Maternal interpretations of infant intentionality: Changes over the course of infant development

Abstract

Maternal interpretations of the intentionality of infant behaviour have played a key role in many theoretical accounts of the development of intentionality. However, the assessment of maternal interpretations has generally proceeded in an indirect fashion. The present study sought to assess maternal interpretations in a more direct manner. Sixty primiparous mothers of 4‐ or 8‐month‐old infants viewed video clips of unfamiliar infants engaged in social‐, object‐ or non‐directed activities and rated the actions for perceived intentionality. Results indicated that mothers of younger infants assigned more intentionality to social behaviours than did mothers of older infants, suggesting that maternal interpretations change over the course of infant development. Explanations for this pattern are explored, including the possibility that mothers become less sensitive to established behaviours or that they use a type of moving threshold to judge infant actions. Future avenues of research are suggested.

Parental attributions for positive behaviours in children with autism spectrum disorder

“…In support of our hypothesis, mothers of older (rather than younger) children with ASD were more likely to attribute positive child behaviour to factors internal to the child and stable . This may reflect understanding of developmental gains in behaviour regulation ability and mirrors findings from general population (Zeedyk ). It is not clear why fathers' beliefs were not associated with child factors as seen in mothers.…”

Basic aspects of vocal imitation in infant-parent interaction during the first 6 months

“…This may be due to the fact that mothers and fathers are exposed differentially to infant Downloaded by [McMaster University] at 08:02 20 December 2014 combination sounds, a case that may be attributed to a combination of maturational and situational factors, for instance, the quantity of parental and infant engagement in games. Moreover, differences in parental perceptions (Zeedyk, 1996(Zeedyk, , 1997(Zeedyk, , 1998 of infant changes in mood and interests that, additionally, affect infant expressive social behaviours and/or individual differences in parental choices of response may constitute an additional explanation. Such ® ndings would bene® t from further exploration.…”

“…The downward trend of paternal vocal imitations and the upward trend of maternal ones at 5.5 months may be due to the fact that fathers were more eager than mothers to encourage exploratory skills and manipulation of toys in their infants, and particularly in boys at this age (Power & Parke, 1982), while mothers are more likely to remain stable in encouraging vocal behaviour through vocal imitative games with their infants. Beyond the above hypotheses the non-linear developmental trajectories of vocal imitation from the 2nd to the 6th month might be due to periodic reorganizations in the infant' s motivational system (Kugiumutzakis, 1993;Trevarthen, 1986) leading either to corresponding motivational changes in both parents and/or to changes in parents' perceptions of the infant' s emotions (Kokkinaki, 1998;Zeedyk, 1996Zeedyk, , 1997Zeedyk, , 1998. The interpretation of the above differentiated trends could be further elucidated from the exploration of infant gender factors in combination with the investigation of early infant and parental vocal imitative exchanges over the period before the 2nd month and after the 6th month of the infant' s life.…”

Young people and the media: Special Issue

“…For example, ‘television’ or ‘video’ are mentioned within the Abstracts or texts of several other contributions to the BJDP . Most commonly they are mentioned when authors' primary foci have been on other topics, but the authors have recognized the advantages of televisual stimuli because of their attractiveness and familiarity to young participants (Callaghan & Rochat, 2003; De Rosnay, Pons, Harris, & Morrell, 2004; Hill, Lewis, & Dunbar, 2000; Pellicano & Rhodes, 2003; Roebers & Schneider, 2001; Schwebel, Rosen, & Singer, 1999; Want, Pascalis, Coleman, & Blades, 2003; Zeedyk, 1997). In each case, the authors contribute potentially valuable findings about media use and the ways in which it relates to core developmental processes – even though this may not have been their intent.…”