Social referencing in 10-month-old infants

In Experiment 1, forty 10-month-old infants participated together with an experimenter and a parent in a social referencing encounter. The experimenter or the parent presented an ambiguous toy. Neither of the adults provided information about the toy in order to examine infant spontaneous looking behaviour. The infants looked more at both adults when the experimenter presented the toy. In Experiment 2, forty-four 10-month-old infants participated. The experimenter or the parent provided positive information about an ambiguous toy. The infants played more with the toy when the experimenter provided information than when the parent did. The results are discussed in terms of seeking information from knowledgeable others in ambiguous situations.     

Social looking,social referencing and humor perception in 6- and-12-month-old infants

Social referencing refers to infants’ use of caregivers as emotional referents in ambiguous situations (Walden, 1993). Studies of social referencing typically require ambulation, thereby over-looking younger, non-ambulatory infants (i.e., ≤8-months) and resulting in a widespread assumption that young infants do not employ this strategy. Using a novel approach that does not require mobility, we found that when parents provided unsolicited affective cues during an ambiguous-absurd (i.e., humorous) event, 6-month-olds employ one component of social referencing, social looking Additionally, 6-month-olds who did not laugh at the event were significantly more likely to look toward parents than their counterparts who found the event funny. Sequential analyses revealed that, following a reference to a smiling parent, 6-month olds were more likely to smile at the parent, but by 12 months were more likely to smile at the event suggesting that older infants are influenced by parental affect in humorous situations. The developmental implications of these findings are discussed, as well as the usefulness of studying humor for understanding important developmental phenomena.     

Acquisition of social referencing via discrimination training in infants

This experiment investigated social referencing as a form of discriminative learning in which maternal facial expressions signaled the consequences of the infant's behavior in an ambiguous context. Eleven 4- and 5-month-old infants and their mothers participated in a discrimination-training procedure using an ABAB design. Different consequences followed infants' reaching toward an unfamiliar object depending on the particular maternal facial expression. During the training phases, a joyful facial expression signaled positive reinforcement for the infant reaching for an ambiguous object, whereas a fearful expression signaled aversive stimulation for the same response. Baseline and extinction conditions were implemented as controls. Mothers' expressions acquired control over infants' approach behavior for all participants. All participants ceased to show discriminated responding during the extinction phase. The results suggest that 4- and 5-month-old infants can learn social referencing via discrimination training.     

Social pretence with mothers and peers at 15 months

Previous research has shown that adults scaffold and direct early infant social pretend play making it difficult to establish infants' own contribution to pretence. To examine infants' social pretence abilities the present study compared infants' social pretend play in interactions with adults and same-age peers, who have similar socio-cognitive competence. Forty-five 15-month-old infants were observed during free-play interactions with their mother and two same-age, same-gender peers. The frequency and duration of parallel and coordinated social pretence were coded during both interactions. Results showed that while infants played pretence with both social partners, they engaged in more and longer coordinated social pretence with their mothers than with peers. Thus, although competent social partners play an important role in scaffolding complex pretence, infants' own socio-cognitive abilities contribute to the development of social pretence and enable them to pretend play with different partners regardless of their competencies.     

Contribution of facial and vocal cues in the still-face response of 4-month-old infants

The contribution of contingent facial and vocal information in the still-face effect was investigated. Four-month-old infants either saw and heard their mother, only saw their mother, or only heard their mother interacting with them. These interaction periods were followed by the cessation of the mother's interactive face and/or voice. Only infants who observed their mother's face become still and neutral, showed a still-face effect by decreasing their visual attention and positive affect. The findings provide further support that the mother's interactive voice does not contribute to the still-face effect. The developing sensitivity to vocal information in dyadic and triadic contexts is discussed.     

