Interactions with parents build the foundation for infants' social-emotional development. This study investigated coregulation of the interaction and quality of relationship between mothers and their 6-month-old full-term (n = 43) and very low-birthweight/preterm (VLBW/preterm; n = 44; ages corrected for prematurity) infants. The objectives were to examine (1) how coregulation changed following a perturbed interaction, (2) how coregulation differed between full-term and VLBW/preterm infant-mother dyads, and (3) the association between coregulation and relationship quality. Coregulation was coded using the Revised Relational Coding System . Quality of the relationship was measured using the Emotional Availability scales (Biringen et al., 2014;Carter et al., 1998). Dyads participated in the Still-Face (SF) procedure (Tronick et al., 1978) consisting of two natural and one SF period where mothers assumed a neutral expression, refraining from interacting with their infants. Following the SF period, dyads engaged in more symmetrical and more disruptive patterns of coregulation. While full-term dyads engaged in more sequential-symmetrical, VLBW/preterm dyads engaged in more resonant-symmetrical coregulation. These results suggest that VLBW/preterm dyads may show more emotional reactivity in their interactions than full-term dyads; however, in both groups infant responsiveness and parenting stress influenced the types of coregulation exhibited.Correspondence should be sent to Kelly M. Doiron or Dale M. Stack,

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