Context matters: Maternal and paternal sensitivity to infants in four settings

To date, results have been inconsistent in whether mothers show higher parental sensitivity to their infant than fathers do. The context in which sensitivity is measured may play a role in these inconsistent findings, but this has not been examined yet. The aim of the current study was to test context as a source of variability in parental sensitivity, comparing maternal and paternal sensitivity to infants in four different observational settings. Participants included 109 families with their 4-month-old infants. Parental sensitivity was observed during a routine caregiving session, free play episode, and the baseline and reunion of the Still Face Procedure. Results demonstrated that parental sensitivity showed weak to strong stability (correlations) across the four contexts. Furthermore, overall levels of parental sensitivity were higher in more naturalistic contexts (routine caregiving > free play > Still Face). Lastly, mothers and fathers were overall equally sensitive across contexts. Our findings highlight the importance of taking context into account when observing parental sensitivity in research as well as practice. Furthermore, future research should examine the emergence of possible differences in maternal and paternal sensitivity over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).