Behavioral development of infant holding and its laterality in relation to mothers' handedness and child-care attitude.
The holding of 465 Japanese infants by their mothers was longitudinally observed at 4 and 9 months with several checkups and questionnaires of physical and psychological development and child-care attitude in a larger longitudinal study of mother-child relationships. A left side bias in holding was significant for the 4-month-old infants. The infants' increased autonomy in their ability to adopt a posture at 9 months weakened the holding bias. The mothers' handedness was related to different right/left hand contact patterns, but it was significant only for holding on the left side. The infants' reflexes relating to posture did not correlate with the holding bias at 4 months. The meaning and possible determinants of holding laterality are discussed.
Negayama
K
K
Faculty of Human Sciences, Waseda University, Japan. negayama@waseda.jp
Kawai
M
M
Yamamoto
H
H
Tomiwa
K
K
Sakakihara
Y
Y
D001290:Attitude; D002668:Child Rearing / Q000523:psychology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018730:Infant Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008425:Maternal Behavior / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D012016:Reference Values