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Conference Agenda

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Session Overview

Session

Symposium 6: Context Matters: The Role of Parenting and Pedagogy in Children’s Biobehavioral Development from Infancy to the Early School Years

Time:

Tuesday, 03/Feb/2026:

11:30am - 1:00pm

Presentations

Context Matters: The Role of Parenting and Pedagogy in Children’s Biobehavioral Development from Infancy to the Early School Years

Chair(s): Ryan Murray (Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland), Daniel Schechter (Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland; Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland)

Across contexts of home and school, converging evidence shows these different environments precisely fine tune children’s self-regulation and brain function. In infancy, intrusive or withdrawn parenting covaries with infant heart rate—especially in father–infant and triadic play—revealing context-specific biobehavioral coupling. In toddlerhood, maternal processing of emotional context and sensitive caregiving modulate intergenerational risk for dysregulation; protective effects persist into peri-puberty, reducing disruptive behaviors. Schooling offers complementary leverage: older kindergarten entry associates with higher effortful control, implying modest gains in self-regulation beyond age alone. Pedagogical design also matters: autonomy-supportive Montessori versus traditional classrooms show age-dependent differences in the brain’s “arrow of time” (temporal non-reversibility) alongside advantages in language and creativity, linking everyday classroom structure to systems-level maturation. Converging neural evidence further indicates context-sensitive phenotypes that connect parental self-regulation and experiential history with children’s socioemotional behavior and brain organization. Parents’ emotion-regulation strategies and childhood experiences moderate parent–child synchrony across corticolimbic structure and socioemotional neural responses, in functions directly related to children’s well-being. Building on these converging findings, this symposium will pursue four main learning objectives: (1) Delineate proximal parenting–physiology coupling in infancy; (2) Explain how maternal contextual processing and sensitivity buffer intergenerational risk in toddlerhood and beyond; (3) Evaluate classroom timing and pedagogy as levers for self-regulation and neural dynamics; and (4) Identify neural phenotypes and parental moderators linking caregiving to well-being in early and mid-childhood. This symposium thus bridges parenting and schooling contexts to reveal how early environments sculpt trajectories of self-regulation, socioemotional health, and neural maturation.

Presentations of the Symposium

Dynamic associations between mothers’ and fathers’ parenting behaviors and infant physiological emotion regulation

Hervé Tissot¹, Setareh Ranjbar², Valentine Rattaz³, Nilo Puglisi⁴, Nicolas Favez³
¹Center for Family Studies, University Institute of Psychotherapy, Department of Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital & University of Lausanne, Switzerland, ²Centre for Psychiatric Epidemiology and Psychopathology, Department of Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital & University of Lausanne, Switzerland, ³Center for Family Studies, University Institute of Psychotherapy, Department of Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital & University of Lausanne, Switzerland; Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Switzerland, ⁴Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Switzerland

Emotion regulation (ER) is a key developmental process shaped in parent-infant interactions, where parents and infants dynamically co-regulate emotions. Appropriate parental responses foster co-regulation, while unadjusted behaviors (intrusion, withdrawal) may increase infant stress, observable via heart rate (HR). Yet, most research has focused on mother-infant dyads, neglecting fathers and triadic dynamics.

We examined links between infant HR and intrusive or withdrawn parental behaviors (IWPBs) during mother-infant, father-infant, and triadic interactions. Eighty families with 3-month-old infants participated. Parents engaged in three successive 2-min free play sequences (mother-infant, father-infant, triadic), while infant HR was continuously recorded. Each sequence was divided into 5s intervals (72 per family; n = 5760). IWPBs intensity was coded on a 5-point scale in each interval, and infant HR was averaged within intervals. Dynamic network analyses were used to test within-interval and cross-lagged (lag-1) associations between the variables.

Results showed that higher IWPB intensity was significantly associated with increased infant HR within intervals, while it predicted HR increases in subsequent intervals. Context comparisons revealed significant within-interval associations in triadic and father-infant interactions, but weaker or absent effects in mother-infant contexts. When focusing on intrusions, we found significant within-interval and bidirectional cross-lagged associations with HR, though patterns differed by context: mother-infant and triadic contexts showed within-interval effects only, whereas in father-infant interactions infant HR predicted later paternal intrusions.

Findings highlight dynamic, context-specific links between parental behavior and infant physiology, underscoring the need to include fathers and triadic contexts in ER research.

