Qualitative and quantitative measures of joint attention development in the first year of life: A scoping review

Joint attention (JA) is the purposeful coordination of an individual's focus of attention with that of another and begins to develop within the first year of life. Delayed, or atypically developing, JA is an early behavioural sign of many developmental disabilities and so assessing JA in infancy can improve our understanding of trajectories of typical and atypical development. This scoping review identified the most common methods for assessing JA in the first year of life. Methods of JA were divided into qualitative and quantitative categories. Out of an identified 13,898 articles, 106 were selected after a robust search of four databases. Frequent methods used were eye-tracking, electroencephalography, behavioural coding, and the Early Social Communication Scale (ECSC). These methods were used to assess JA in typically and atypically developing infants in the first year of life. This study provides a comprehensive review of the past and current state of measurement of JA in the literature, the strengths and limitations of the measures used, and the next steps to consider for researchers interested in investigating JA to strengthen this field going forwards.     

Linking patterns of infant eye movements to a neural network model of the ventral stream using representational similarity analysis

Little is known about the development of higher-level areas of visual cortex during infancy, and even less is known about how the development of visually guided behavior is related to the different levels of the cortical processing hierarchy. As a first step toward filling these gaps, we used representational similarity analysis (RSA) to assess links between gaze patterns and a neural network model that captures key properties of the ventral visual processing stream. We recorded the eye movements of 4- to 12-month-old infants (N = 54) as they viewed photographs of scenes. For each infant, we calculated the similarity of the gaze patterns for each pair of photographs. We also analyzed the images using a convolutional neural network model in which the successive layers correspond approximately to the sequence of areas along the ventral stream. For each layer of the network, we calculated the similarity of the activation patterns for each pair of photographs, which was then compared with the infant gaze data. We found that the network layers corresponding to lower-level areas of visual cortex accounted for gaze patterns better in younger infants than in older infants, whereas the network layers corresponding to higher-level areas of visual cortex accounted for gaze patterns better in older infants than in younger infants. Thus, between 4 and 12 months, gaze becomes increasingly controlled by more abstract, higher-level representations. These results also demonstrate the feasibility of using RSA to link infant gaze behavior to neural network models. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://youtu.be/K5mF2Rw98Is     

Experimental manipulation of maternal proximity during short sequences of sleep and infant calming response

This study aimed to understand how different mother-infant sleeping arrangements impact infants’ self-regulation, particularly their calming response. Thus this study investigated the effect of three prevalent mother-infant sleeping arrangements, co-sleeping (CS), sleeping beyond arm’s length from their mother (BAL), and solitary sleeping (SS), on infants’ physiological calming through self-regulation during a nap session in 24 infants (50% female, M = 1.85 months SD = 0.93 months), who were identified as either regular co-sleepers with their mothers, infants who slept in the BAL sleeping arrangement from their mother, and infants who are solitary sleepers (SS). The effect of all three sleeping conditions amongst all the three types of infants with different habitual sleeping arrangements was assessed. All infants spent 10 min (2 × 5 min sessions) in each sleeping condition (CS, BAL, SS) during which electrocardiographic recordings were collected to obtain interbeat intervals (IBI) and rMSSD, a measure of heart rate variability (HRV) an index of physiological calming, maintained by the parasympathetic pathway involved in self-regulation. Infants who regularly co-slept with their mothers had the highest IBI, indicating greater physiological calming and self-regulation across all sleeping arrangement conditions (CS, BAL, SS), followed by infants who regularly slept in the BAL sleeping arrangement from their mothers. IBI was lowest amongst regular solitary sleepers, potentially indicating physiological stress due to mother-infant separation. However, HRV indices during the sleeping arrangements (especially across regular solitary sleepers) were inconclusive as to whether the lack of change in HRV across all sleeping conditions was due to physiological stress responses or greater physiological regulation. This study is the first to investigate the effect of manipulated and habitual mother-infant sleeping arrangements on infant physiological calming.     

