Poster #147 - Mechanisms of Mother-Infant Interaction in a Brief Separation and Reunion (BSR) Paradigm

• In Event: 1-169 - Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Mother-infant interaction has been established to be critical in the development of infant emotional regulation. This study elucidated specific patterns of interaction in 23 dyads who participated in two consecutive sessions of a Brief Separation and Reunion (BSR) paradigm. Each BSR session consisted of (i) interaction (I), (ii) separation (S) and (iii) reunion (R) phases, lasting 2-minutes each. Electrocardiogram (ECG) measurements were collected from the infant and mean Inter-beat Interval (meanIBI) for each phase was calculated. Behavioral events exhibited by mother (e.g. smile, touch) and infant (e.g. cry) were coded at 5Hz. A Maternal Closeness Score (MCS), which includes maternal behaviors of gaze, smile, touch, holding and transporting of infant, were calculated on a scale of 0 to 10, for each time-point, as follows: 0 – mother is absent; 1 – Mother is present without gaze, smile, touch; 2 – Mother gazes at infant; 3 – Mother smiles at infant; 4 – Mother smiles and gazes at infant; 5 – Mother touches infant; 6 – Mother touches and gazes at infant; 7 – Mother touches and smiles at infant; 8 – Mother smiles at, gazes at and touches infant; 9 – Mother holds infant; 10 – Mother transports (carries) infant. We hypothesized that (H1) separation phases will elicit greater infant sympathetic arousal (lower meanIBI) as compared to interaction and reunion phases, and (H2) infant cry will cause an increase in maternal closeness. Contrary to H1, findings showed a cumulative effect of social distress in the second BSR session, where meanIBI in the second separation (S2) and reunion (R2) phases were significantly lower than meanIBI in S1 and R1, although no significant difference was observed between I1 and I2. Time-series causality analyses of mother-infant behavioral events utilizing Johansen’s Cointegration, Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) for long-run causality, and Wald’s Coefficient Tests for short-run causality, revealed that infant cry leads to an increase in maternal closeness, reaffirming H2. Specifically, Johansen’s Cointegration revealed that a 1% increase in infant cry induced a 17.6% increase in MPCS, while VECM and Wald’s Coefficient Tests established both a short-run and long-run causal relationship between infant cry and MCS. Results from this study uncover the essential parenting behaviors which are activated in response to infant attachment behaviors, especially cry.

Authors

• Atiqah Azhari, Psychology Program, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
  Presenting Author

• Anna Truzzi, 2Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, Rovereto, TN, Italy
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kumi Kuroda, Affiliative Social Behavior, RIKEN Center for Brain Science (RIKEN CBS), Wako, Saitama, Japan
  Non-Presenting Author

• Gianluca Esposito, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; University of Trento, Italy
  Non-Presenting Author