Early mother-infant interaction during breast- and bottle-feeding

Thirty-two primiparous mothers with their neonates, 20 breast-fed and 12 bottle-fed, were videotaped during feeding longitudinally (at 3, 10 days, 1 and 3 months) in order to investigate whether patterns of mother-infant interaction observed during breast- and bottle-feeding differ also for behavior not directly related to sucking. Infant state, sucking behavior, mother behavior and mother-infant interaction were analyzed by both sequential and non sequential analysis. Results suggest that the method of feedings affects mother-infant interaction observed during and just after feeding also for some behavior not directly related to sucking. The percentage of mutual touch, tactile stimulation and mother's gaze to infant was significantly more elevated during breast-feeding. Independently of the feeding mode, significant sequential dependencies between infant state of alertness and auditory stimulation, and auditory stimulation and mutual gaze were found.     

Application of piecewise hierarchical linear growth modeling to the study of continuity in behavioral development of baboons (Papio hamadryas)

In behavioral science, developmental discontinuities are thought to arise when the association between an outcome measure and the underlying process changes over time. Sudden changes in behavior across time are often taken to indicate that a reorganization in the outcome-process relationship may have occurred. The authors proposed in this article the use of piecewise hierarchical linear growth modeling as a statistical methodology to search for discontinuities in behavioral development and illustrated its possibilities by applying 2-piece hierarchical linear models to the study of developmental trajectories of baboon (Papio hamadryas) mothers' behavior during their infants' 1st year of life. The authors provided empirical evidence that piecewise growth modeling can be used to determine whether abrupt changes in development trajectories are tied to changes in the underlying process.     

Mother-infant interactions in western Lowland Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla): spatial relationships,communication, and opportunities for social learning

This study investigated mother-infant interactions in lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) with particular focus on the relative role of mothers and infants in creating situations that are potentially conducive to infant social learning. Eleven gorilla mother-infant dyads were focally observed in weekly 1-hr sessions for 12 months. Spatial relationships were affected by age as well as by ambient temperature. Although the youngest infant was encouraged by its mother to walk and climb, mothers showed little or no encouragement in other contexts. In contrast, infants were quite interested in their mothers' activities, on some occasions repeated their mother's behavior, and actively encouraged their mothers to share food, play, or follow them. These findings suggest that gorilla infants are more active than their mothers in creating situations that are potentially conducive to the acquisition of knowledge or skills.     

Revisiting rapprochement in the light of contemporary developmental theories

Margaret Mahler's thinking, revolutionary for its time, led to the observational study of mother-infant pairs, followed almost day by day as the preverbal infant developed into a toddler whose increasing cognitive capacities made new demands on the mother's presence and emotional availability. The rapprochement crisis, as formulated based on these observations, is reexamined in the light of contemporary theory, and the concept of co-construction is used to show how mother and toddler repair misunderstandings and inevitable conflicts. With the growth of new verbal capacities during rapprochement, the toddler moves from early, sensorimotor interactions to interactions governed by language, in the process gaining new understanding of his or her emotional life.     

Discontinuities in early development of the understanding of physical causality

Research on early physical reasoning has shown surprising discontinuities in developmental trajectories. Infants possess some skills that seem to disappear and then re-emerge in childhood. It has been suggested that prediction skills required in search tasks might cause these discontinuities (Keen, 2003). We tested 3.5- to 5-year-olds’ understanding of collision events using a forced-choice paradigm with reduced prediction demands. Although the group as a whole performed at chance level, when the preschoolers were subdivided into three age groups, the oldest group performed above chance level. These findings suggest that it is unlikely to be prediction skills that affect young preschoolers’ performance on physical reasoning tasks. The findings lend support to a task-demand hypothesis, which proposes that discontinuities in developmental trajectories can be explained by differences in the extent to which cognitive processes are required by the different tasks.     

Developmental changes in mother-infant face-to-face communication: birth to 3 months

This study documented the growth of the earliest form of face-to-face communication in 16 mother-infant dyads, videotaped weekly during a naturalistic face-to-face interaction, between 1 and 14 weeks, in 2 conditions: with the infant in the mother's arms and with the infant semi-reclined on a sofa. Results showed a curvilinear development of early face-to-face communication, with a significant increase occurring between Week 4 and Week 9 depending on the dyad. After 2 months, trajectories diverged into 2 groups: I whose duration of face-to-face communication continued to increase and I whose duration peaked and then began to decrease. After the 1st month, the duration of face-to-face communication was significantly longer when the infant was on the sofa rather than in the mother's arms. In the latter condition, during the 3rd month, girls spent a significantly longer time than boys in face-to-face communication. These findings suggest that context (infant being held vs. not being held) interacts with the infant's age and sex in affecting mother-infant communication.     

