Infant affect and affect regulation during the still-face paradigm with mothers and fathers: the role of infant characteristics and parental sensitivity.
This laboratory study examined mothers' and fathers' sensitivity during face-to-face interactions with their infants as well as infants' affective and regulatory responses during mother-infant versus father-infant still face (SF). The degree to which infant gender and temperament as well as parental sensitivity predicted SF responses was also examined. Participants included 94 healthy, primarily White, middle-class 4-month-olds and their parents. Results indicated that mothers and fathers were equally sensitive toward their infants. Infants' affect and regulatory behaviors were also significantly stable across mother- and father-infant SF situations, although several differences in mean levels of regulation emerged. Finally, the extent to which exogenous and endogenous variables predicted infant SF responses differed as a function of which affect or regulatory variable was being examined and with which parent the infant was experiencing SF.
Braungart-Rieker
J
J
Department of Psychology, University of Notre Dame, Indiana 46656, USA. braungart.1@nd.edu
Garwood
M M
MM
Powers
B P
BP
Notaro
P C
PC
D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005219:Father-Child Relations; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018730:Infant Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D013694:Temperament; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*