We are very pleased to share newly published NBO and NBAS research:

• A cross-sectional study conducted at the Dr. Soetomo General Academic Hospital, Surabaya, Indonesia by Siti Wahyu Windarti and Ahmad Surawan, entitled EFFECTIVENESS OF THE NEWBORN BEHAVIORAL OBSERVATION (NBO) SYSTEM IN IMPROVING MOTHER AND INFANT INTERACTION was published in the Folia Medica Indonesia, 57, 2, 1-5 (June 2021). Mothers and infants participated in the NBO within 1-3 days after delivering their infants and one month postpartum for the second NBO. Results showed that the NBO system was significant in strengthening mother-infant interaction and in increasing the mothers’ knowledge about their infants’ behavior.

• A French study appeared in January 2021, Frontiers in Pediatrics 8 DOI: 10.3389/fped.2020.506384 by Rose-Angelique Belot, Margaux Bouteloup, Andre Mariage, Drina Candilis Huisman, Nicolas Mottet and Denis Mellier. The results of the study, entitled Relevance of Neonatal Behavior Assessment Scale for Infants With Somatic Disorders: Comparison on One Matched Group of Controls, indicate that the mean scores of the control group was significantly higher than that of the clinical group and that most of the NBAS categories were affected by the presence of a somatic disorder.

• The Infant Mental Health Journal (41, 6, 757-769, August 2020) reported on a multisite randomized controlled study of at-risk infants, conducted in the United States by Beth McManus, Yvette Blanchard, Natalie Murphy and J. Kevin Nugent, which showed that infants receiving the NBO infant mental health intervention had greater gains in cognitive and adaptive functions at 6 months, while their caregivers had fewer maternal depressive symptoms than caregivers in the control group receiving Usual Care: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/imhj.21882

• In October 2020, BMC Psychology published a study conducted in Denmark by Ingeborg Hedegaard Kristensen, Svend Juul and Hanne Kronborg, entitled, “What are the effects of supporting early parenting by Newborn Behavioral Observations (NBO)? A cluster randomised trial”.  Results showed that at three and nine months after birth, the change in maternal confidence and mood, infant’s socio- emotional behaviour, and early parent-infant relationship moved in a slightly more positive direction in the intervention group than in the comparison group, but were not statistically significant. However, results showed that the intervention mothers reported higher level of knowledge about infant’s communication skills, response to cues, and how to sooth and establish a relationship with the infant, compared to the comparison group:  https://bmcpsychology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40359-020-00467-5

• The Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics published a study in August 2020 by Jayme Congdon, J. Kevin Nugent, Beth McManus,  Michael Coccia and Nicole Bush at UC San Francisco, which examined the concurrent validity and reliability of the NBO by extending the NBO three-point recording to five points and assessing sub-scale associations with infant salivary cortisol reactivity and maternal report of infant temperament.  Results showed that that infants with higher Organization of State scores (more optimal state regulation) demonstrated lower cortisol reactivity and temperamental negativity.  They concluded that such predictive utility has the potential for significant value in research and clinical domains. https://journals.lww.com/jrnldbp/Abstract/9000/A_Pilot_Validation_Study_of_the_Newborn_Behavioral.99040.aspx

• In December 2020, The Journal of Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology published the results of longitudinal study of 370 newborns conducted in the United States by Jessica Shoaff, J. Kevin Nugent, T. Berry Brazelton & Susan Korrick, which revealed a significant relationship between newborn behavior - as measured by the NBAS - and behaviors associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in adolescence. Association were strongest with neonatal measures of state-regulation, auditory responses and autonomic regulation. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author/FSKXIRJC2NZPIKSCBSWZ?target=10.1111/ppe.12723

• A UK study using the NBAS on the effects of prenatal cigarette and e-cigarette exposure on infant neurobehaviour: A comparison to a control group, by Suzanne Froggart, Nadja Reissland & Judith Covey appeared in EClinicalMedicine 28 (2020) 100602. They found that for both self-regulation and motor maturity, cigarette exposed infants performed significantly worse (p = .010; p = .002), with e-cigarette exposed infants having decreased motor maturity (p = .036) abilities and marginally decreased for self-regulation (p = .057).

• In June 2020, BMC Psychiatry published results of the Norwegian (NorBaby) study by Ragnhild Sørensen Høifødt and colleagues (including Inger-Pauline Landsem and Kari Slinning), which demonstrated that while associations between the NBO, maternal mental health and relationship measures were scarce, the results demonstrated that mothers in the NBO-group learned more than the comparison group about reading their infant’s signals in everyday situations related to social interaction, sleep/sleep patterns and crying/fussiness.  The results “suggest that the benefits of the NBO may be limited within a general population sample of particularly well-functioning participants”. https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-020-02669-y

• An Australian study by Kim Simkin-Tran, Bronwyn Harman & Susan Nicolson published in the Journal of Pediatric Nursing, in 2020, concluded that “the NBO appears to promote practitioner mentalisation, offering MCHNs a framework and confidence to apply infant mental health theory practically” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0882596319305652

• A recently published (2020) study by Charles M. Super and Sara Harkness in New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development asked members of several cultural groups in the US and Kenya (total n = 100) to judge the "similarity" of behavioral items in the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS). Multidimensional scaling of their judgments reveals that NBAS experts were especially attentive to a dimension of State Control-exactly as the scale emphasizes. Kenyan mothers focused on a dimension of motor responsiveness-in accord with their concern and practices regarding motor development, and the Massachusetts mothers organized their judgments around cognitive competence-abilities emphasized in contemporary discussions of early development. they concluded that each adult group's representation reflects their cultural values and goals, and helps them understand the newborn child in local terms. Culture and the perceived organization of newborn behavior: A comparative study in Kenya and the United States New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development Pub Date : 2020-09-23 , DOI: 10.1002/cad.20366

• For her Masters thesis at Tufts University in the United States, Tristin Flood conducted a secondary data analysis study of 411 mother-infant dyads who received the NBO intervention and found that both experienced mothers and first-time mothers reported a high level of learning from the NBO about crying and reading infant cues, as well as feeling closer to their infants and feeling more confident in the ability to care for them.