Due to COVID-19 and pandemic-related mitigation strategies, we were forced to alter procedures prior to the enrolling of participants into this trial. We will submit a new protocol for our adapted trial, launching at a later date.

This study will evaluate whether the intervention, Mom Power, improves the self-regulation of mothers with a history of trauma and their children. The central hypothesis is that the intervention will shift behavioral and physiological self-regulation in mothers, children, and dyads to mitigate psychopathology risk.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are significant risk factors for psychopathology across the lifespan - risks that extend to the next generation, likely transmitted through both biological and behavioral pathways. Biobehavioral self-regulation and parenting are key candidates for transmission and potential points of intervention. However, nearly all intervention research takes a one-generation approach, measuring outcomes in the individual adult or child in treatment. Additionally, very little research has examined biomarkers of self-regulation in parents or children following treatment, and no known research has examined these processes in parents and young children simultaneously across treatment to explore bidirectional effects. There is a critical need to specify targets of two-generation interventions among high-adversity families to decrease intergenerational transmission of mental illness. The objective of this RCT is to determine whether Mom Power, an evidence-based two generation intervention for mothers with histories of trauma, enhances physiological and behavioral self-regulation in mothers and young children, testing mechanisms and examining bidirectional effects. The central hypothesis is that the intervention will shift behavioral and physiological (Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia) self-regulation in mothers, children, and dyads to mitigate psychopathology risk. Three specific aims are proposed: 1) Examine intervention effects on children's biobehavioral self-regulation and psychopathology; 2) Examine intervention effects on mothers' biobehavioral self-regulation, psychopathology, and parenting behavior; and 3) Examine intergenerational change processes, including shifts in dyadic physiological and behavioral synchrony as well as bidirectional influences between mother and child self-regulation.

Participants in this study must include a mother-child dyad. There is inclusion and exclusion criteria for both mother and child.

Inclusion Criteria:

• For moms: Mothers must be female, the biological mother, have an ACE score of 3 or more, speak English, and be 18 years or older.
• For children: Children must be between the ages of 2 and 5.

Exclusion Criteria:

• For mothers: No pacemaker or self-reported heart condition; no active maternal substance abuse or psychosis on screeners (Brown & Rounds, 1995; Degenhardt, Hall, Korten, & Jablensky, 2005).
• For children: No parent report of diagnosis of autism or global development delay, no parent report of pacemaker or heart condition

Child participants can be male or female. Recruited parent must be biological mother due to interest in intergenerational patterns and concerns about heritability of the primary outcome.

No masking