Touching behaviors of infants of depressed mothers during normal and perturbed interactions.
The present study investigated the touching behaviors of 4-month-old infants of depressed and non-depressed mothers during the still-face (SF; maternal emotional unavailability) and separation (SP; maternal physical unavailability) procedures. Forty-one dyads participated in the present study; dyads were from low SES backgrounds and they exhibited poor relationship qualities (e.g. poor maternal sensitivity, low infant responsiveness); thus, they were considered at-risk. Results indicated that infants exhibited more patting and pulling when mothers were unavailable during the SF and SP procedures. Moreover, depression affected infants' tactile behaviors: infants of depressed mothers used more reactive types of touch (i.e. active touching behaviors, such as grab, pat, pull) than infants of non-depressed mothers during emotional and physical unavailability, suggesting greater activity levels in infants of depressed mothers. Negative relationship indicators, such as maternal intrusiveness and hostility, predicted soothing/regulatory (i.e. nurturing) and reactive/regulatory types of touch, even after controlling for maternal depression. Taken together, these results underscore the importance of touch for infant communication and regulation during early social interactions.
Moszkowski
Robin J
RJ
Centre for Research in Human Development, Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Quebec, Canada. robin.moszkowski@yahoo.ca
Stack
Dale M
DM
Girouard
Nadine
N
Field
Tiffany M
TM
Hernandez-Reif
Maria
M
Diego
Miguel
M
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003142:Communication; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018730:Infant Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008425:Maternal Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012044:Regression Analysis; D014110:Touch; D014741:Video Recording / Q000379:methods; D055815:Young Adult