Impact of mother interactive style on infant affect among babies exposed to alcohol in utero

This study examined the ability of infants prenatally exposed to alcohol to regulate their affect during and after a stressor. Specifically, the Still‐Face Paradigm (Tronick, Als, Adamson, Wise, ' Brazelton, 1978) was used as a stress induction paradigm to assess both mother‐infant interaction and infant self‐regulation. In addition to the mothers' interactive style, the effect of mothers' drinking during and after pregnancy on the infant was explored. Participants were 76 six‐month‐old infants and their mothers. Infant affect and maternal interaction style was coded second‐by‐second for the 6 min of the Still‐Face Paradigm. Results indicated that infants whose mothers made fewer attempts at engaging them during the play portion of the still‐face (e.g., either watched their infant or paid minimal attention to their infant) showed greater negative affect in contrast to infants whose mothers played in an interactive manner. A gender effect was found among female infants. That is, female infants whose mothers drank more during pregnancy showed greater negative affect. The study demonstrates the possibility of early identification of negativity in infants with prenatal alcohol exposure. The impact of mother‐child relationship on emotional regulation of infants prenatally alcohol exposed may be a target of future intervention and further study.