenting behaviors. This study aimed to replicate prior work on OXTR single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) rs1042778 and rs53576 in relation to maternal sensitivity, explore associations with other as…
Maternal Postpartum Depression Increases Vulnerability for Toddler Behavior Problems through Infant Cortisol Reactivity
The current study examined the role of hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal reactivity (a physiological indicator of stress) in early infancy as a mediator of the relationship between maternal postpartum depression and toddler behavior problems. Participants were 137 at‐risk mothers and their children participating in a longitudinal study of intergenerational transmission of risk. Mothers’ depression was measured five times during the infants’ first 18…
Feasibility of Internet-based parent training for low-income parents of young children
Expectant Fathers’ Beliefs and Expectations about Fathering as They Prepare to Parent a New Infant
The parent–infant relationship begins during pregnancy as parents prepare psychologically for the birth of their child. Father involvement, beginning in pregnancy, is associated with positive maternal and infant outcomes. Less is known about fathers’ experiences as they prepare to parent a new baby, especially fathers who are parenting in contexts of risk. The current study interviewed 44 expectant fathers to gain a deeper understanding of their …
Does Child Sex Moderate Vulnerability to Postpartum Risk among Infants of Mothers at Risk for Psychopathology
Early childhood behavior problems may indicate risk for subsequent psychopathology (Shaw, Gilliom, Ingoldsby, & Nagin, Developmental Psychology, 39, 2003, 189). There is some evidence to suggest that boys and girls may be differentially susceptible to postpartum risk factors that predict problem behaviors in early childhood (Kochanska, Coy, & Murray, Child Development, 72, 2001, 1091; Martel, Klump, Nigg, Breedlove, & Sisk, Hormones and Behavior …
Reflections on Fathers and Infant Mental Health: Introduction
Examining Long-Term Effects of an Infant Mental Health Home-Based Early Head Start Program on Family Strengths and Resilience: Effects of Infant Mental Health Home-Based Early Head Start Services
Infant Mental Health based interventions aim to promote the healthy development of infants and toddlers through promoting healthy family functioning to foster supportive relationships between the young child and his or her important caregivers. This study examined impacts of an Infant Mental Health home-based Early Head Start (IMH-HB EHS) program on family functioning. The sample includes 152 low-income families in the Midwestern United States, e…
Stability of Biological Father Presence as a Proxy for Family Stability: Cross-Racial Associations With the Longitudinal Development of Emotion Regulation in Toddlerhood
The current study, utilizing data from the National Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project (Love et al., 2005) explored the relationship between biological father presence and emotion regulation over toddlerhood among children from low-income families. Conceptualizing biological father presence as a proxy for family role development, results are interpreted from a role development theoretical perspective. The latent growth curve model w…
Forward Progress of Scientific Inquiry Into the Early Father–child Relationship: Introduction to the Special Issue on Very Young Children and Their Fathers
Research on fathering and the father–child relationship has made substantial progress in the most recent 15 years since the last special issue of the Infant Mental Health Journal on fathers and young children. This special issue on fathers and young children contains a series of papers exemplifying this progress, including advances in methodology—more direct assessment and more observational measures—in addition to the increasing dynamic complexi…
Longitudinal Connections of Maternal Supportiveness and Early Emotion Regulation to Children’s School Readiness in Low-Income Families
Maternal supportiveness and children’s emotion regulation are considered crucial for the development of school readiness, and enhancing both is particularly important for children from low-income families who are at higher risk for reduced school readiness. This study uses latent growth curve analysis to examine longitudinal connections between maternal supportiveness and toddler emotion regulation as predictors of children’s cognitive school rea…
Modeling maternal emotion-related socialization behaviors in a low-income sample: Relations with toddlers’ self-regulation
Toddlers' Social‐emotional Competence in the Contexts of Maternal Emotion Socialization and Contingent Responsiveness in a Low‐income Sample
Early social‐emotional development occurs in the context of parenting, particularly via processes such as maternal emotion socialization and parent–child interactions. Results from structural equation modeling indicated that maternal contingent responsiveness partially mediated the relationship between maternal emotion socialization of toddlers (N = 119, ages 12–36 months) and toddlers' social‐emotional competence. Effect size was strongest for t…
Ambiguous Loss and Posttraumatic Stress in School-Age Children of Prisoners
Qualitative Inquiry and Family Therapist Identity Construction Through Community-Based Child Welfare Practice
The Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) field has discussed how to emphasize broader sociological contexts in family therapy practices (Hardy, 2001 Hardy, K. 2001. Healing the world in fifty-minute minute intervals: A response to “family therapy saves the planet.”. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 27(1): 19–22. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Johnson, 2001 Johnson, S. 2001. Family therapy saves the planet: Messian…
Early emotional development in infants and toddlers: Perspectives of Early Head Start staff and parents