Precursors of social emotional functioning among full-term and preterm infants at 12 months: Early infant withdrawal behavior and symptoms of maternal depression

This study forms part of a longitudinal investigation of early infant social withdrawal, maternal symptoms of depression and later child social emotional functioning. The sample consisted of a group of full-term infants (N = 238) and their mothers, and a group of moderately premature infants (N = 64) and their mothers. At 3 months, the infants were observed with the Alarm Distress Baby Scale (ADBB) and the mothers completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). At 12 months, the mothers filled out questionnaires about the infants’ social emotional functioning (Infant Toddler Social Emotional Assessment and the Ages and Stages Questionnaire-Social Emotional). At 3 months, as we have previously shown, the premature infants had exhibited more withdrawal behavior and their mothers reported elevated maternal depressive symptoms as compared with the full-born group. At 12 months the mothers of the premature infants reported more child internalizing behavior. These data suggest that infant withdrawal behavior as well as maternal depressive mood may serve as sensitive indices of early risk status. Further, the results suggest that early maternal depressive symptoms are a salient predictor of later child social emotional functioning. However, neither early infant withdrawal behavior, nor gestational age, did significantly predict social emotional outcome at 12 months. It should be noted that the differences in strength of the relations between ADBB and EPDS, respectively, to the outcome at 12 months was modest. An implication of the study is that clinicians should be aware of the complex interplay between early infant withdrawal and signs of maternal postpartum depression in planning ports of entry for early intervention.     

Uncertainty matters: impact of stimulus ambiguity on infant social referencing

Most infant social referencing studies have assumed that infants would be more likely to engage in social looking and be influenced by adults' message when a context is ambiguous. The present study empirically tested the effect of stimulus ambiguity on infants' referencing behaviours, with three different stimuli (positive, ambiguous, and negative), two different messages (happy and fearful), two different message providers (mother and stranger), and in two age groups (12 and 16 month olds). A typical social referencing paradigm was used and infants' social looking and regulation were measured. Infants looked at adults more frequently and faster during ambiguous situations than during unambiguous situations. They also tended to regulate their affect and behaviour based on adults' message only towards ambiguous toys. Older infants tended to look at adults faster, and showed stronger reactions towards ambiguous stimuli than younger infants, suggesting that infants' social development may moderate the effect of stimulus ambiguity on social referencing. Overall, results indicated that the ambiguity postulate is a legitimate assumption for infant social referencing. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Inhibition of fear acquisition in toddlers following positive modelling by their mothers

The present study used an experimental design to investigate the role of modelling as a protective factor in fear and avoidance learning in a sample of 77 toddlers. Mothers and their 12-20-month-old children were randomly assigned to one of three pre-exposure conditions: (1) a modelling group (n=27) observed their mothers responding positively to a fear-relevant stimulus; (2) a stimulus-only group (n=25) were exposed to a fear-relevant stimulus alone; and (3) a control group (n=25) were exposed to neither modelling nor the stimulus alone. Children in all three groups were then subjected to an observational conditioning trial in which the experimenter reacted with fear and disgust toward the stimulus. When subsequently tested for the acquisition of fear, children in the modelling group showed more positive affective reactions and more approach behaviours than either controls or children exposed to the stimulus alone. The results demonstrate that very young children can rapidly form lasting associations between maternal affective reactions and novel, fear-relevant stimuli. Further, positive maternal reactions to a stimulus can over-ride any fear-evoking effect of negative reactions to that stimulus by a stranger.     

Emergence of amae crying in early infancy as a possible social communication tool between infants and mothers

Amae is defined as “wishing to be loved (Scheidlinger (1999). The Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, 27(1), p. 91)”. Amae crying is known as crying of infants when seeking intimate emotional communication with caregivers. The objective of this study was to delineate when and how amae crying emerges in early infancy. Crying episodes of four infants were observed bimonthly, in the natural context of their homes, from birth to 6 months of age, for approximately 60 min per session. Crying episodes (total = 275) as determined by two coders were analyzed with respect to several behavioral measures. Results indicated that amae crying emerged at the age of 2 months, and consistently accounted for 30–40% of the total crying episodes after the ages of 3 months. Amae crying could be accurately identified when infants were not in acute discomfort and had already got the attention of their mothers. At such times, infants did not shed tears, cried with a fussy voice, and frequently looked at their mothers. Mothers responded to amae crying more promptly than they did to other types of crying behaviors. It is concluded that 3 months of age, when infants probably begin to use crying as a social communication tool is a major turning point for crying behavior from the perspective of its biological and social roles. It is suggested that amae crying might play an important role in strengthening and encouraging mother–infant interactions.     