Sequelae of cesarean and vaginal deliveries: psychosocial outcomes for mothers and infants

Mother-infant dyads grouped according to whether the infants had been delivered vaginally (n = 74) or by planned (n = 37) or unplanned cesarean (n = 56) were compared on psychosocial outcomes at 4 and 12 months postpartum. Hypotheses were that unplanned cesarean delivery would be related to less optimal outcomes and that this relationship would be mediated by mother's appraisal of the delivery and would attenuate over time. No delivery-related differences in mother-infant interactions were found at 4 or 12 months postpartum with one exception: Women low in neuroticism who delivered by unplanned cesarean showed less positive affect toward their infants at 4 months than did women high in neuroticism who delivered by unplanned cesarean or women in any other group. There was some evidence of the mediating role of maternal appraisal of the delivery on these effects. In general, the results indicate little cause for concern about the quality of mother-infant interactions following cesarean deliveries.     

Sex-typing in infancy: The role of the father

Recent research on mother-infant interaction has provided little empirical support for the role of environmental factors in early sex-role development. In this paper, considerable support for the father's role is presented. Specifically, the research on mother- and father-infant interaction patterns is reviewed in order to describe developmental changes in the nature of differential treatment of the sexes during the first two years of life. Together, the studies reviewed highlight the importance of the father in early sex-role socialization, delineate a developmental model of the early differential treatment of the sexes, and provide clues as to the origins of later childhood sex differences in verbal and visual-spatial abilities.     

Early stress and social support influences on mothers' and high-risk infants' functioning in late infancy

The relationships among early stress, maternal social network supports, and mother-infant functioning during later infancy were explored in a group of 52 mothers and their high-risk premature infants. Maternal stress and support data were collected 1 month after infants were released from the hospital, and measures of parenting, mother-infant interaction, infant social and developmental competence, and infant attachment were collected at infant corrected ages of 8 and 12 months. Results indicated that stress and support from various ecological sources, including professionals, were related to parent and infant outcomes at both measurement occasions. Varying sources of support differentially predicted varying parent and infant measures where support had a stress buffering effect only under certain conditions. Professional support was found to account for significant amounts of variance in relation to some parenting factors beyond that attributable to other support sources. The results are discussed within the context of previous support findings and in relation to transactional models of high-risk infant development.     

Dimensions of naturally occurring mother-infant separations during the first year of life

The goals of this paper are (1) to introduce a methodology developed to study mother-infant separations that occur in the context of normal family life, including but going beyond separations associated with maternal employment; (2) to present illustrative data that describe the range of separations experienced by one sample of infants; and (3) to demonstrate how a focus on specific underlying dimensions results in a more precise characterization of the separation experience. It is necessary to identify the specific dimensions on which mother-infant separations vary in order to clarify which aspects of separation are relevant to child outcome. Detailed histories of mother-infant separations and concomitant substitute care during the first year of life were obtained by interview from 144 middle-class mothers of first-born infants. Far from being an unusual event, separation from mother was a normal experience during infancy for this sample. Six types of separation were identified, the majority of which have not been studied previously. Analyses indicated that naturally occurring mother-infant separations can be differentiated statistically and compared in terms of amount of separation, stability of care, characteristics of caregivers, and characteristics of the substitute care setting.     

婴儿期母亲将心比心对儿童5岁共情的预测:母亲陪伴总时间的调节作用

使用追踪设计，以68对母婴为被试，探讨母亲养育质量、陪伴时间影响儿童共情发展的机制。在婴儿期（9、14个月）评估母亲将心比心并调查母亲每周陪伴婴儿的总时间与母亲参与的互动时间；在儿童5岁时，采用“陌生人假装受伤情境”范式测查儿童共情。结果发现：（1）婴儿期母亲恰当的心理相关评论能够正向预测5岁时儿童的行为共情，而对情绪共情与认知共情的预测则受到婴儿期母亲陪伴总时间的调节：母亲恰当的心理相关评论能够显著正向预测陪伴总时间短的儿童的情绪共情与母亲陪伴总时间长的儿童的认知共情；（2）婴儿期母亲不协同的心理相关评论能够显著正向预测儿童5岁时的认知共情；（3）婴儿期母亲陪伴总时间能够显著正向预测5岁时儿童的情绪共情。     

Interrogatives in dialogue: Case study of mother and child 16–19 months

Question-answer sequences were examined within the dialogues of a mother-infant dyad. Mother and male infant were observed at the infant's ages of 16, 17, 18, and 19 months. The structure, content, and function of the mother's questions were analyzed in conjunction with the child's contingent responses. The child exhibited an increase in overall responsiveness to his mother's questions for the period observed. In terms of question structure and content, at about 17 months the mother began to ask more of those questions to which the child responded with a higher percentage of relevant-appropriate responses. In terms of question function, no single systematic pattern of change occurred in the frequencies of various question functions and responses. It was concluded that the present data describe a process of simultaneous change in the direction of greater congruency between mother and child behaviors, although further research is needed to determine the generalizability of the present results.     

