title: Social referencing in infants of mothers with symptoms of depression.
abstract: The present study examined the acquisition of social referencing skills in infants of mothers with symptoms of depression (n = 44). We aimed to determine if a short discrimination training could facilitate infants' social referencing. Mothers were instructed to pose either joyful or fearful facial expressions to cue infants' approach/avoidance responses toward an ambiguous object. Maternal expressions were correlated with pleasant or unpleasant events occurring after the infant's response. The results showed that after the intervention, infants looked at their mothers more frequently and reached or avoided the ambiguous object based on the preceding maternal expression. The results suggest that discrimination training procedures can establish social referencing in infants of mothers with symptoms of depression.
authors.affiliation: College of Education, Florida International University, Miami, United States.
authors.forename: Martha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pelaez
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Virues-Ortega
authors.forename: Tiffany M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Field
authors.forename: Yalda
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Amir-Kiaei
authors.forename: Gabriel
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schnerch
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003463:Cues; D003863:Depression; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations / Q000523:psychology*; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D012919:Social Behavior; D012938:Social Perception; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Depression; Discrimination training; Early social development; Facial expression; Infant; Social referencing