Sex differences in the activity level of infants1

A gender difference in motor activity level (AL) is well established for children, but questions about the existence and nature of an infant sex difference remain. To assess these questions, we applied meta‐analytic procedures to summarize 46 infancy studies comprising 78 male–female motor activity comparisons. Our results showed that, as with children, male infants were more active than females. Objective measures of infant AL estimated the size of this difference to be 0.2 standard deviations, though subjective parent‐report measures estimated the difference to be smaller. We argue that this early sex difference in activity level is biologically based. However, socialization processes, such as gender‐differentiated expectations and experiences, in conjunction with further sex‐differentiated biological developments, amplify this early difference to produce the larger gender differences in activity found during childhood. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Executive attention and self-regulation in infancy

This study investigates early executive attention in infancy by studying the relations between infant sequential looking and other behaviors predictive of later self-regulation. One early marker of executive attention development is anticipatory looking, the act of looking to the location of a target prior to its appearance in that location, a process that involves endogenous control of visual orienting. Previous studies have shown that anticipatory looking is positively related to executive attention as assessed by the ability to resolve spatial conflict in 3–4-year-old children. In the current study, anticipatory looking was positively related to cautious behavioral approach in response to non-threatening novel objects in 6- and 7-month-old infants. This finding and previous findings showing the presence of error detection in infancy are consistent with the hypothesis that there is some degree of executive attention in the first year of life. Anticipatory looking was also related to the frequency of distress, to looking away from disturbing stimuli, and to some self-regulatory behaviors. These results may indicate either early attentional regulation of emotion or close relations between early developing fear and later self-regulation. Overall, the results suggest the presence of rudimentary systems of executive attention in infants and support further studies using anticipatory looking as a measure of individual differences in attention in infancy.     

Assessment of Behavioral and Emotional Problems in Infancy: A Systematic Review

Behavioral and emotional problems are highly prevalent in early childhood and represent an important focus of practice for clinical child and pediatric psychologists. Although psychological or psychiatric disorders are not typically diagnosed in children under the age of 2 years, recent research has demonstrated the appropriateness of assessing behavioral and emotional problems during the first 2 years of life (defined throughout as “infancy”). The current paper provides a systematic review of assessment procedures used to identify behavioral and emotional problems during infancy. Existing assessment procedures for infants take the form of parent- or caregiver-report questionnaires, observational coding procedures, and diagnostic classification systems. The questionnaires and observational coding procedures both had substantial psychometric evidence for use with infants, although observational coding may have limited utility in clinical practice. The classification systems have less empirical support for use with infants, and further research is necessary to demonstrate the appropriateness of these procedures with infants. Utilizing the reviewed procedures to assess behavioral and emotional problems in infants can have a substantial impact in research and practice settings, and further research is needed to determine the usefulness of these procedures in developing, testing, and implementing preventive and early intervention programs for infants and their families.     

An Exploration of Parenting Behaviours and Attitudes During Early Infancy: Association with Maternal and Infant Characteristics

The importance of warm and democratic parenting styles for optimal social, emotional and cognitive outcomes in children over the age of five is well established. However, there is a dearth of literature exploring variations in parenting styles during infancy, despite many popular parenting books aimed at this period. The primary aim of this study was to explore parenting styles in infancy and their association with infant and maternal characteristics. Five hundred and eight mothers of infants under 12 months of age completed a 36‐item questionnaire examining cognitive and behavioural aspects of early parenting (Infancy Parenting Styles Questionnaire). Items for the questionnaire were generated from popular culture early parenting books, and those raised in discussion with mothers. The underlying factor structure of the Infancy Parenting Styles Questionnaire revealed five independent factors: discipline, routine, anxiety, nurturance and involvement, which mapped onto existing concepts of warmth/nurturance and control for parenting older children, with additional constructs pertaining to the challenge of caring for young infants. Early parenting style was associated with maternal age and education, and infant birth weight, gender and age. The findings are discussed in relation to the parenting styles literature for older children and the attachment literature. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Co-occurring risk and protective factors and regulatory behavior of infants living in low-income homes

Early self-regulation is a foundation for lifelong wellness and can be shaped by the interplay among several vital exposures. In this study, we examined the emergence of reliable profiles based upon exposure to risk and protective factors in infancy, determined if sociodemographic resources predict profile membership, and determined if these profiles predict early regulatory behaviors in a sample of infants reared in low-income homes. Data were collected from a sample of primarily Black or White mother-infant dyads living in low-income homes in the Midwest (n = 222) during the infants’ first year of life (mean maternal age at enrollment: 26.29 years; range 18−43 years). Exposures included mother-infant interactions; father support; maternal depression, stress, and self-efficacy; home environment; food security; and breastfeeding duration. Sociodemographic resources included poverty status; economic hardship; maternal education, employment, and age; parental marital status; and infant race and sex. Infant regulatory behaviors were measured with the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised Very Short Form effortful control subscale (mean age 11 months; range 8.5−14.3 months). Latent profile analysis was used to profile infants by risk and protective exposures. Regression was used to differentiate profiles by sociodemographic resources and to predict infant regulatory behavior from profiles. Three profiles emerged: low father support, good maternal mental health, and poor maternal mental health. A married mother, less economic hardship, and working mothers predicted infant exposure to good maternal mental health. Infant regulatory behavior was best when the infant was exposed to the good maternal mental health profile. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Maternal posttraumatic stress symptoms and infant emotional reactivity and emotion regulation