Context processing and its moderating role on the link between posttraumatic stress and mother-child outcomes

Shannen Graf¹, Ryan Murray², Sébastien Urben³, Daniel Schechter³
¹Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland; Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne (UNIL), Lausanne, Switzerland, ²Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland, ³Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland; Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

This pilot study explored the moderating role of context processing (i.e., context-encoding and -memory, CEM), in the intergenerational transmission of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) from mothers to their toddlers. Thirty-one mothers (M age = 33.87 years, SD = 4.14) and their 1- to 3-year-old toddlers (M age = 22.66 months, SD = 7.01) participated. Mothers reported their current PTSS and their child’s regulatory problems. They completed a CEM task where they had to recognize contexts that they had previously seen paired with emotional faces (i.e., angry and neutral faces). Maternal sensitivity was assessed during free play and after a 3-minute separation using the CARE-Index, and a ratio score was calculated to see the change in maternal sensitivity following the separation. Results showed that while recognition of contexts previously associated with angry faces did not moderate the link between PTSS and the change in maternal sensitivity, better recognition of contexts previously associated with neutral faces did: mothers with higher PTSS showed a greater increase in sensitivity following the separation when they were better at recognizing the contexts that were previously linked to these ambiguous faces. Furthermore, maternal PTSS was associated with child dysregulation only in mothers with poor context processing of contexts that were shown with angry faces. These findings suggest that context processing may influence both maternal behavior and child outcomes, and that that is influenced by the emotion displayed by the faces. This offers insights into mechanisms underlying the intergenerational transmission of trauma and potential targets for early intervention.

Maternal Stress-Related Neural Reactivity and Caregiving Sensitivity in Early Childhood: Associations with Peri-Pubertal Disruptive Behaviors

Ryan Murray¹, Setareh Ranjbar², Shannen Graf³, Sandra Rusconi Serpa⁴, Camille Piguet⁵, Sébastien Urben⁶, Daniel Schechter⁶
¹Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland, ²Centre for Psychiatric Epidemiology and Psychopathology, Department of Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital & University of Lausanne, Switzerland, ³Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland; Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne (UNIL), Lausanne, Switzerland, ⁴Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland; Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Service, Department of Women, Mothers, and Children, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, CH, ⁵Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Service, Department of Women, Mothers, and Children, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland; Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland, ⁶Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland; Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

Disruptive behavior disorders (DBD) among youth are a pressing public-health concern and a key pathway of intergenerational risk of trauma transmission. In the 8-year longitudinal Geneva Early Childhood Stress Study, we examined whether maternal psychological, behavioral, and neurobiological factors assessed in toddlerhood predicted peri-pubertal disruptive behaviors. Mother–child dyads (n=28; child age at Phase 1=12–44 months; Phase 3=9–15 years) completed clinical interviews; mothers underwent fMRI while viewing emotion-related (prosocial and threat versus neutral) and threat-related (threat vs prosocial) adult interactions; maternal sensitivity (MS) was coded from filmed play interactions; child disruptive symptoms were evaluated via the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia at follow-up. Ten a-priori neural clusters were reduced via principal components analysis, yielding two theory-consistent indices—Neural-Emotion and Neural-Threat—and a third component Neural-Preoccupation that reflected precuneus activity. Using exploratory forward stepwise regression adjusted for Phase 3 child age, sex, and socioeconomic status, Neural-Threat and MS uniquely predicted fewer disruptive behaviors suggesting protection, whereas Neural-Preoccupation predicted more symptoms, suggesting risk. A priori moderation testing showed that MS buffered the relation between threat-related neural activity and disruptive behavior, with greater MS amplifying the inverse association. Maternal PTSS severity during early childhood showed no direct association with disruptive behaviors during peri-puberty. Findings suggest that stress-responsive maternal brain function relates to children’s disruptive behaviors, and that early sensitive caregiving may potentiate protective neural processes. Results highlight neurobehavioral targets for early, trauma-informed prevention: reducing parental distress, enhancing sensitivity, and supporting adaptive threat monitoring.

Age at Kindergarten Entry as a Context for Temperament Development

Lisa Wagner, Moritz Daum
Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development and Department of Psychology, University of Zurich

Introduction: In Switzerland, kindergarten represents a transition from predominantly play-based contexts to environments that combine peer interaction with adult-guided routines, structured participation, and increasing demands on self-regulation. While schooling is known to shape cognitive skills, its role in temperament development – an important predictor of adjustment, persistence, and social functioning – remains less well understood. Examining the timing of kindergarten entry provides insight into how this transition relates to socio-emotional outcomes beyond chronological age.

Methods: Caregivers of 505 children (50.5% girls; mean age = 5.60 years, SD = 0.89), all of whom entered kindergarten according to the standard cut-off date, completed the 36-item Children’s Behavior Questionnaire (Putnam & Rothbart, 2006). Children attended either the first (42.0%) or second (40.4%) year of kindergarten, or one of the first two years of primary school (21.6%). Most caregivers were mothers from middle- to high-income households. Regression analyses tested associations between relative age at entry and temperament dimensions, controlling for chronological age and gender.

Results: Older entry age was associated with higher effortful control, but showed no significant associations with surgency or negative emotionality.

