title: Ordinary variations in maternal caregiving influence human infants' stress reactivity.
abstract: We sought to extend earlier work by examining whether there are ordinary variations in human maternal caregiving behavior (MCB) that are related to stress reactivity in infants. We observed 185 mother-infant dyads and used standard coding systems to identify variations in caregiving behavior. We then created two extreme groups and found that infants receiving low-quality MCB showed more fearfulness, less positive joint attention, and greater right frontal electroencephalographic asymmetry than infants receiving high-quality MCB. Group differences in stress reactivity were not a result of measured infant temperament. However, infants receiving low-quality MCB manifested significantly more negative affect during caregiving activities than did infants receiving high-quality MCB. The results suggest that ordinary variations in MCB may influence the expression of neural systems involved in stress reactivity in human infants.
authors.affiliation: University of Maryland-CP, 3304 Benjamin Building, College Park, MD 20742, USA. ahane@umd.edu
authors.forename: Amie Ashley
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Hane
authors.forename: Nathan A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Fox
mesh_terms: D017028:Caregivers; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005106:Exploratory Behavior; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D013694:Temperament