The current study examined associations between maternal posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and infant emotional reactivity and emotion regulation during the first year of life in a primarily low-income, urban, ethnic/racial minority sample of 52 mother–infant dyads. Mothers completed questionnaires assessing their own trauma exposure history and current PTSD and depressive symptoms and their infants’ temperament when the infants were 6 months old. Dyads participated in the repeated Still-Face Paradigm (SFP-R) when the infants were 6 months old, and infant affective states were coded for each SFP-R episode. Mothers completed questionnaires assessing infant trauma exposure history and infant current emotional and behavioral symptoms when the infants were 13 months old. Maternal PTSD symptoms predicted infants’ emotion regulation at 6 months as assessed by (a) infant ability to recover from distress during the SFP-R and (b) maternal report of infant rate of recovery from distress/arousal in daily life. Maternal PTSD symptoms also predicted maternal report of infant externalizing, internalizing, and dysregulation symptoms at 13 months. Maternal PTSD was not associated with measures of infant emotional reactivity. Neither maternal depressive symptoms nor infant direct exposure to trauma accounted for the associations between maternal PTSD symptoms and infant outcomes. These findings suggest that maternal PTSD is associated with offspring emotion regulation difficulties as early as infancy. Such difficulties may contribute to increased risk of mental health problems among children of mothers with PTSD.     

Questionnaire dimensions of spider phobia: a replication and extension

Two studies are presented in this paper. The first presents an analysis of an extended version of the Spider Phobia Questionnaire (SPQ), which can be used to assess cognitive, behavioural and physiological aspects of responsiveness to spiders in spider phobics. The second examines the relationship between these measures and measures of behavioural avoidance, subjective anxiety and physiological response in high and low fear subjects during an avoidance test. The lack of an expected relationship between the two sets of measures is discussed.     

Individual differences in non-clinical maternal depression impact infant affect and behavior during the still-face paradigm across the first year

Maternal depression can significantly impact mothers’ sensitivity to their infants’ needs as well as infants’ social and emotional development. The still-face paradigm (SFP) is widely used to assess infants’ understanding of the contingency between their own behavior and that of their caregivers, as well as infants’ ability to self-regulate arousal levels during sudden changes in maternal responsiveness. Infants of clinically depressed mothers display blunted levels of negative affect compared to infants of non-depressed mothers during the still-face (SF) phase. However, little is known about whether individual differences in elevated, non-clinical levels of maternal depression similarly affect mother-infant interactions. The current study examines the longitudinal effects of non-clinical maternal depression on infant and maternal behaviors during the SFP. Infants (N = 63) were assessed at 5 and 9 months and maternal depression was assessed at 5 months using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Infants of mothers with elevated levels of depression displayed less negative engagement during the SF phase compared to infants of mothers with lower levels of depression. This effect was present at 5 months, but not at 9 months. Findings demonstrate that non-clinical levels of maternal depressive symptomatology can have a significant impact on infants’ affective regulation during the first half of the first year of life, but this does not necessarily have a long-lasting influence later in infancy. Interventions may want to target mothers with non-clinical depression to promote healthy infant social and emotional development.     

