Poster #73 - Patterns of Self-Touch Over the First 18 Months

• In Event: Poster Session 13

Abstract

Self-directed touch has been hypothesized to play an important role in the development of infants’ knowledge about human body layout and the representation of the self. Yet, little is currently known about the development of this behavior in the first year of life. Previous studies (DiMercurio et al., 2018; Thomas et al., 2014) have investigated spontaneous self-touch, but have focused on infants no older than 24-weeks. Given that infants improve in their ability to localize targets on the body in the second half of their first year (Chinn et al., 2019; Leed et al., 2019), complementary data on self-touch would contribute new information about how infants learn about their bodies. The present study also seeks to extend the context in which self-touch is examined by observing infants while they are being pushed in a stroller. In line with DiMercurio et al.’s (2018) and Thomas et al.’s (2014) findings, we hypothesized that younger infants’ touches will occur more frequently in the head and upper body regions and that, with increasing age, touches will occur more in the trunk and leg regions.
In this ongoing study, 3- to 18-month-olds (N=19, mean age in days= 345.63) are filmed from a GoPro camera mounted to the sunshade of a stroller for 10 minutes while being pushed by their caregivers. Videos were coded for locations of the body being touched and which limbs perform the touches. To facilitate coding these variables, a diagram of body regions based on that of DiMercurio and colleagues (2018) was created; for the purposes of this analysis, the coding diagram was simplified into head, upper body, and lower body sections.
After initial coding, 26% of the videos were double coded and analyzed for interrater reliability. The double coding showed 86.95% event agreement, 97.81% location touched agreement, 99.60% touched by agreement, and 99.00% lateralization agreement.
Preliminary analyses were conducted using generalized estimating equations with the negative binomial distribution and log link function. Results indicate a significant interaction between location touched and age (Wald 2 =11.018, p =.004). The head x age slope was significant (beta = 1.01, Wald 2 =11.018, p <.001) indicating that touches to the head region generally increased with age (see Figure 1). The changes in slope across age for the other two regions were not significant (ps > .05). These findings provide new information about how self-touch changes over the first year and will be considered in relation to infants’ emerging representation of the self in the second year. Findings will be updated upon completion of data collection.

Authors

• Annabelle H Reese, Tulane University
  Presenting Author

• Erica Salutric

• Audrey Hwang

• Jeffrey J Lockman, Tulane University