Maternal correlates of stability and change in infant-mother attachment

The relations between maternal control style, sensitivity, and childrearing attitudes on one hand and the stability of the infant-mother attachment relationship on the other were examined in a sample of 38 mother-infant dyads. The mother-child pairs were observed during a structured play session and in Ainsworth's Strange Situation when the infants were 12 and 20 months old, a developmental period characterized by increased autonomous functioning. Our results suggested that infants whose mothers had nonpunitive childrearing attitudes, were sensitive, and supportive of their infants' striving toward autonomy remained, or became, secure in their attachment relationship over their second year of life. Mothers who were more punitive, more controlling, and less sensitive had infants who either remained or became insecurely attached across this developmental period. While previous research has linked attachment stability to socioeconomic factors, the present investigation points to the importance of more subtle interactive variables to the understanding of the attachment relationship.     

Early home intervention and socio-emotional development of preterm infants

In the present study, the effects of developmental intervention and parent-infant interaction intervention on the social competence and emotional development of preterm infants were assessed. The results suggest that early home intervention focused on the infant's development facilitates social competence and adaptation, whereas intervention focused on the parent-infant interaction resulted in greater emotional security on the part of the infant. Social competence during the second year of life was predicted by social competence at 8 months and emotional security at 12 and 16 months. These findings have implications for early identification of infants at risk of later socio-emotional difficulties and intervention with dysfunctional mother-infant dyads.     

How do mothers signal shared feeling‐states to their infants? An investigation of affect attunement and imitation during the first year of life

The present study examined how mothers signal shared feeling-states to their infants. Affect attunement and imitation were investigated cross-culturally in 39 mother-infant dyads from Sweden (N = 22) and the former Yugoslavia (N = 17) during the first year of life. Video-recordings of playful interaction between mothers and their infants were analysed using the Affect Attunement Protocol. A significant negative association between imitation and age was found, while there was a significant positive association between affect attunement and age. Single occurrences of affect attunement appeared already at two or three months of age, and by 6 months of age episodes of affect attunement were more common than imitation. Frequencies of imitation and affect attunement were similar cross-culturally and in terms of gender, although there was a significant interaction between age and gender. The results suggest that the signalling of shared feeling-states is not a static process. Mothers do not signal shared feeling-states in the same manner at different ages. Imitation is the most important process during the earliest months, but is superseded by affect attunement earlier than previously thought. The functional implications of this developmental variation are discussed.     

Discontinuities in the male psyche: waiting, deadness and disembodiment. Archetypal and clinical approaches

The discontinuities of development in the male psyche that are manifested in some analyses in unconscious experiences of inner disintegration are described. Narcissism and a de-somatized relationship to their own presence are the dominant clinical presentation in these patients. The analyst sometimes experiences these analyses as 'dead', as a result of the projection of a 'dead mother' object. The question of how psychic deadness and impotence can be worked with is examined. Clinical experience with these men shows how notions associated with the puer-senex archetype can illuminate the stark realities of a patient's early experiences, particularly in how mother's presence is felt. A theoretical and clinical bridge is proposed between puer and narcissus to frame how a man may unconsciously strive against psychic fragmentation by clinging to an identification with both--in order to remain intact in the face of being caught in a pre-pubescent state which reflects the insecure attachment to mother. The author describes how patients may find a more grounded embrace of reality via the use of the analyst's empathy and a greater potency through work in the transference/countertransference. These strengthening achievements help men to begin to leave the 'dead mother' behind.     

Reciprocity in a Securely Attached Mother-Infant Dyad

This article describes the interactions between a highly attuned, sensitive mother, who had the capacity to achieve primary maternal preoccupation, and her infant during his first four months of life. The evolving secure attachment patterns discerned from weekly observations in a naturalistic setting correspond with Beatrice Beebe’s findings using microanalysis of mother-infant face-to-face interactions to predict the nature of the four-month infant’s emerging internal working model of attachment. Using a series of vignettes, the author illustrates how this mother-infant dyad were adept at coordinating their attention, affective responses, vocal rhythms, and touch in ways that seemed to promote feelings of mutual recognition and enjoyment for them both. The mother’s capacity for reflective functioning enabled her to imagine what her baby was feeling and to consistently comfort him, contributing to the formation of their secure mother-infant bond.     

Modeling developmental transitions in adaptive resonance theory

Neural networks are applied to a theoretical subject in developmental psychology: modeling developmental transitions. Two issues that are involved will be discussed: discontinuities and acquiring qualitatively new knowledge. We will argue that by the appearance of a bifurcation, a neural network can show discontinuities and may acquire qualitatively new knowledge. First, it is shown that biological principles of neurite outgrowth result in self-organization in a neural network, which is strongly dependent on a bifurcation in the activity dynamics. Second, the effect of a bifurcation due to morphological change is investigated in an Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) network. Exact ART networks with quantitative differences in network structure at the category level show qualitatively different dynamical regimes, which are separated by bifurcations. These qualitative differences in dynamics affect the cognitive function of Exact ART: Representations of learned categories are local or distributed.