Poster #159 - Come on, Baby, Do the Locomotion: Infant Temperament and Cardiac Physiology as Predictors of Locomotion

• In Event: 3-106 - Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Section - Perceptual, Sensory, Motor

Integrative Statement

An infant’s development of locomotion is a major milestone that aids infants in experiencing the world in new and exciting ways (Pemberton Roben et al., 2012). Much work on predictors of motor development has focused on infant crawling. For example, previous work has examined infant temperament and crawling as a predictor of infant anger development (Hendrix & Thompson, 2011; Pemberton Roben et al., 2012), such that infants who were crawling showed higher anger than same-age infants who were not crawling. Research examining additional individual differences in infant temperament as correlates of infant crawling is lacking. High baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), a measure of parasympathetic function, reflects a child’s regulatory capacity (Beauchaine, 2001; Stifter et al., 2010), and has been shown to interact with temperament to predict child outcomes (Morales et al., 2015). Research examining the role of cardiac physiology in predicting locomotion development is lacking, and a need for examination has been noted by previous research (Pemberton Roben et al., 2012). The present study examines infant temperament (fear/anger) and RSA at 4 and 6 months as predictors of infant locomotion (pre-crawling/crawling) at 8 months of age.
The current study includes mother-infant dyads at 4, 6 and 8 months of age (+/- 14 days old) from a larger longitudinal study examining infant social and emotional development. At each time point, parents were interviewed regarding demographics and the age of onset of their infant’s motor milestones (pre-crawling: standing while holding on and raising to hands/knees; crawling: crawling/scooting). Mothers completed an infant temperament questionnaire (infant anger & fear, Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised; Gartstein &Rothbart, 2003). They also participated in a 3-minute baseline task with their infants to assess infant baseline RSA. Trained, reliable research assistants edited the RSA data for artifacts every 30-seconds. Mean infant baseline RSA was calculated by averaging RSA during the baseline task. Larger infant mean RSA baseline scores equals greater regulatory capacity.
Preliminary regression models including the current portion of the sample (mother-infant dyads: 70) examined infant temperament and infant baseline RSA at 4 and 6 months predicting motor milestones at 8 months. Separate models were run for the different temperament and motor milestones. Results revealed differences in predictors of pre-crawling versus crawling. For example, a significant main effect of infant fear (n=45; B= 4.145, SE= 1.635, p= 0.015) was found to predict pre-crawling (standing while holding on). More specifically, as infants increased in fear, infants achieved pre-crawling at a later age. In addition, there was a significant infant anger X infant baseline RSA interaction predicting infant crawling (n=39; B= 2.698, SE= 1.183, p= 0.029; See Figure 1). Follow-up simple slope analyses revealed that for infants high in anger, as their baseline RSA increased, their age of crawling also increased (B= 4.415, SE= 1.520, t= 2.904, p= 0.006). Subsequent models will examine these associations in additional mother-infant dyads. Findings suggest there is a relationship between infant temperament and cardiac physiology as predictors of infant locomotion, and has implications for research further examining predictors of the development of locomotion.

Authors

• Mequeil Howard, Western Kentucky University
  Presenting Author

• Ashley Nicole Quigley, Western Kentucky University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Diane Lickenbrock, Western Kentucky University
  Non-Presenting Author