Predicting infant social attention: The role of temperament and mother-child interaction

The origins of individual differences in infant social attention are not yet well understood. Two prominent lines of research identified different predictors. One points to differences with varying experiences in parent-child interaction styles while another focuses on differences in infant temperament. There is a lack of research integrating these two approaches in a single sample. The goals of this study were to test whether mother-child interaction as well as infant temperament at the age of 6 months are able to predict later social attention at the age of 12 months and whether social attention at 12 months is associated with shy temperament at 18 months. Data from a longitudinal sample of 64 mother-child dyads from a mid-sized city in Germany were being investigated. Mother-child interaction was measured using the EAS. Infant temperament was assessed with the IBQR and the ECBQ. A habituation paradigm was employed to measure infant social attention at 12 months. Several regression models showed that infant involvement in mother-child interaction positively predicted social attention, while a fearful temperament negatively predicted social attention. Moreover, the observed interaction between infant involvement and fearfulness in the sample of emotional available mothers may indicate that fearful infants who are already able to search for help by involving their mothers do not show any disadvantages in social attention. Shy temperament at 18 months was not correlated with infant social attention. Overall, our results provide further evidence on the influence of both the social context as well as individual traits on social cognitive outcomes.