# Maternal Positive Affect Socialization and Child Neural Reward Response

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · 2024 · $790,712

## Abstract

Abstract
Reward-related brain function is consistently linked to greater motivation, pleasure, and goal-directed behavior
and lower risk for depression across the lifespan. Healthy neural reward response supports socioemotional
development, particularly during the preschool years as self-regulatory skills and child reward-related brain
function are rapidly developing in the context of the caregiving environment. Maternal socialization of positive
emotion is one important influence on early reward circuitry development. Mothers with depression are more
likely to discourage (and less likely to encourage) child positive emotions compared to healthy mothers, which
may contribute to early neural reward alterations in their children. Characterizing mechanisms of influence of
maternal socialization on child neural reward response and positive emotion during the preschool years is a
critical window of opportunity when parents have a large influence on child socioemotional development.
Importantly, maternal behavior is amenable to change by training parents on emotion coaching, and these
maternal behavior changes may result in direct and immediate changes in child neural reward function. Thus,
the overarching aim of this proposal is to use a mechanistic trial design to experimentally test the hypothesis
that maternal encouragement of child positive emotion will lead to in-vivo increases in child neural reward
response. Event-related potentials (ERPs) are uniquely suited to non-invasively assess in-vivo, fast-occurring
changes in child reward response during parent-child interactions, including reward positivity (RewP), and the
late positive potential (LPP) amplitudes. Toward this aim, we will randomize 180 mothers with clinically
significant depression symptoms and their 4- to 6-year-old children (50% female) to receive either 3 control
sessions or 3 positive emotion coaching modules from the Parent-Child Interaction Therapy-Emotion
Development (PCIT-ED, which trains mothers on how to encourage positive emotion in their young children.
Children will complete reward tasks at pre- and post-coaching, while neural reward response is assessed via
ERP (RewP and LPP) with their mothers present allowing for in-vivo assessment of maternal behavior. At both
timepoints, we will assess child neural reward response and mothers’ self-reported maternal socialization
behaviors. Understanding how disrupted neural reward responding develops in the preschool years is critical
for the promotion of child emotional wellness and can be directly used to develop preventive interventions
tailored to preschool age children at familial risk for depression.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10850200
- **Project number:** 1R01MH135881-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
- **Principal Investigator:** Lauren M Bylsma
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $790,712
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-08-01 → 2029-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10850200

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10850200, Maternal Positive Affect Socialization and Child Neural Reward Response (1R01MH135881-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10850200. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*