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Relation Between Maternal Contingent Responsiveness and Infant Social Expectations.

Nancy E Mcquaid¹, Maximilian B Bibok¹, Jeremy I M Carpendale¹

¹Department of Psychology Simon Fraser University.

Infancy : the Official Journal of the International Society on Infant Studies

|July 23, 2020

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Maternal contingent responsiveness, where mothers smile back at their infants, fosters infants' social expectations. This early social interaction builds infants' sense of self-efficacy and understanding of social cues.

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Area of Science:

Developmental Psychology
Infant Social Behavior
Early Childhood Development

Background:

Maternal contingent responsiveness is crucial for infant development.
Understanding infant social expectations requires examining caregiver interactions.
The still-face procedure is a validated method for assessing infant social behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the relationship between maternal contingent responsiveness and infant social expectation behavior.
To determine if maternal contingent smiles predict infant social bids during a still-face paradigm.
To explore how early caregiver-infant interactions shape infant social expectations.

Main Methods:

The study involved 64 infants aged 4-5 months and their mothers.
A still-face procedure was used, involving interactive, still-face, and reunion phases.
Behavioral coding assessed infant and mother smiles, contingency of smiles, and infant social bids.

Main Results:

Maternal contingent smiles during interaction uniquely predicted infant social bids during the still-face phase.
The frequency of general smiles did not fully account for this relationship.
Infant social bids during the still-face phase reflect expectations formed during prior interactions.

Conclusions:

Early caregiver-infant interactions, specifically contingent responsiveness, are foundational for developing infant social expectations.
Infants' sense of self-efficacy is shaped by predictable and responsive social exchanges.
These findings highlight the importance of sensitive maternal behavior in early social development.