Poster #59 - Mother and infant contributions to maintaining physical closeness during play: A longitudinal study

• In Event: Poster Session 20

Abstract

The acquisition of locomotor skills (e.g. crawling and walking) allows infants to make decisions regarding their own movement for the first time, drastically changing the way they interact with their surroundings. Concomitantly, infants often also develop a strong affinity to their caregivers, causing infants to desire proximity to their caregiver while also having an interest in exploring their surroundings. For instance, prior research reveals infants become more social, shown by an increased interest in adult actions, object sharing, and vocalizations towards caregivers when developing locomotor skills. Both infants and caregivers participate in the co-creation of the relational space between them, deciding when to remain close to each other and when to explore. Prior studies show mother-infant proximity decreases as infants age, but it is unclear whether this is due to the mother or the infant, considering drastic improvements in locomotor skills during infancy (e.g., crawling to walking). However, we know little about how proximity is maintained during infancy or how mothers encourage infants’ movement behaviors during free-play. Here, we aim to understand whether mothers versus infants were responsible in maintaining physical closeness or creating distance between each other as infants acquire locomotor skills. We tracked 13 mother-infant dyads in 10-minute free play sessions held biweekly from 6-17 months in a laboratory space. Sessions were recorded and video-coded in Datavyu, where we tracked how often mothers and infants moved away or closer to each other, beginning at crawl onset until infants had ~2.5 months walking experience. When coding was complete, we used frequency data to calculate whether the distance or closeness between the dyad were due to behaviors from the mother or the infant. We ran a Friedman test to assess whether the responsibility for proximity across 5 sessions from before walk onset to 5 sessions after walking onset. This test revealed that mothers were more responsible for maintaining proximity to their infant than their infant was for maintaining proximity to them in the sessions just before walk onset, but this declined over time (p = 0.007). A Wilcoxon analysis of sessions with four different motor milestones (sessions for onsets of crawling, standing, and walking, and the session with the most walking experience) revealed that significant increase of mothers maintaining proximity occurred during the transition from crawling to standing (p = 0.23), but not during the later motor skill milestones (ps ns). Additional analyses will further examine patterns of proximity-related behaviors from moment to moment (e.g., when an infant moves away, does the mother follow by moving closer?). We also are planning to examine whether infants’ displacement was encouraged by or unrelated to mothers' ongoing behaviors (e.g., directive vocalizations, gestures, and/or body language). Results are forthcoming, but we anticipate mothers will increasingly encourage their infants to move once infants acquire upright locomotion, and trends may differ depending on the infant’s gender. Mother-infant engagement during play impacts infants' opportunities for play and exploration, could provide non-verbal information about their relational bond, and could significantly impact their developing interaction styles.

Authors

• Tiffany Pham, Elon University
  Presenting Author

• Sabrina L. Thurman, Elon University