Mind-Mindedness in the First Year of Life: Temporal Stability and Mind-Related Categories

• In Event: Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Topic - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Abstract

Mind-mindedness, caregivers’ ability to recognize that infants’ behaviours are driven by internal mental states, is related to a number of positive developmental outcomes, including attachment security, Theory of Mind, social competence, and reduced behavioural difficulties (Meins et al., 2013, Zeegers et al., 2017; Kirk et al., 2015; Colonnesi et al., 2019). Although mind-mindedness has garnered support as an important parenting quality for healthy socioemotional development, there has been little research on the stability of mind-mindedness across time and the frequency of mind-related comments from various categories (e.g., comments referring to the infant’s thoughts, feelings, desires). Examining the stability of mind-mindedness will further our understanding as to whether this ability is an inherent trait within caregivers, or a more malleable skill that changes over time, and the category analysis will enable us to understand which types of comments frequently comprise mind-related speech.

The current study investigated the temporal stability of mind-mindedness (overall, attuned, and non-attuned comments) between 3.5 and 7 months and the frequency of specific mind-related categories at each age. We hypothesized that there would be moderate stability in mind-related comments across time, and we did not have specific predictions regarding the frequency of each category. Fifty caregiver-infant dyads completed a free-play interaction task at 3.5 months (M age: 107 days) and 7 months (M age: 223 days; 23F) and mind-mindedness was coded from these video-recorded interactions.

During the 10-minute play session, mothers made an average of 116.12 comments (SD = 48.76) at 3 months, and 96.44 comments (SD = 49.07) at 7 months. At 3.5 months, 13.61% (SD = 6.11) of all comments were mind-related; 12.01% (SD = 5.65) of all comments were attuned and 1.34% (SD = 1.75) were non-attuned. At 7 months, 11.73% (SD = 6.09) of all comments were mind-related; 10.60% (SD = 5.61) of all comments were attuned and 0.94% (SD = 1.39) were non-attuned. Overall mind-related comments were significantly correlated across time r(48) = .45, p <.001 (Figure 1), suggesting moderate temporal stability. Attuned comments were similarly significantly correlated across time, r(48) = .33, p = .021 whereas non-attuned comments were not, r(48) = .152, p = .302. Collapsed across age, both attuned and non-attuned comments were most frequently related to desires, and the frequency across other categories differed between attuned and non-attuned comments (in descending order; Table 1).

These findings suggest that mothers’ tendency to engage in mind-related speech, and attuned comments in particular, is moderately stable across time, which provides support for mind-mindedness as a somewhat stable trait. Interestingly, the use of non-attuned comments was not consistent, suggesting they may be driven by situational influences. Furthermore, this study examined the detailed breakdown of mind-related comments, finding that mothers were most likely to comment on the infant’s desires and preferences when they engaged in mind-related speech. When linked to developmental outcomes, the practice of analyzing specific categories may be useful for understanding the unique predictive power of each mind-related category in future research.

Authors

• Shira Segal, Ryerson University
  Presenting Author

• Lilah Vassilenko, Ryerson University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Elena Kastoras, Ryerson University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Margaret C Moulson, Toronto Metropolitan University
  Non-Presenting Author