Mothers of 48 infants approximately 12 months old displayed either positive or neutral affect while their infants responded to pleasant, ambiguous, or aversive toys. On the first trial maternal affect had no effect; on the second trial, positive maternal affect resulted in more positive infant responses, but only for the ambiguous toy. (Author/RH)

Studied were the responses of infants to new toys presented with either positive, negative, or neutral affective displays by mothers. Responses to stimulus toys were compared with responses to free play toys. Maternal displays influenced responses only to stimulus toys. (PCB)

When mothers of 12 infants 10 weeks of age displayed noncontingent, practiced facial and vocal expressions of joy, anger, and sadness, infants responded differently to each expression. Infants' matching responses to maternal affects were only part of complex but predictable behavioral patterns that indicate meaningful affect states and possibly…

Documents rate, mean duration, and mode of infants' affective displays. Using cross-sequential design, observes infants in their homes from 6 to 18 months playing with their mothers, with peers, and alone. With increasing age, affect rates and vocal modes increased, and mean durations and facial and motoric modes decreased. (Author/BE)

A group of 20 abusive mothers and a group of 20 matched, nonabusive mothers were shown slides depicting infants in seven different emotional states. Abusive mothers were more likely to incorrectly identify specific signals of emotion and to label negative affect as positive. (Author/RH)

Quantifies behavioral periodicities or cycles during face-to-face interaction between three- and five-month-old term and preterm infants and their mothers. Compares the temporal organization of social interaction between term and preterm infants. Spectral and cross-spectral techniques showed the existence of periodicities. Differences were found…

Evaluates the extent to which 54 infants aged three, six and nine months and their mothers were able to coordinate their behavior. Results indicate that mother-infant pairs increase their degree of coordination with infant age, but the proportion of time they are coordinated is small. (RJC)

Tests three previously untested hypotheses central to the theory of Brazelton and colleagues about the sequential structure of mother-infant face-to-face interaction. Results show that with some revision the hypotheses describe the structure of mother-infant face-to-face interaction from three to nine months of age. (Author/RH)

Aspects of a child's social environment, in this case those connected with networks and dyadic interaction, are influenced by different maternal and child characteristics. The young child's social network is influenced by at-risk status but not by chronological age. Not only do families with handicapped infants receive more support from formal…

Two studies concerned with agreement in ratings of temperament are reported. Ratings of the mothers of toddlers versus daycare workers were compared on the Toddler Temperament Scale (Study 1), and on ratings of a videotape of a 2-year-old child for responses relevant to six dimensions of temperament (Study 2). (Author/BN)

Findings indicated that (1) when siblings were 24-months-old, their social-emotional behavior displayed some concordance, and maternal behavior was stable with all siblings; (2) significant concordance in siblings' social-emotional behavior was conditioned by stability of maternal behavior; and (3) quality of infant-mother attachment at 12 months…

Infants expressed more joy and looked longer at their mothers during a joy condition, and they showed more sadness, anger, and gaze aversion during a sadness condition. They engaged in more play behavior in the joy condition than in the sadness condition. Several significant relations between infants' gaze behavior, emotion expressions, and play…

Findings of this observational study of 74 families tentatively support the conclusion that the psychological characteristics of emotional distress, authoritarian child-rearing values, and negative perceptions of children partially mediate the influence of some demographic/stressful life conditions on the positive and negative behaviors of…

Considers three questions: Do mothers of siblings show consistency in behavior to their children when observed with each child at 24 months? What stability is there in behavior of mothers toward their children from 12 to 24 months? Are sibling status or genetic factors related to differences between mothers in relative consistency or inconsistency…

Comparison of family functioning in 103 neglectful and 102 nonneglectful low-income families found that neglectful mothers reported their families as having more family conflict and less expression of feelings, but not less cohesiveness. Observational measures indicated neglectful families were less organized, more chaotic, and less verbally…