An associative learning deficit in 1-year-old infants of depressed mothers: role of depression duration

The effectiveness of infant-directed speech (IDS) produced by non-depressed mothers for promoting the acquisition of voice-face associations was investigated in 1-year-old children of depressed mothers in a conditioned-attention paradigm. Prior research suggested that infants of mothers with comparatively longer-duration depressive episodes exhibit poorer learning in response to non-depressed mothers’ IDS, but duration of depression was confounded with infant age. In the current study, 1-year-old infants of currently depressed mothers with relatively longer-duration depressive episodes (i.e., perinatal onset) showed significantly poorer learning than 1-year-olds of currently depressed mothers with relatively shorter duration depressive episodes (non-perinatal onset). This was true despite the fact that there were no measurable differences in the severity of depression, level of social functioning, or antidepressant medication use between the two groups. These findings add support to the hypothesis that there is an experience-based change in responsiveness to female IDS in infants of depressed mothers during the first year of life.     

The effects of social anxiety and depression on the evaluation of facial crowds

Facial crowds of emotion connoting approval or criticism are linked to the fears of socially anxious individuals. We examined evaluation ratings and decision latencies of mixed facial displays by individuals with generalized social phobia (GSPs, n = 18), individuals with comorbid depression and GSP (COMs, n = 18), and normal controls (CONs, n = 18). First, we postulated that GSPs will assign more negative ratings to predominantly disapproving audiences as compared to CONs, and that GSPs will be faster in their evaluation of these audiences (negative bias hypothesis). Second, we expected depression, but not social anxiety, to be associated with diminished positive evaluation of audiences containing predominantly happy expressions and with a slower processing of such positive cues (the impaired positivity hypothesis). Results supported the negative bias hypothesis, and provided partial support for the impaired positivity hypothesis. The importance of examining the processing of complex non-verbal cues in social anxiety and in depression is discussed.     

Humor styles impact the relationship between symptoms of social anxiety and depression

Recent research suggests that examining humor styles may contribute to our understanding of clinical problems, such as risk and resiliency. The goal of the current study was to examine whether humor styles moderate the association between social anxiety and depressive symptoms in an unselected sample. Three-hundred and six participants (66% female) at a large Southern US university completed self-report measures of humor styles and symptoms of social anxiety and depression. Regression analyses suggested that affiliative and self-defeating humor styles individually moderated the relationship between social anxiety and depressive symptoms. Clinical implications regarding the monitoring of humor use as a means of understanding the maintenance of depressive symptoms among socially anxious individuals are discussed.     

Patterns of psychological distress in mothers of preterm infants

Mothers of preterm infants experience significant psychological distress, with elevated levels of inter-correlated depressive, stress, anxiety and post-traumatic stress symptoms. In a sample of racially and ethnically diverse mothers of preterm infants, we identified differing patterns of psychological distress during infant hospitalization and examined the effect of these psychological distress patterns on longitudinal trajectories of each psychological distress measure and on maternal perceptions of the child over the first year of the infant's life. Mothers of preterm infants (N = 232) completed five questionnaires assessing depressive symptoms, anxiety, post-traumatic stress symptoms, stress due to infant appearance, and stress due to parental role alteration during enrollment during the neonatal hospitalization, discharge, and at 2, 6, and 12 months of age adjusted for prematurity. Latent class analysis on the enrollment psychological distress variables allowed us to identify five sub-groups of mothers exhibiting similar patterns of psychological distress, differing primarily in degree and type: low distress, moderate distress, high NICU-related distress, high depressive and anxiety symptoms, and extreme distress. These classes continued to show different longitudinal trajectories for the psychological distress measures through 12 months corrected age. Mothers in the extreme distress class and, to a lesser degree, mothers in the high depressive and anxiety symptom class remained at risk of significant psychological distress one year after discharge and had less positive perceptions of their child (greater worry and higher perceptions of child vulnerability). In conclusion, distinctive sub-groups of mothers during hospitalization had different patterns of psychological distress throughout the 12-month period and may require different interventions in the NICU.     