Discussion: These findings indicate that the timing of kindergarten entry may contribute modestly to socio-emotional development, with effects strongest for self-regulatory aspects of temperament.

Conclusion: Longitudinal research is needed to clarify within-person processes and inform education policy on school-entry cut-off dates, with implications for both developmental science and interdisciplinary debates on early childhood education.

Pedagogy, autonomy scaffolding, and the brain’s arrow of time

Elvira del Agua Banyeres¹, Anira Escrichs¹, Yonatan Sanz Perl¹, Morten Kringelbach², Solange Denervaud³, Gustavo Deco¹
¹Center for Brain and Cognition, Computational Neuroscience Group, Department of Information and Communication Technologies, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona 08005, Spain, ²Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing, Linacre College, University of Oxford, Oxford OX39BX, United Kingdom, ³CIBM Center for Biomedical Imaging, MRI imaging and technology, Polytechnical School of Lausanne, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland

Early environments leave measurable signatures on developing neural systems. We ask whether everyday classroom structure, an actionable environmental lever, relates to age-dependent properties of large-scale brain activity. In a cross-sectional cohort of 96 children (4-16 years) enrolled in Montessori (MSC) or traditional (TSC) schools, we quantified the brain’s “arrow of time” as the temporal asymmetry (non-reversibility) of fMRI signals during resting state (undirected cognition) and movie-watching (externally guided attention). This thermodynamics-inspired marker indexes directional flow in neural dynamics related to adaptability and flexibility in adults.

The schooling models differed in autonomy scaffolding: Montessori progressively expands learner autonomy within a stable framework; traditional classrooms typically shift from open-ended early learning to performance-oriented instruction. Behaviorally, MSC showed higher language and convergent/divergent creativity scores. At the neural level, age moderated pedagogy effects. During rest, non-reversibility increased with age in MSC but decreased with age in TSC, with strongest contributions from somatomotor, dorsal attention, and frontoparietal networks. During movie-watching, group differences were larger in younger children and attenuated with age, with residual effects in subcortical, visual, and default-mode networks. Exploratory analyses indicated higher non-reversibility in females than males, more pronounced in TSC.

We interpret these findings as evidence that autonomy-supportive, developmentally aligned pedagogy tracks with distinct maturation of the brain’s temporal directionality alongside advantages in language and creativity. As “Context Matters,” this work connects educational context to systems-level neural organization, offering a mechanistic lens on how early learning environments may cultivate adaptable, equitable developmental trajectories.

Familial Neural Similarity as a Context-Sensitive Mechanism in Early Socioemotional Development

Plamina Dimanova¹, Sofia Scatolin¹, Elena Federici², Dennis Saikkonen¹, Nora Raschle³
¹Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development at the University of Zurich, Department of Psychology, ²Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development at the University of Zurich, Department of Psychology; Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, ³Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development at the University of Zurich, Department of Psychology; Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich; URPP Adaptive Brain Circuit in Development and Learning

Family environments shape neurodevelopment, yet neural pathways linking parental characteristics to children’s development remain underdefined. Across >250 family members, we operationalize familial neural similarity (FNS) as cross-generational resemblance in brain structure and function and test its links to socioemotional outcomes and context. Using structural MRI, we show FNS is measurable and feature-specific. Moreover, in the corticolimbic tract (CLT), linked to socioemotional processing and mental health, biologically related parent-child dyads show greater similarity than random adult-child pairings, and higher CLT similarity associates with children’s mental well-being. In a sample including fathers, robust parent–child similarity emerges for neocortical (r=0.47, p<.001) and subcortical CLT components (r=0.42, p<.001), alongside behavioral similarity in well-being (r=0.25, p=.023); paternal childhood experiences moreover moderate transmission (adj. R²=0.32, p=.007). Functional analyses from our SNSF-SMILIES project converge: during socioemotional movie watching, whole-brain FNS exceeds that of unrelated pairs (B=0.21, p=.004), with sex-specific amplification (mother–daughter: B=0.48; father–son: B=0.37). Regionally, similarity is elevated in prefrontal and temporal systems, (vlPFC; B=0.23, p<.001), where FNS tracks parent–child similarity in internalizing symptoms (B=0.94, p=.003) and is moderated by parents’ emotion-regulation strategies (B=0.06, p=.006). Complementary data using an explicit Theory of Mind task also demonstrates heightened parent–child similarity in right temporoparietal junction (B=0.33, p<.001), relevant for mentalizing. Collectively, FNS offers a context-sensitive neural phenotype linking family history and experiences to children’s socioemotional brain organization. Ultimately, integrating biobehavioral synchrony with FNS in accelerated longitudinal and clinical designs are expected to move the field from description to prediction and prevention in early development.