This group of mothers will be assigned to begin the parenting skills intervention (COSP) group soon after enrollment, and data collection (developmental testing, buccal swabs, play-based assessment, questionnaires) will proceed as planned. COSP groups will be conducted remotely via Zoom.

This group of mothers will be assigned to a waitlist control group and will be scheduled to begin the parenting skills group at a later time. In order to serve as a no-intervention control, they will be administered assessments while on the waiting list. These assessments will be given concurrently with mid-point assessment of the intervention group.

The Circle of Security Parenting (COSP) program is an 8- week group parenting course that was designed using decades of attachment research to foster a secure attachment by teaching parents to read and respond to infant cues, and to recognize the interplay between their own psychological and emotional experiences and the emotional regulation of their infants. The COSP program provides parents with relationship tools and techniques for understanding their children's needs in new ways that provide lasting security for the child and more satisfaction for the parent. There are two major themes in the program: 1) teaching parents how to read their children's behavior and use it as a guide for meeting their needs and 2) helping parents to understand how their own early attachment relationships have influenced them as a person, and how those influences show up in their parenting and impact their ability to help regulate their child and respond to their needs.

Buccal swabs from mother and infant

The BDI-II is a brief, self-report inventory designed to measure the severity of depression symptomatology for ages 13-80 years old and takes approximately 5 minutes to complete. The BDI-II is comprised of 21 items. Each item is scored on a scale of 0 to 3, with a total score range of 0-63. Total score of <14 indicates minimal range, 14-19 indicates mild severity, 20-28 indicates moderate severity, and 29-63 indicates a score in the severe range. Higher scores indicate greater levels of depression.

The PDSS is a 35-item self-report measure helps clinicians identify mothers suffering from postpartum depression. It takes about 5-10 minutes to complete and is written at a third-grade reading level. Mothers respond using a 5-point scale ranging from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree" and yields an overall severity score. A higher score indicates more severe depression.

A 32-item measure of relationship quality. The scale is divided into 4 subscales: (1) Dyadic Consensus - degree to which respondent agrees with partner (2) Dyadic Satisfaction -- degree to which respondent feels satisfied with partner (3) Dyadic Cohesion -degree to which respondent and partner participate in activities together (4) Affectional Expression -degree to which respondent agrees with partner regarding emotional affection. Scores range from 0-151, with higher scores being indicative of more positive dyadic adjustment and lower distress level.

The Denver Maternal Stress Assessment consists of 13 questions regarding a mothers stress, social support, and health behaviors, along with an inventory of different types of stress encountered in the past year. Results provide qualitative data relating to these categories.