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ERIC Number: EJ1222749
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019-Aug
Pages: 11
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0012-1649
EISSN: N/A
Profiles of Infant Communicative Behavior
Margolis, Amy E.; Lee, Sang Han; Peterson, Bradley S.; Beebe, Beatrice
Developmental Psychology, v55 n8 p1594-1604 Aug 2019
Prior studies of mother-infant interaction have generally used a variable-centered approach to associate face-to-face communication with psychosocial outcomes. Herein, we use a person-centered approach to identify clusters of infants who exhibit similar behavioral profiles during face-to-face communication with their mothers. Four infant communication channels were examined--gaze, facial affect, vocal affect, and head orientation--coded from videotape at a 1-s temporal resolution. We used k-means clustering to classify community infants (N = 132) into 10 groups, based on variation in the intercept and the autocorrelation function at the first time lag, representing respectively the overall level of behavior and the predictability of the infant's moment-by-moment behavioral stream, in each of the 4 communication channels. In this exploratory study, 10 clusters were identified, some with unusual levels or predictability of behavior in varying channels, and clusters associated differentially with risk outcomes (infant 4-month temperament and 12-month attachment). Distinct forms of affective dysregulation were identified: sustained negative vocal affect associated with degree of disorganization; random vocal affect associated with attachment resistance; random facial affect and vocal affect, irrespective of positive/negative valence, associated with infant difficult temperament. Clustering multiple channels of infant communication generated unique behavioral profiles and predicted 4- and 12-month outcomes, suggesting that these clusters may indeed represent natural types of infant communicative behavior, not easily observed with the naked eye, that may be useful behavioral markers of clinical risk.
American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) (NIH); National Institute of Mental Health (DHHS/NIH)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: New York (New York)
Grant or Contract Numbers: K23ES026239; RO1MH56130