Infant affect and affect regulation during the still-face paradigm with mothers and fathers: The role of infant characteristics and parental sensitivity.

Abstract

This laboratory study examined mothers' and fathers' sensitivity during face-to-face interactions with their infants as well as infants' affective and regulatory responses during mother-infant versus father-infant still face (SF). The degree to which infant gender and temperament as well as parental sensitivity predicted SF responses was also examined. Participants included 94 healthy, primarily White, middle-class 4-month-olds and their parents. Results indicated that mothers and fathers were equally sensitive toward their infants. Infants' affect and regulatory behaviors were also significantly stable across mother- and father-infant SF situations, although several differences in mean levels of regulation emerged. Finally, the extent to which exogenous and endogenous variables predicted infant SF responses differed as a function of which affect or regulatory variable was being examined and with which parent the infant was experiencing SF.

Variability and Predictors of Mothers and Fathers’ Socialization Behaviors and Bidirectional Links with Their Preschoolers Socio-Emotional Competences

“…These results are in accordance with previous studies (e.g., [57]) suggesting that parents are not sensitive to the same characteristics of their children. Indeed, mothers seem to be more sensitive to their children's extraversion and emotional stability, while fathers are more sensitive to their children's conscientiousness.…”

Infant affective responses to mother's still face at 6 months differentially predict externalizing and internalizing behaviors at 18 months.

“…Rates of positive and negative responses that infants express during the still-face interaction show test-retest stability across a 2-week period (Tronick & Weinberg, 1990) and between mother and father social partners (Braungart-Rieker, Garwood, Powers, & Notaro, 1998). Studies of infant responses between 3 and 6 months are inconsistent.…”

Infant Affect During Parent—Infant Interaction at 3 and 6 Months: Differences Between Mothers and Fathers and Influence of Parent History of Depression

“…The findings on differences in infants' affect with mothers and fathers have been inconsistent (Braungart-Rieker, Garwood, Powers, & Notaro, 1998;Bridges & Connell, 1991;Bridges, Grolnick, & Connell, 1997;Sun & Roopnarine, 1996), and previous studies have failed either to examine differences in infant affect in relation to that of mothers and fathers or to measure infants' and parents' affect with similar observation systems. An exception is a study that found that mothers smiled more at infants during face-to-face play than did fathers and that infants smiled more at their mothers than at their fathers (Field et al, 1987).…”

“…This might be because the still face, a dyadic task in which the parent briefly becomes unresponsive and expressionless (Tronick, Als, Adamson, Wise, & Brazelton, 1978), challenges the parent-infant relationship and the infant's emotion regulation skills. Infants typically respond to this change in interaction by displaying increased distress and attempts to regulate that distress (Braungart-Rieker et al, 1998;Cohn & Tronick, 1983;Field, Vega-Lahr, Scafidi, & Goldstein, 1986;Fogel, 1982;Murray & Trevarthen, 1985;Shapiro, Fagen, Prigot, Carroll, & Shalan, 1998;Stoller & Field, 1982;Toda & Fogel, 1993;Tronick et al, 1978;Weinberg & Tronick, 1996). The still face is accordingly considered a stressful experience for infants (Weinberg & Tronick, 1994).…”