Identifying the interaction of maternal sensitivity and two serotonin-related gene polymorphisms on infant self-regulation

During infancy, orienting and gaze aversion serve as major self-regulatory mechanisms and play an important role in the development of deliberate self-regulation and control. The present study examined the interaction of intrinsic factors (MAOA-uVNTR and 5-HTTLPR gene polymorphisms) and extrinsic factors (maternal sensitivity) on early infant self-regulatory behavior. We assessed 5-HTTLPR (ss + sl versus ll) and MAOA-uVNTR (3 and 4 among boys, and 3/3, 3/4, and 4/4 among girls) polymorphisms, determined maternal sensitivity during mother–child free play, and coded infant self-regulatory behavior (i.e., orienting shifts in a temperament test) in 281 six-month-old infants. We found that infants who experienced a lower level of maternal sensitivity and had the short allele of 5-HTTLPR variants and the 3/3 MAOA-uVNTR polymorphism displayed lower self-regulation capacity than did those infants with a higher level of maternal sensitivity. This finding suggested a modulatory role of maternal sensitivity. Moreover, these findings are consistent with the genetic vulnerability hypothesis, which states that beneficial environmental factors serve as a buffer against harmful genetic predispositions during child development.     

Infants' sensitivity to pictorial depth cues: a review and meta-analysis of looking studies

This paper reviews habituation-dishabituation and preferential-looking studies on the emergence of sensitivity to pictorial depth cues in infancy. This research can be subdivided into two groups. While one group of studies has established responsiveness to pictorial depth cues at 3-5 months of age, the other has found that the ability to extract pictorial 3D information emerges at about 6 months. In the former, young infants were tested for their ability to distinguish between displays that differ in spatial information provided by pictorial depth cues. The results of these studies might demonstrate that 3-5-month-old infants perceive spatial layout from pictorial cues. It is possible, however, that the infants in these studies responded primarily to low-level, two-dimensional stimulus differences. In contrast, the second group of studies controlled for the potential influence of lower-level stimulus features on the infants' experimental performance and more unambiguously demonstrated sensitivity to pictorial depth information in infants 6 months of age and older. In sum, the divergent findings of studies in this area may be resolved by assuming substantial developmental progress in infant sensitivity to pictorial depth cues during the first months of life.     

Assessing visual STM in infants and adults: eye movements and pupil dynamics reflect memory maintenance

Though previous work has demonstrated substantial short-term memory (STM) development in the first year of life (e.g., Ross-Sheehy, S., Oakes, L. M., & Luck, S. J. 2003. The development of visual short-term memory capacity in Infants. Child Development, 74(6), 1807–1822. doi:10.1046/j.1467-8624.2003.00639.x), limitations in infant-based procedures make it difficult to assess the continuity of STM mechanisms from infancy though adulthood. The goal of the current work is to present data collected from both infants and adults using a novel STM assessment task. Eye-tracking was used to capture gaze and pupillometry in 5-, 8- and 11-month-old infants and adults (n?=?176). Infant data replicate and extend previous findings demonstrating clear evidence of STM improvement from 5- to 11-months-of-age. Analysis of adult data reveal qualitatively similar patterns of responding, and additionally reveal several behavioural markers of STM accuracy including pupil dilation, saccade count, and switching. These results suggest that change-detection tasks recruit similar memory mechanisms in both infants and adults, and further suggest that visual dynamics may provide important new continuous measures of STM from infancy through adulthood.     

Prenatal anxiety effects: A review

This review is based on literature on prenatal anxiety effects that was found on Pubmed and PsycINFO for the years 2010–2016. Prenatal anxiety is thought to have distinct features, although it has been measured both by specific prenatal anxiety symptoms as well as by standardized anxiety scales. Its prevalence has ranged from 21 to 25% and it has been predicted by a number of pregnancy – related variables such as unintended pregnancy, demographic variables such as low acculturation and income and psychosocial factors including pessimism and partner tension. Prenatal anxiety effects on pregnancy include increased cortisol levels, pro-inflammatory cytokines, obstetric problems and cesarean section. Effects on the neonate include lower gestational age, prematurity, less insulin-like growth factor in cord blood, less exclusive breast-feeding and less self-regulation during the heelstick procedure. Prenatal anxiety effects continue into infancy and childhood both on physiological development and emotional/mental development. Among the physiological effects are lower vagal activity across the first two years, and lower immunity, more illnesses and reduced gray matter in childhood. Prenatal anxiety effects on emotional/mental development include greater negative emotionality and in infants, lower mental development scores and internalizing problems. Anxiety disorders occur during childhood and elevated cortisol and internalizing behaviors occur during adolescence. Interventions for prenatal anxiety are virtually nonexistent, although stroking (massaging) the infant has moderated the pregnancy – specific anxiety effects on internalizing behaviors in the offspring. The limitations of this literature include the homogeneity of samples, the frequent use of anxiety measures that are not specific to pregnancy, and the reliance on self-report. Nonetheless, the literature highlights the negative, long-term effects of prenatal anxiety and the need for screening and early interventions.     