As part of a curriculum‐development project, focus groups were implemented with Early Head Start staff and with parents of infants and toddlers enrolled in Early Head Start. Focus groups were designed to identify staff and parent beliefs about early emotional development. Three major themes were identified that crossed the staff and parent focus groups: (a) Infants' and toddlers' abilities to have emotions and to be aware of others' emotions; (b)…
Effects of parental supportiveness on toddlers' emotion regulation over the first three years of life in a low‐income African American sample
The purpose of this study was to examine how parental supportiveness and child gender are related to toddlers' emotion regulation over time among low‐income African American mothers and their children ( n = 803). Data for the current study were collected as part of the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project. Using latent growth curve modeling, results indicated that parental supportiveness predicted toddlers' emotion regulation skills, …
Modeling maternal emotion-related socialization behaviors in a low-income sample: Relations with toddlers’ self-regulation
Examining Long-Term Effects of an Infant Mental Health Home-Based Early Head Start Program on Family Strengths and Resilience: Effects of Infant Mental Health Home-Based Early Head Start Services
Infant Mental Health based interventions aim to promote the healthy development of infants and toddlers through promoting healthy family functioning to foster supportive relationships between the young child and his or her important caregivers. This study examined impacts of an Infant Mental Health home-based Early Head Start (IMH-HB EHS) program on family functioning. The sample includes 152 low-income families in the Midwestern United States, e…
Toddlers' Social‐emotional Competence in the Contexts of Maternal Emotion Socialization and Contingent Responsiveness in a Low‐income Sample
Early social‐emotional development occurs in the context of parenting, particularly via processes such as maternal emotion socialization and parent–child interactions. Results from structural equation modeling indicated that maternal contingent responsiveness partially mediated the relationship between maternal emotion socialization of toddlers (N = 119, ages 12–36 months) and toddlers' social‐emotional competence. Effect size was strongest for t…
Forward Progress of Scientific Inquiry Into the Early Father–child Relationship: Introduction to the Special Issue on Very Young Children and Their Fathers
Research on fathering and the father–child relationship has made substantial progress in the most recent 15 years since the last special issue of the Infant Mental Health Journal on fathers and young children. This special issue on fathers and young children contains a series of papers exemplifying this progress, including advances in methodology—more direct assessment and more observational measures—in addition to the increasing dynamic complexi…
Effects of parental supportiveness on toddlers' emotion regulation over the first three years of life in a low‐income African American sample
The purpose of this study was to examine how parental supportiveness and child gender are related to toddlers' emotion regulation over time among low‐income African American mothers and their children ( n = 803). Data for the current study were collected as part of the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project. Using latent growth curve modeling, results indicated that parental supportiveness predicted toddlers' emotion regulation skills, …
Stability of Biological Father Presence as a Proxy for Family Stability: Cross-Racial Associations With the Longitudinal Development of Emotion Regulation in Toddlerhood
The current study, utilizing data from the National Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project (Love et al., 2005) explored the relationship between biological father presence and emotion regulation over toddlerhood among children from low-income families. Conceptualizing biological father presence as a proxy for family role development, results are interpreted from a role development theoretical perspective. The latent growth curve model w…
Reflections on Fathers and Infant Mental Health: Introduction
Call to action: Centering blackness and disrupting systemic racism in infant mental health research and academic publishing
The Infant Mental Health Journal is committed to ending systemic racism and promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in academic publishing. IMHJ unequivocally denounces all forms of racism and white supremacy, including systemic racism in academic publishing. We commit to investigating and working to terminate the ways in which systemic racism has become normalized in academic publishing, including examining our practices and processes at IMHJ…
Qualitative Inquiry and Family Therapist Identity Construction Through Community-Based Child Welfare Practice
The Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) field has discussed how to emphasize broader sociological contexts in family therapy practices (Hardy, 2001 Hardy, K. 2001. Healing the world in fifty-minute minute intervals: A response to “family therapy saves the planet.”. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 27(1): 19–22. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Johnson, 2001 Johnson, S. 2001. Family therapy saves the planet: Messian…
Longitudinal Connections of Maternal Supportiveness and Early Emotion Regulation to Children’s School Readiness in Low-Income Families
Maternal supportiveness and children’s emotion regulation are considered crucial for the development of school readiness, and enhancing both is particularly important for children from low-income families who are at higher risk for reduced school readiness. This study uses latent growth curve analysis to examine longitudinal connections between maternal supportiveness and toddler emotion regulation as predictors of children’s cognitive school rea…
Early emotional development in infants and toddlers: Perspectives of Early Head Start staff and parents
