Emotion Regulation Via Maternal Touch

Abstract

The study of emotion elicitation in the caregiver-infant dyad has focused almost exclusively on the facial and vocal channels, whereas little attention has been given to the contribution of the tactile channel. This study was undertaken to investigate the effects of touch on infants' emotions. During the time that objects were presented to the dyad, mothers provided tactile stimulation to their 12-month-old infants by either (a) tensing their fingers around the infants' abdomen while abruptly inhaling, (b) relaxing their grip around the infants' abdomen, or (c) not providing additional tactile stimulation (control condition). The results revealed that infants in the first condition (a) touched the objects less and waited longer to touch the objects while displaying more negative emotional displays compared to infants in the control condition. However, no apparent differences were found between infants in the second condition (b) and the control condition. The results suggest that infants' emotions may be elicited by specific parameters of touch.Touch has been described as the most fundamental means of contact with the world (Barnett, 1972) and the simplest and most straightforward of all sensory systems (Geldard, 1960). An extensive body of research has been conducted on the importance of touch and infant massage for sensory, cognitive, neurological, and physical development, as well as for pain management and arousal regulation (e.g., Field, 1998). However, the specific role of touch in eliciting and communicating emotions remains largely unexplored (Hertenstein, in press). In this article we present the results of an initial study investigating the processes by which touch elicits and regulates emotion in infants.The lack of investigation on touch and its relation to emotion is surprising. Touch may be an extraordinarily powerful sensory system for eliciting emotion. The skin contains receptors that directly elicit hedonic values, either because INFANCY, 2(4),[549][550][551][552][553][554][555][556][557][558][559][560][561][562][563][564][565][566]

Not all emotions are created equal: The negativity bias in social-emotional development.

“…Similar results have been reported in several other social referencing studies as well (e.g., L. J. Carver & Vaccaro, 2007;Hertenstein & Campos, 2001;Hornik et al, 1987). Furthermore, Klinnert et al's (1986) study (discussed in section 1a), which did not reveal a negativity bias in 12-month-olds' social referencing behavior, did suggest such a bias in infants' affect.…”

Maternal touch and maternal child-directed speech: effects of depressed mood in the postnatal period

“…Although the systematic study of maternal and infant touch has been widely neglected (Malphurs, Raag, Field, Pickens,& Pelaez-Nogueras, 1996;Pelaez-Nogueras et al, 1996;Hertenstein & Campos, 2001;Hertenstein, 2002), recent research on tactile stimulation demonstrates that maternal touch is an important means of communication during early social exchanges. Touch elicits positive affect, reduces negative affect, and modifies overall responsiveness in infants as early as 3 months of age (Stack & Muir, 1990Pelaez-Nogueras et al, 1996;Stack & Arnold, 1998).…”

Extending the reach of social touch through haptic technology

“…When a female experimenter was interacting with a child and while making eye-contact also applied a touch, it was found that stroking touches resulted in the child making eye-contact more often, vocalizing more, smiling more, and crying and protesting less [398] [see also 400]. Conversely, in another study, when a mother touched her infant more roughly, in this particular case by clenching her hands around the child's abdomen, the child responded with more negative emotional expressions and less confident behavior [243]. Another type of touch that may be particularly beneficial in mother-child interactions is massaging touch.…”