Examines mother-infant and father-infant interaction over time at three different levels: dyadic, individual, and specific content. (Author/MP)

Tests the hypothesis that, while the difference in rate of smiling to O degree v non-O degree orientations will diminish with increasing age with silent and/or unfamiliar faces, infants over 14 weeks of age should continue to discriminate between a talking familiar 0 degree face, and all other combinations of orientation, familiarity, and silent…

Examined cardiac response and ratings of subjective aversiveness to recordings of unfamiliar infant cries in 60 primiparous women at 32 weeks' gestation. Mothers who prenatally rated the crying recordings as more aversive postnatally described their infants as more fussy and unpredictable. Women who showed greater cardiac acceleration to the cries…

Explores the possibility of sex and socioeducational differences in young infants' patterns of vocal interaction with mothers and strangers at two and three months of age. Infants at both ages vocalized more to mothers than to strangers. (BB)

Compares differences between adolescent and older mothers on tests of infant motor, cognitive, social and language development; and first- and second-year abilities. Older mothers were better at predicting emergence of infant behaviors and first-year behaviors. There was no difference between groups in predicting second-year behaviors. (Author/BB)

Compared the attachment classification distributions of 23 infants in Israeli kibbutzim with communal sleeping arrangements with those of 25 infants in kibbutzim with home-based sleeping arrangements. Among the home-based infants, 80% were securely attached to their mothers versus only 48% of the infants in communal sleeping arrangements. (MDM)

Mothers' emotion and personality characteristics were assessed by behavior ratings and self-reports; infants' characteristics by maternal reports and objective coding. Security of infant-mother attachment in the Ainsworth Strange Situation was predicted by mothers' emotional experience, expressive behavior, and personality traits, and by infants'…

This article outlines historical, socio-cultural, and research information that attests to the fundamental relationship between touch and child development. It describes applications including touch therapies with very low-birthweight infants, with fragile premature infants, and with infants of depressed mothers. (Contains extensive references.)…

In this study of maternal interpretations of infant behaviors, seven mothers of infants with Down syndrome identified 18 of 22 subcategories of potentially meaningful infant behavior previously identified by mothers of typically developing infants. These seven mothers also identified an additional category: developmental status-abilities.…

Examined maternal care and infant attachment security in a sample from the United States (Colorado) and one from Colombia. Found that maternal sensitivity and infant security were significantly associated in both samples. Identified six common and two noncommon domains (one per sample) of caregiving; associations between domains of maternal…

Observed weekly 13 infants from 1 to 6 months of age to determine when they produced different types of smiling and other facial expressions. Found that the cheek-raise and open-mouth dimensions of smiling appear to be associated with, respectively, amplification of processes of sharing positive affect and of visual engagement present to a lesser…

To examine the development of triplets, 23 sets of triplets were matched with 23 sets of twins and 23 singletons (N138). Maternal sensitivity was observed at newborn, 3, 6, and 12 months, and infants' cognitive and symbolic skills at 1 year. Triplets received lower maternal sensitivity across infancy and exhibited poorer cognitive competencies…

The impact of differences in maternal self-efficacy and infant difficulty on mothers' sensitivity to small changes in the fundamental frequency of an audiotaped infant's cry was explored in 2 experiments. The experiments share in common experimental manipulations of infant difficulty, a laboratory derived measure of maternal efficacy (low,…

A study explored whether socioeconomic status (SES) differences could be detected in 3-month-old infants' differential vocal responsiveness (DVR) to mothers versus strangers. The study also explored whether 3-month-olds' DVR was related to environmental variables, such as the mother's behaviors toward the infant in naturalistic conditions, the…

This study investigated whether the interactions of biological mothers and their offspring differ from those of institutional caregivers and infants in their charge. The subjects--43 three-month full-time Greek infants (22 home-reared infants and 21 from the institution, Babies' Center Metera) were studied while interacting with their primary…