To date, results have been inconsistent in whether mothers show higher parental sensitivity to their infant than fathers do. The context in which sensitivity is measured may play a role in these inconsistent findings, but this has not been examined yet. The aim of the current study was to test context as a source of variability in parental sensitivity, comparing maternal and paternal sensitivity to infants in four different observational settings. Participants included 109 families with their 4-month-old infants. Parental sensitivity was observed during a routine caregiving session, free play episode, and the baseline and reunion of the Still Face Procedure. Results demonstrated that parental sensitivity showed weak to strong stability (correlations) across the four contexts. Furthermore, overall levels of parental sensitivity were higher in more naturalistic contexts (routine caregiving > free play > Still Face). Lastly, mothers and fathers were overall equally sensitive across contexts. Our findings highlight the importance of taking context into account when observing parental sensitivity in research as well as practice. Furthermore, future research should examine the emergence of possible differences in maternal and paternal sensitivity over time.

Most still‐face paradigm (SFP) studies have been done in Western families with infant–mother dyads. The present study investigated the SFP pattern in 123 Dutch and 63 Chinese 4‐month‐old infants with mothers and fathers. The classic SFP effect was found for positive affect and gaze in both countries. For negative affect, Chinese infants showed a different SFP pattern than Dutch infants. With fathers, infants displayed a less pronounced SFP pattern for positive affect and an increase from the still face to the reunion for negative affect. Only a minority of infants showed the expected SFP pattern across episodes. Our findings support that infant emotion expression is influenced by parent gender and cultural context. An interesting avenue for further study is the exploration of the origins of within‐ and between‐gender and culture differences in affective communication between parents and infants.

No abstract

Background: Definitions of child maltreatment vary widely between studies, and even more so between different cultural contexts. Objective: In this pilot study, we examine between-country variations in maternal notions about what constitutes child maltreatment. Participants and setting: The sample consisted of 466 mothers recruited in Chile,

Aiming to contribute to the cross-cultural understanding of the nature and meaning of the sensitivity construct, this exploratory study observed 26 mothers and their 18-60-month-old children in rural ( 15) and urban Iran (11) for 30 minutes of free interaction in the home context. This first study to use video observations of parenting in Iran showed that mothers were generally comfortable with being filmed, intercoder reliability could be established for the Ainsworth sensitivity scale, and the full range of sensitivity scores was observed. Qualitative descriptions of representative interactions are provided to illustrate stylistic differences between rural and urban mothers. Urban mothers tended to engage in verbal interactions centered around toys, whereas rural mothers and children often engaged in chores related to the family's livelihoods such as tending animals, and generally talked less. Both sensitivity and insensitivity were observed in playful and chore-based activities.