A Transactional Model of Infant Still-Face Response and Maternal Parenting Behavior in the First Year

• In Event: 2-133 - Child Effects on Parenting from Infancy to Adolescence

Integrative Statement

Introduction: Typically developing infants respond to the “still-face” perturbation, whereby a mother adopts a neutral, still expression while continuing to face her infant (Tronick et. al. 1978), by turning away and displaying an increase in negative affect and a decrease in smiling (still-face response; SFR). This pattern of behaviors is thought to reflect a violation of the infant’s expectation for interactions with his/her mother (Mesman, van Ijzendoorn, & Bakermans-Kranenburg, 2009). Most studies examining individual differences in infants’ SFR have focused on the unidirectional effects of maternal behavior (e.g. sensitivity) on infant behavior, and little attention has been paid to child effects on future maternal behavior. Taking a transactional view of the mother-infant relationship, we tested a cross-lagged model of infant SFR predicting future maternal behavior in the context of maternal effects on SFR.

Methods: Young primiparous mothers (N=180), mean age 20.32 years, were recruited with their infants (46.5% female) from a population-based, longitudinal study of psychopathology in girls that began in childhood. Mothers were filmed with their infant during two “interactive” periods (warm-up & toy play), and a “still-face” period, when infants were approximately four (M = 4.12) and six (M = 6.80) months of age. Videos were coded independently by trained researchers for “positive” parenting (warmth, involvement, and sensitivity), “negative” parenting (hostility, intrusiveness), and maternal “mental state” talk (i.e. talk about their infants’ thoughts, intentions, and desires), and three measures of infant behavior: negative affect, positive affect, and gaze to mother. SFR was assessed by subtracting scores for infant behavior in the interactive period from scores in the still-face period.

Three cross-lagged structural equation models were run separately for each maternal behavior (positive parenting, negative parenting, mental state talk). Regressions examined SFR at 4 months predicting maternal behavior at 6 months, and maternal behavior at 4 months predicting SFR at 6 months.

Results: Decreased infant positive affect from interactive to still-face periods at 4 months predicted more positive parenting behavior (β= -.22, p = .01) and less negative parenting behavior (β= .22, p = .009) two months later, accounting for 4 month maternal behavior and 6 month infant behavior. Furthermore, increased infant gaze to mother from interaction to still-face, predicted higher levels of maternal mental state talk in the future (β=.16, p = .04).

Conclusion: Results indicate that typical SFR predicts increased positive and decreased negative parenting behaviors, and also suggest specific effects of infant social referencing during still-face on subsequent maternal mental state talk, a proxy for ‘mind-mindedness’. These findings underscore the importance of examining bidirectional relationships between infant and parent behaviors, and in particular, they highlight the influence of infants on parents. Individual infants provide parents with differential opportunities to engage and respond in both positive and negative ways. Acknowledging these infant-effects is critical to the development and implementation of interventions targeting parent-infant interactions.

Authors

• Jessie Northrup, University of Pittsburgh
  Presenting Author

• Julia Ridley, University of Pittsburgh
  Non-Presenting Author

• Katie Foley, University of Pittsburgh
  Non-Presenting Author

• Eydie Moses-Kolko, University of Pittsburgh
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kate Keenan, University of Chicago
  Non-Presenting Author

• Alison Hipwell, University of Pittsburgh
  Non-Presenting Author