title: [Interactions of infants with adults in day care centers. Evolutive dependencies vs. counter-evolutive risks and characteristics of the mother-infant relationship].
abstract: As part of a broader research project on the construction of the self, six infants were observed longitudinally in day-care centers between the ages of five months and three years. Interviews were conducted with the six mothers in order to evaluate the intersubjective characteristics of the mother-infant relationship. For three of the six children, the mother was a caregiver in the center. This article deals with "propping" processes, defined as the affective-cognitive transformations by means of which infants develop networks of links with and between external and internal objects which are used for support during development and serve as a relay of the maternal object. The present analysis is limited to propping on the adults in the day-care center (caregivers, observer, and, for three of the children, mothers). Two factors were considered: the intersubjective quality of the mother-infant relation, and the presence or absence of the mother as a caregiver in the day-care center. The results showed that (1) even when very young, the infants under observation differentiated between the various functions of the adults, and adapted their behavior to them; (2) each child exhibited a unique and sometimes very creative way of using dependencies on an adult's psychic apparatus to construct his or her own modes of psychic functioning; and (3) the developmental dynamics and the richness of the observed transformations were found to depend on the quality of the contact and distancing in the mother-infant relationship and on the concrete conditions for its actualization, which can either promote or hinder, and sometimes even block, the construction of the mother's absence.
authors.affiliation: Université de Provence.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pinol-Douriez
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Hurtig
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Colas
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D002652:Child Behavior; D002656:Child Day Care Centers; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition; D003858:Dependency, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology; D009769:Object Attachment; D002666:Psychology, Child; D012649:Self Concept; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
vernacular_title: Interactions du bébé avec les adultes de la crèche. Dépendances èvolutives/risques contre-évolutifs et caractéristiques de la relation mère-enfant.