Infant Temperamental Negative Affect Relates to Social Behavior with Peers but not Early Social Attention Trajectories

• In Event: Temperament and Social Relationships: Multiple Methods for Understanding the Whole Child Across Development

Abstract

Infant temperamental negative affect, marked by elevated levels of distress, anger and sadness, is a precursor to fearful temperament (Fox et al., 2015), which is related to social discomfort with peers (Degnan & Fox, 2007). Social attention is believed to be important for social interactions and building social relationships (Capozzi & Ristic, 2020). However, previous work finds inconsistent relations between social attention and temperament. Some research suggests attention to angry facial configurations is related to fearful temperament (Nozadi et al., 2016). However, other work finds no relation (Waters et al., 2014). Recent work examined relations between infant temperamental negative affect, maternal anxiety symptoms and infant attention to angry facial configurations and happy facial configurations. In a cross-sectional sample (Vallorani et al., 2021), infant temperamental negative affect was not related to social attention. However, infants of mothers with higher levels of anxiety symptoms showed less social attention. In a longitudinal sample (Vallorani et al., preprint), maternal anxiety symptoms were prospectively related to infant temperamental negative affect and infant social attention. However, infant temperamental negative affect was not related to social attention. We may anticipate that temperament and social attention coordinate in social interactions. However, to date, there is limited work examining this hypothesis (Pérez-Edgar et al., 2011; Vallorani et al., in press). Here, we examined if infant temperamental negative affect at 24-months relates to individual differences in social attention trajectories or social behavior with peers at 24-months.
Infants provided eye-tracking data at 4-, 8-, 12-, 18- and 24-months. Infants also completed a social dyad with a novel peer at 24-months. Caregivers rated their anxiety symptoms via the Beck Anxiety Inventory (Beck et al., 1988) and their infant’s temperamental negative affect via the Toddler Behavior Assessment Questionnaire (Goldsmith, 1996) at 24-months. 278 infants provided some eye-tracking data. We used growth-based trajectory modeling to assess social attention trajectories and found that a two-group solution best fit the data (Figure 2-1). We extracted the probability of being in group 2, which represents exhibiting less social attention over time, for further analyses. We asked two questions 1) how do infant temperamental negative affect and caregiver anxiety symptoms relate to group membership probability? and 2) how do infant temperamental negative affect, caregiver anxiety symptoms and group membership probability relate to fearful behaviors during the social dyad?
To answer question 1, we used linear regression. Infant temperamental negative affect was not related to group membership. However, infants more likely to show decreases in social attention over time had caregivers with higher anxiety symptoms. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic our social dyad data collection ended prematurely. 40 infants participated and we used exploratory correlations to answer question 2. Infant temperamental negative affect specifically, not social attention trajectory or caregiver anxiety symptoms, related to fearful behaviors (Figure 2-2). Our results suggest that temperament may have a direct impact on social behavior but not social attention. More work, and particularly more naturalistic work, is needed to understand the interplay between temperament and social attention in social relationships.

Authors

• Alicia Vallorani, University of Maryland - College Park
  Presenting Author

• Kelley E Gunther, Yale University

• Jessica Burris, University of Rutgers - Newark

• Vanessa LoBue, Rutgers University

• Kristin A. Buss, Pennsylvania State University, University Park

• Koraly Elisa Perez-Edgar, Pennsylvania State University, University Park