title: Why synchrony matters during mother-child interactions: a systematic review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Assessment of mother-child interactions is a core issue of early child development and psychopathology. This paper focuses on the concept of "synchrony" and examines (1) how synchrony in mother-child interaction is defined and operationalized; (2) the contribution that the concept of synchrony has brought to understanding the nature of mother-child interactions.
  
  
  METHODS
  Between 1977 and 2013, we searched several databases using the following key-words: "synchrony" "interaction" and "mother-child". We focused on studies examining parent-child interactions among children aged 2 months to 5 years. From the 63 relevant studies, we extracted study description variables (authors, year, design, number of subjects, age); assessment conditions and modalities; and main findings.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The most common terms referring to synchrony were mutuality, reciprocity, rhythmicity, harmonious interaction, turn-taking and shared affect; all terms were used to characterize the mother-child dyad. As a consequence, we propose defining synchrony as a dynamic and reciprocal adaptation of the temporal structure of behaviors and shared affect between interactive partners. Three main types of assessment methods for studying synchrony emerged: (1) global interaction scales with dyadic items; (2) specific synchrony scales; and (3) micro-coded time-series analyses. It appears that synchrony should be regarded as a social signal per se as it has been shown to be valid in both normal and pathological populations. Better mother-child synchrony is associated with familiarity (vs. unknown partner), a healthy mother (vs. pathological mother), typical development (vs. psychopathological development), and a more positive child outcomes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Synchrony is a key feature of mother-infant interactions. Adopting an objective approach in studying synchrony is not a simple task given available assessment tools and due to its temporality and multimodal expression. We propose an integrative approach combining clinical observation and engineering techniques to improve the quality of synchrony analysis.
authors.affiliation: Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotiques, CNRS, UMR 7222, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France; Département de Psychiatrie de l'Enfant et de l'Adolescent, AP-HP, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris, France; Université Paris V René Descartes, Département de Psychopathologie, Boulogne, France.
authors.forename: Chloë
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Leclère
authors.affiliation: Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotiques, CNRS, UMR 7222, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France; Département de Psychiatrie de l'Enfant et de l'Adolescent, AP-HP, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Sylvie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Viaux
authors.affiliation: Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotiques, CNRS, UMR 7222, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Avril
authors.affiliation: Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotiques, CNRS, UMR 7222, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Achard
authors.affiliation: Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotiques, CNRS, UMR 7222, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chetouani
authors.affiliation: Université Paris V René Descartes, Département de Psychopathologie, Boulogne, France.
authors.forename: Sylvain
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Missonnier
authors.affiliation: Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotiques, CNRS, UMR 7222, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France; Département de Psychiatrie de l'Enfant et de l'Adolescent, AP-HP, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris, France.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cohen
mesh_terms: D002652:Child Behavior; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016206:Databases, Bibliographic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D009034:Mother-Child Relations / Q000523:psychology*; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*