Mother and father interaction with their 3-month-old infants: Similarities and differences in parenting behaviour in well-resourced parents

Infancy is characterized by intensive parenting which may affect later child development. However, little is known about similarities and differences in maternal and paternal parenting behaviour, as the majority of the studies have mainly focused on mothers. The present study investigated similarities and differences in mothers’ and fathers’ parenting behaviour during parent-infant interaction in 56 mothers and 56 fathers of 3-months-old infants in a good-resourced sample. Parent-child interactions were videotaped and coded by the Global Rating Scales. Results suggested similar parenting behaviour in terms of maternal and paternal sensitivity, intrusiveness and remoteness. Moreover, regardless of sex infant’s behaviour was similar during interactions with mothers and fathers. The low-risk and non-clinical nature of our sample may have had a positive influence on mother-child and father-child dyadic exchanges. These findings suggest including family system models in research and clinical practice.     

儿童入学准备状态的理论模型与干预途径

入学准备状态是指学龄前儿童为了能够从即将开始的正规学校教育中受益所需要具备的各种关键特征或基础条件。本文从三个方面介绍了国外关于儿童入学准备状态研究的新进展：（1）儿童学校适应结果的早期预测因素和儿童入学准备状态的生态学模型;（2）入学准备状态评定工具的发展状况和效度评价; （3）国外针对入学准备状态不足儿童采用的干预措施及其效果评价。最后,对当前研究的不足和未来发展方向进行了讨论,并结合文化差异对开展中国儿童入学准备状态研究提出了建议。     

父亲参与教养状况对学前儿童社会技能的作用

作为孩子成长的关键人物之一,父亲对儿童早期的社会性发展具有重要作用。本研究以184名学前中班儿童及其父母为被试,考察父亲参与教养的量(参与教养的时间)和质(积极教养行为)对儿童早期社会技能的作用。结果发现:(1)控制母亲积极教养行为以后,父亲参与教养时间仍显著预测儿童的社会技能,父亲积极教养行为的预测作用不再显著。(2)控制母亲积极教养行为后,父亲参与教养时间显著预测女孩的合作性、责任感、自我控制及总体社会技能,边缘显著预测男孩的主张性;父亲积极教养行为边缘显著预测男孩的主张性,对女孩各项社会技能的预测均不显著。(3)父亲参与教养时间显著预测母亲积极教养水平低组儿童的合作性、主张性、责任感、自我控制及总体社会技能,父亲积极教养行为边缘显著预测母亲积极教养低组儿童的合作性和总体社会技能。表明父亲参与教养对母亲消极教养具有缓冲作用,其中父亲参与教养时间的缓冲效应更明显。     

Difficult Differences: A Socio‐cultural Analysis of How Diversity Can Enable and Inhibit Creativity

The relationship between diversity and creativity can be seen as paradoxical. A diversity of perspectives should be advantageous for collaborative creativity, yet its benefits are often offset by adverse social processes. One suggestion for overcoming these negative effects is perspective taking. We compared four dyads with low scores on trait perspective taking with four dyads who were high on trait perspective taking on a brainstorming task followed by reconstructive interviews. Trait‐based perspective taking was strongly associated with greater creativity. However, contrary with expectation, interactional perspective taking behaviors (including questioning, signaling understanding, repairing) were associated with lesser creativity. The dyads that generated the fewest ideas were most likely to get stuck within ideational domains, struggling to understand one‐another, having to elaborate and justify their ideas more. In contrast, the dyads that generated many ideas were more likely to recognize each other's ideas as valuable without extensive justification or negotiation. We suggest that perspective taking is crucially important for mediating diversity in the generation of new ideas not only because it enables understanding the perspective of the other, but because it entails an atmosphere of tolerance, playfulness, and mutual recognition.     

Rowing together: Interpersonal coordination dynamics with and without mechanical coupling

Although most research on interpersonal coordination focuses on perceptual forms of interaction, many interpersonal actions also involve interactions of mechanical nature. We examined the effect of mechanical coupling in a rowing task from a coupled oscillator perspective: 16 pairs of rowers rowed on ergometers that were physically connected through slides (mechanical coupling condition) or on separate ergometers (no mechanical coupling condition). They rowed in two patterns (in- and antiphase) and at two movement frequencies (20 and 30 strokes per minute). Seven out of sixteen pairs showed one or more coordinative breakdowns, which only occurred in the antiphase condition. The occurrence of these breakdowns was not affected by mechanical coupling, nor by movement frequency. For the other nine pairs, variability of steady state coordination was substantially lower in the mechanical coupling condition. Together, these results show that the increase in coupling strength through mechanical coupling stabilizes coordination, even more so for antiphase coordination.     

Caregivers’ emotional competence and behavioral responsiveness as correlates of early childcare workers’ relationships with children in their care

In the current study, we examined associations among early childcare workers’ emotional competence, observed responsiveness, comfort with socioemotional teaching practices, and the quality of their relationships with children in their care. The participants were 100 early childcare workers (72 center-based Early Head Start teachers and 28 family childcare providers). Results showed that caregivers’ emotion regulation ability was positively associated with caregiver–child relational closeness. Understanding and regulation of emotion were both positively associated with childcare workers’ comfort with socioemotional teaching practices. Their observed responsiveness was positively related to relational closeness and negatively related to relational conflict. Findings are consistent with aspects of the prosocial classroom model, which asserts that educators high in emotional and social competence tend to adopt childcare practices that result in supportive relationships with children. Results provide insight into whether childcare workers’ responsiveness to young children and their perceived socioemotional teaching practices provide a pathway between emotional competence and the quality of caregiver–child relationships.     

A novel two-body sensor system to study spontaneous movements in infants during caregiver physical contact

Spontaneous movements, which refer to repetitive limb movements in the absence of any external stimulus, have been found to be reflective of neurodevelopmental status during infancy. These movements are modulated by both individual and environmental factors, including physical contact (holding) with the caregiver. However, it is a challenge to measure spontaneous movements during physical contact because infant-generated movements become coupled with caregiver-generated movements in such contexts. Here, we propose the use of a novel two-body sensor system to distinguish infant-generated movements in the presence of physical contact with the caregiver. Data from seven typically developing infants and their caregivers were recorded during different simulated home activities, which involved different combinations of physical interaction, caregiver’s movement and infant positions. The two-body sensor system consisted of two wearable accelerometers – one placed on the infant’s arm and one on the caregiver’s arm, and we developed a Kalman-filter based algorithm to isolate the infant-generated movements. In addition, video was recorded for qualitative analysis. Results indicated that spontaneous movement activity was higher when there was no physical contact with caregiver. When there was physical contact, spontaneous movements were increased when the caregiver was still and when the infant was held horizontally. These results show that the novel two-body sensor system and the associated algorithms were able to isolate infant-generated movements during physical contact with the caregiver. This approach holds promise for the automated long-term tracking of spontaneous movements in infants, which may provide critical insight into developmental disorders.