Vocal and facial expression matching in infants of mothers with depressive symptoms

This study investigated vocal and facial expression matching in 24 10-month-old infants. Half of the mothers had reported depressive symptoms [i.e., elevated scores on the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Index (CES-D)] during the previous week. Infants were tested using a two-screen preference procedure in which they were presented side-by-side videos of different facial expressions modeled by one female reciting a children's story. A centrally located speaker was used to present a vocal expression soundtrack that matched one of the facial expressions. Separate analyses of variances (ANOVAs) were conducted to analyze the proportion total matching and proportion total looking to the happy and sad expressions. Infants of mothers who reported depressive symptoms displayed less accurate matching of the happy facial and vocal expressions and looked more to sad facial expressions compared to infants of mothers who had not reported depressive symptoms above the normal range. Infants' performance on the expression matching task appears to be related to their primary caregivers' reports of depressive symptoms during the previous week. However, other factors that may be related to the group differences also need to be considered. For example, maternal reports of depressive symptoms may be a marker for other underlying factors that may have affected their infants' performance. © 1997 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health     

A Social Stories intervention package for students with autism in inclusive classroom settings

A Social Stories intervention package was used to teach 2 students with autism to read Social Stories, answer comprehension questions, and engage in role plays. Appropriate social behaviors increased and inappropriate behaviors decreased for both participants, and the effects were maintained for up to 10 months. This intervention package appears to be useful in inclusive classroom environments and does not require intensive supervision of the child's behavior.     

Prenatal depression predicts postpartum maternal attachment in low-income Latina mothers with infants

Although maternal attachment is an important predictor of infant attachment security and other developmental outcomes, little is known about the formation of maternal attachment in the first few months of the infant's life, particularly among ethnic minority mothers. The current study examined the predictors of postpartum maternal attachment in a sample of 217 Latina women enrolled in a perinatal depression prevention trial. Mothers’ attachment to their infants was measured at 6-8 weeks postpartum using the Maternal Postnatal Attachment Scale. A variety of predictors of early attachment were explored including: depressive symptoms during pregnancy, pregnancy intention, feelings about the pregnancy, and the quality of the partner relationship. The strongest predictor of lower maternal attachment was depressive symptoms late in pregnancy; pregnancy intention was marginally predictive of attachment, with lower scores being associated with unwanted pregnancies. The study fills a critical gap in our understanding of the role of depressive symptoms during pregnancy in shaping mothers’ early attachment to their infants.     

A dysphoric's TALE: The relationship between the self-reported functions of autobiographical memory and symptoms of depression

Autobiographical memory (AM) is believed to serve self, social and directive functions; however, little is known regarding how this triad of functions operates in depression. Using the Thinking About Life Experiences questionnaire [Bluck, S., & Alea, N. (2011). Crafting the TALE: Construction of a measure to assess the functions of autobiographical remembering. Memory, 19, 470–486.; Bluck, S., Alea, N., Habermas, T., & Rubin, D. C. (2005). A TALE of three functions: The self–reported uses of autobiographical memory. Social Cognition, 23, 91–117.], two studies explored the relationship between depressive symptomology and the self-reported frequency and usefulness of AMs for self, social and directive purposes. Study 1 revealed that thinking more frequently but talking less frequently about past life events was significantly associated with higher depression scores. Recalling past events more frequently to maintain self-continuity was also significantly associated with higher depressive symptomology. However, results from Study 2 indicated that higher levels of depression were also significantly associated with less-frequent useful recollections of past life events for self-continuity purposes. Taken together, the findings suggest atypical utilisations of AM to serve self-continuity functions in depression and can be interpreted within the wider context of ruminative thought processes.