Behavioral and Physiological Manifestations of Jealousy Across the First Year of Life

• In Event: Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Topic - Social, Emotional, Personality

Abstract

Socioemotional development occurs at a rapid pace during the first year of life as infants have an innate desire to form social bonds. Jealousy is a context-dependent state that consists of a blend of emotions such as: sadness, anger and, fear/anxiety. Jealousy protests are typically observed in when an infant is trying to regain preferential attention lost by a primary caregiver usurped by a social competitor (Hart & Legerstee, 2011). Approach-type responses have been associated with tonic left-frontal EEG asymmetry (Platt & Jones, 2018). The current study examined jealousy responses longitudinally during the first year of life, in response to loss of exclusive maternal attention and explored associations with EEG asymmetry and cortisol regulation.
Behavioral and physiological data were collected from 20 infants (M=10; F=10) at 6- to 9- months of age (M=8.27; SD=1.35) and eight infants (M= 3; F= 5) returned to participate at the second age visit (M=13.57; SD=1.27) (notably fewer due to COVID-19 restrictions). Dyads participated in a paradigm (Hart et al., 1998), mothers ignored their infants and attended to a social object (i.e., a doll) in comparison to a non-social control (i.e., a book). Infant responses were coded using second-by-second ratings for a variety of approach-type behaviors, negative facial affect, and a global jealousy composite. Upon arrival to the lab basal cortisol samples were taken from the infant, samples were taken again 20- (stress reactivity) and 40- (stress regulation) minutes post stressor (social condition). Five minutes of baseline EEG activity (across the scalp from frontal to occipital regions) was recorded from the infants and asymmetry scores were calculated, utilizing alpha band (6-9 Hz, Bell, 2002), (ln(right) - ln(left)).
In younger infants, paired samples t test demonstrated that proportions of approach-style behavior such as mother-directed gaze were higher in the social object condition and analyses for older infants revealed proportions of approach-style behaviors such as mother-directed gaze, negative facial affect, and global jealousy behaviors were significantly increased during the social object compared to control, (ts ranged from -2.93 to 2.36; ps < .05). Correlational analysis demonstrated association between left-frontal EEG asymmetry and approach-reach behaviors during the social condition, r(11) = 0.822, p = .002 and an association between left-frontal EEG asymmetry and cortisol regulation, r(10) = -.636, p = .048.
Ultimately, infants demonstrated increased approach-type behaviors during the social condition and displayed greater variety of approach-type behaviors later in first year of life. Left-frontal asymmetry was associated with mother-directed behaviors and infants’ regulatory abilities, measured by salivary cortisol. Infants appear to have the capability to express complex emotions, primarily if motivated by the desire to regain the loss of a primary caregiver’s preferential attention to a social competitor. EEG markers linked to approach behaviors offered insight about underlying physiological patterns that occur during social situations (Platt & Jones, 2018) in infancy. This may indicate that during the first year of life the jealousy system is developing, at the end of the first year of life these responses may be stronger and linked to brain organization in infancy.

Authors

• Angela Bernardo, Florida Atlantic University
  Presenting Author

• Nancy Aaron Jones, Florida Atlantic University
  Non-Presenting Author