Some amazing papers on stress contagion:
Feldman, R. (2007). Parent–infant synchrony and the construction of shared timing; physiological precursors, developmental outcomes, and risk conditions. Journal of Child psychology and Psychiatry, 48(3‐4), 329-354.
Waters, S. F., West, T. V., Karnilowicz, H. R., & Mendes, W. B. (2017). Affect contagion between mothers and infants: Examining valence and touch. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 146(7), 1043.
Waters, S. F., Karnilowicz, H. R., West, T. V., & Mendes, W. B. (2020). Keep it to yourself? Parent emotion suppression influences physiological linkage and interaction behavior. Journal of Family Psychology.
And these, from our group:
Smith, C., Jones, E. J., Charman, T., Clackson, K., Mirza, F., & Wass, S. (2021). Anxious parents show higher physiological synchrony with their infants. Psychological Medicine
Wass, S. V., Smith, C. G., Clackson, K., Gibb, C., Eitzenberger, J., & Mirza, F. U. (2019). Parents mimic and influence their infant’s autonomic state through dynamic affective state matching. Current biology, 29(14), 2415-2422.
If you have any questions about stress contagion, or you would like to collaborate on a stress contagion project, please reach out to Prof Sam Wass via the contact form.