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Poster #206 - Maternal Contingent Responsiveness Moderates the Predictive Link Between Infants' Negative Reactivity and Behavioral Inhibition

Sat, March 23, 12:45 to 2:00pm, Baltimore Convention Center, Floor: Level 1, Exhibit Hall B

Integrative Statement

INTRODUCTION. Behavioral inhibition (BI) refers to children’s temperamental predisposition to experience negative affect and withdraw towards novel situations, objects, and people (Kagan, 1997). Children with BI are at overall developmental risk, for example because of lack of exploration (Rothbart & Hwang, 2002). In addition, stable BI forms a risk for the development of later (social) anxiety (Chronis-Tuscano et al., 2018). As such, there is a need to identify predictors of BI during early infant development, so they can be targeted in prevention initiatives. High negative reactivity predicts BI and can be observed as early as 4 months (Fox et al., 2005). Negative reactivity and BI are generally understood as stemming from an imbalance between reactivity and regulation (Rothbart & Derryberry, 1981). For years, scholars have emphasized that the development of infants’ regulatory capacity occurs within the caregiving context (Feldman, 2003). More specifically, through contingent responsiveness, caregivers create an environment of co-regulation that the infant gradually internalizes (Feldman, 2003). Although scholars agree that the capacity of regulation might compensate for reactivity and as such modulate the association between negative reactivity and BI (Degnan & Fox, 2007), no study has investigated the role of maternal contingent responsiveness in this process.
HYPOTHESES. Maternal contingent responsiveness moderates the link between high negative reactivity at 4 months and later BI during the first year of life.
STUDY POPULATION. 77 parent-infant dyads randomly selected from the general population.

METHOD. At the age of 4 months, negative reactivity was measured by means of observation (Kagan and Snidman, 1991) and maternal self-report (Gartstein & Rothbart, 2003). At the age of 10 months, BI was measured by means of observation (Goldsmith & Rothbart, 1999) and maternal self-report (Gartstein & Rothbart, 2003). Maternal contingent responsiveness at 4 months was micro-analytically coded from videotaped 3-minute face-to-face mother-infant interactions (contingent stimulatory touch, and contingent affectionate touch; Feldman, 2012).
RESULTS. Maternal “contingent affectionate touch” significantly moderated the link between negative reactivity and BI (β=-3.34; SE=1.56; p=0.04), in that the link was only significant for infants who experienced low (β=0.39; SE=0.10; p<0.001) and medium (β=0.24; SE=0.09; p=0.008) levels of “contingent affectionate touch”, and not for infants who experienced high levels (p=0.84). In addition, maternal “contingent stimulatory touch” significantly moderated the link between negative reactivity and BI (β=2.35; SE=0.72; p=0.002), in that the link was only significant for infants who experienced high (β=0.44; SE=0.10; p<0.001) and medium (β=0.18; SE=0.09; p=0.038) levels of “contingent stimulatory touch”, and not for infants who experienced low levels (p=0.642).
DISCUSSION. The current study is first to assess maternal contingent responsiveness as a moderator of the link between 4-month negative reactivity and later BI during the first year of life. Results indicated the protective value of contingent maternal affectionate touch, and the potential risk of contingent maternal stimulatory touch. The differential influences of affectionate and stimulatory touch may be understood in the context of BI, which is typified by problems of over-arousal and lack of sufficient regulatory capacities. Further research may directly explore the physiological mechanisms underlying the differential moderating effects.

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