Humour Perception and Creation between Parents and 3‐ to 6‐month‐old Infants

Humour and laughter are universal to the human psychological experience and have serious developmental and evolutionary implications. Despite the early emergence of laughter in infancy, infants have been largely ignored in the humour research and humour has been largely ignored in the infant research. The present study describes the emergence of humour perception and creation in a sample of 20 parent–infant dyads who were followed from ages 3‐to‐ 6 months. The study examined how infants discover that absurd nonverbal behaviour, known as ‘clowning’, is amusing in the context of social engagement with caregivers. Results indicate that parents primarily use clowning when attempting to amuse their infants and pair these behavioural absurdities with affective cues like smiling and laughing. As they got older, infants were more likely to laugh and smile in response to clowning. Infants' ability to create humor via clowning also increased with age, starting with simple shrieks at 3 months to imitating absurd actions by 5 months. These increases are partly potentially explained by accompanying increases in parental smiling, laughing and clowning in response to infant clowning. Future research should employ more diverse samples and experimentally investigate the role of parental affect and social referencing in infants' interpretation of absurd behavior. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dynamics of the dyad: How mothers and infants co-construct interaction spaces during object play

Studies of dyadic interaction often examine infants’ social exchanges with their caregivers in settings that constrain their physical properties (e.g., infant posture, fixed seating location for infants and adults). Methodological decisions about the physical arrangements of interaction, however, may limit our ability to understand how posture and position shape them. Here we focused on these embodied properties of dyadic interaction in the context of object play. We followed 30 mother–infant dyads across the first year of life (at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months) and observed them during 5 min of play with a standard set of toys. Using an interval-based coding system, we measured developmental change in infant posture, how mothers and infants positioned themselves relative to one another, and how they populated interaction spaces with objects. Results showed that mother–infant dyads co-constructed interaction spaces and that the contributions of each partner changed across development. Dyads progressively adopted a broader spatial co-orientation during play (e.g., positioned at right angles) across the first year. Moreover, advances in infants’ postural skills, particularly increases in the use of independent sitting in real time, uniquely predicted change in dyadic co-orientation and infants’ actions with objects, independent of age. Taken together, we show that the embodied properties of dyadic object play help determine how interactions are physically organized and unfold, both in real time and across the first year of life.     

Goodness of fit between prenatal maternal sleep and infant sleep: Associations with maternal depression and attachment security

The current study prospectively examined the ways in which goodness of fit between maternal and infant sleep contributes to maternal depressive symptoms and the mother-child relationship across the first years of life. In a sample of 173 mother-child dyads, maternal prenatal sleep, infant sleep, maternal depressive symptoms, and mother-child attachment security were assessed via self-report, actigraphy, and observational measures. Results suggested that a poor fit between mothers’ prenatal sleep and infants’ sleep at 8 months (measured by sleep diary and actigraphy) was associated with maternal depressive symptoms at 15 months. Additionally, maternal depression mediated the association between the interplay of mother and infant sleep (measured by sleep diary) and mother-child attachment security at 30 months. Findings emphasize the importance of the match between mother and infant sleep on maternal wellbeing and mother-child relationships and highlight the role of mothers’ perceptions of infant sleep.     

Parent–Infant Synchrony: Biological Foundations and Developmental Outcomes

ABSTRACT— Synchrony—a construct used across multiple fields to denote the temporal relationship between events—has been applied to the study of mother–infant interaction and is suggested here as a framework for the study of interpersonal relationships. Defined as the temporal coordination of micro-level social behavior, parent–infant synchrony is charted in its development across infancy from the initial consolidation of biological rhythms during pregnancy to the emergence of symbolic exchange between parent and child. Synchrony is shown to depend on physiological mechanisms supporting bond formation in mammals—particularly physiological oscillators and neuroendocrine systems such as those involving the hormone oxytocin. Developmental outcomes of the synchrony experience are observed in the domains of self-regulation, symbol use, and the capacity for empathy across childhood and adolescence. Specific disruptions to the parameters of synchrony that may be observed in various pathological conditions, such as prematurity or maternal affective disorder, are detailed. A time-based, micro-analytic behavioral approach to the study of human relationship may offer new insights on intersubjectivity across the lifespan.