As part of a curriculum‐development project, focus groups were implemented with Early Head Start staff and with parents of infants and toddlers enrolled in Early Head Start. Focus groups were designed to identify staff and parent beliefs about early emotional development. Three major themes were identified that crossed the staff and parent focus groups: (a) Infants' and toddlers' abilities to have emotions and to be aware of others' emotions; (b)…
A Thematic Analysis of Low-Income African American Fathers’ Meta-Emotion Interview Responses
This study explored African American fathers’ beliefs about and experiences with their own and their children’s negative emotions. Participants included 58 African American fathers in the Midwestern region of the United States between the ages of 29 and 40 ( M age = 30.94). Participants completed the Meta-Emotion Interview, a semi-structured interview of parents’ and their children’s negative emotion. A theoretical thematic analysis of participan…
Feasibility of Internet-based parent training for low-income parents of young children
Expectant Fathers’ Beliefs and Expectations about Fathering as They Prepare to Parent a New Infant
The parent–infant relationship begins during pregnancy as parents prepare psychologically for the birth of their child. Father involvement, beginning in pregnancy, is associated with positive maternal and infant outcomes. Less is known about fathers’ experiences as they prepare to parent a new baby, especially fathers who are parenting in contexts of risk. The current study interviewed 44 expectant fathers to gain a deeper understanding of their …
Ambiguous Loss and Posttraumatic Stress in School-Age Children of Prisoners
Qualitative Inquiry and Family Therapist Identity Construction Through Community-Based Child Welfare Practice
The Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) field has discussed how to emphasize broader sociological contexts in family therapy practices (Hardy, 2001 Hardy, K. 2001. Healing the world in fifty-minute minute intervals: A response to “family therapy saves the planet.”. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 27(1): 19–22. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Johnson, 2001 Johnson, S. 2001. Family therapy saves the planet: Messian…
Early emotional development in infants and toddlers: Perspectives of Early Head Start staff and parents
As part of a curriculum‐development project, focus groups were implemented with Early Head Start staff and with parents of infants and toddlers enrolled in Early Head Start. Focus groups were designed to identify staff and parent beliefs about early emotional development. Three major themes were identified that crossed the staff and parent focus groups: (a) Infants' and toddlers' abilities to have emotions and to be aware of others' emotions; (b)…
Effects of parental supportiveness on toddlers' emotion regulation over the first three years of life in a low‐income African American sample
The purpose of this study was to examine how parental supportiveness and child gender are related to toddlers' emotion regulation over time among low‐income African American mothers and their children ( n = 803). Data for the current study were collected as part of the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project. Using latent growth curve modeling, results indicated that parental supportiveness predicted toddlers' emotion regulation skills, …
Toddlers' Social‐emotional Competence in the Contexts of Maternal Emotion Socialization and Contingent Responsiveness in a Low‐income Sample
Early social‐emotional development occurs in the context of parenting, particularly via processes such as maternal emotion socialization and parent–child interactions. Results from structural equation modeling indicated that maternal contingent responsiveness partially mediated the relationship between maternal emotion socialization of toddlers (N = 119, ages 12–36 months) and toddlers' social‐emotional competence. Effect size was strongest for t…
Modeling maternal emotion-related socialization behaviors in a low-income sample: Relations with toddlers’ self-regulation
Longitudinal Connections of Maternal Supportiveness and Early Emotion Regulation to Children’s School Readiness in Low-Income Families
Maternal supportiveness and children’s emotion regulation are considered crucial for the development of school readiness, and enhancing both is particularly important for children from low-income families who are at higher risk for reduced school readiness. This study uses latent growth curve analysis to examine longitudinal connections between maternal supportiveness and toddler emotion regulation as predictors of children’s cognitive school rea…
Stability of Biological Father Presence as a Proxy for Family Stability: Cross-Racial Associations With the Longitudinal Development of Emotion Regulation in Toddlerhood
The current study, utilizing data from the National Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project (Love et al., 2005) explored the relationship between biological father presence and emotion regulation over toddlerhood among children from low-income families. Conceptualizing biological father presence as a proxy for family role development, results are interpreted from a role development theoretical perspective. The latent growth curve model w…
Forward Progress of Scientific Inquiry Into the Early Father–child Relationship: Introduction to the Special Issue on Very Young Children and Their Fathers
Research on fathering and the father–child relationship has made substantial progress in the most recent 15 years since the last special issue of the Infant Mental Health Journal on fathers and young children. This special issue on fathers and young children contains a series of papers exemplifying this progress, including advances in methodology—more direct assessment and more observational measures—in addition to the increasing dynamic complexi…
Does Child Sex Moderate Vulnerability to Postpartum Risk among Infants of Mothers at Risk for Psychopathology
Early childhood behavior problems may indicate risk for subsequent psychopathology (Shaw, Gilliom, Ingoldsby, & Nagin, Developmental Psychology, 39, 2003, 189). There is some evidence to suggest that boys and girls may be differentially susceptible to postpartum risk factors that predict problem behaviors in early childhood (Kochanska, Coy, & Murray, Child Development, 72, 2001, 1091; Martel, Klump, Nigg, Breedlove, & Sisk, Hormones and Behavior …
Reflections on Fathers and Infant Mental Health: Introduction
Examining Long-Term Effects of an Infant Mental Health Home-Based Early Head Start Program on Family Strengths and Resilience: Effects of Infant Mental Health Home-Based Early Head Start Services
Infant Mental Health based interventions aim to promote the healthy development of infants and toddlers through promoting healthy family functioning to foster supportive relationships between the young child and his or her important caregivers. This study examined impacts of an Infant Mental Health home-based Early Head Start (IMH-HB EHS) program on family functioning. The sample includes 152 low-income families in the Midwestern United States, e…
Expectant Fathers’ Beliefs and Expectations about Fathering as They Prepare to Parent a New Infant
The parent–infant relationship begins during pregnancy as parents prepare psychologically for the birth of their child. Father involvement, beginning in pregnancy, is associated with positive maternal and infant outcomes. Less is known about fathers’ experiences as they prepare to parent a new baby, especially fathers who are parenting in contexts of risk. The current study interviewed 44 expectant fathers to gain a deeper understanding of their …
Feasibility of Internet-based parent training for low-income parents of young children
Associations between oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) polymorphisms, childhood trauma, and parenting behavior
Maternal oxytocin is connected to aspects of parenting including sensitivity, warmth, positive affect, and affectionate touch. Oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) polymorphisms are associated with circulating oxytocin levels, altered brain activity, and parenting behaviors. This study aimed to replicate prior work on OXTR single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) rs1042778 and rs53576 in relation to maternal sensitivity, explore associations with other as…
Maternal Postpartum Depression Increases Vulnerability for Toddler Behavior Problems through Infant Cortisol Reactivity
The current study examined the role of hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal reactivity (a physiological indicator of stress) in early infancy as a mediator of the relationship between maternal postpartum depression and toddler behavior problems. Participants were 137 at‐risk mothers and their children participating in a longitudinal study of intergenerational transmission of risk. Mothers’ depression was measured five times during the infants’ first 18…
Adaptive Parenting Among Low-Income Black Mothers and Toddlers’ Regulation of Distress
Parenting differs in purpose and strategy according to cultural background (Brooks-Gunn & Markman, 2005; Iruka, LaForett, & Odom, 2012). The current study tests a unique latent factor score, Adaptive Parenting, that represents culturally-relevant, positive parenting behaviors: maternal coping with stress through reframing, maternal scaffolding of toddlers’ learning during a low-stress task, and maternal commands during a high-stress task. Partici…
Collective trauma and community support: Lessons from Detroit
The COVID-19 crisis can be defined as a collective trauma, which contributes to an upheaval of community connection and functioning. The current pandemic has also illuminated disparities in mental health supports. In this commentary, we highlight one community organization, located in metro Detroit, that has responded to the trauma by bolstering resources and supports for residents, many of whom are ethnoracial minorities. (PsycInfo Database Reco…
Call to action: Centering blackness and disrupting systemic racism in infant mental health research and academic publishing
The Infant Mental Health Journal is committed to ending systemic racism and promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in academic publishing. IMHJ unequivocally denounces all forms of racism and white supremacy, including systemic racism in academic publishing. We commit to investigating and working to terminate the ways in which systemic racism has become normalized in academic publishing, including examining our practices and processes at IMHJ…
Coming Together Educationally Creates a Bond Like No Other: Exploring How Families Engage in Black History Home Learning
Black home learning environments during the COVID-19 pandemic may have played a significant role in children's learning. We piloted Brilliant Joy in a Box, caregiver-child Black history home learning boxes, with a sample of 100 families in a predominantly Black, midwestern city. Families received boxes for six months and completed whole family activities during virtual "unboxings." In the current study, we explored caregivers' ( n = 57) open-ende…
A Thematic Analysis of Low-Income African American Fathers’ Meta-Emotion Interview Responses
This study explored African American fathers’ beliefs about and experiences with their own and their children’s negative emotions. Participants included 58 African American fathers in the Midwestern region of the United States between the ages of 29 and 40 ( M age = 30.94). Participants completed the Meta-Emotion Interview, a semi-structured interview of parents’ and their children’s negative emotion. A theoretical thematic analysis of participan…
Psychology (21 works) · Developmental psychology (16 works) · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development (15 works) · Early Childhood Education and Development (9 works) · Social Psychology (7 works) · Clinical Psychology (6 works) · Medicine (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics (5 works) · Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum (5 works)