Examining the Role of Gaze in Dysregulation in Varying Mother-Infant Interaction Contexts

• In Event: Exploring Parent-Child Relationships in Latinx Families: Perspectives From Infancy to Adolescence

Abstract

Introduction. Infant’s regulatory capabilities are thought to set the foundation for the ontogenesis of self-regulation (Rothbart et al., 2004), and these early regulatory processes contribute to whether a child begins an adaptive (i.e., regulated) or maladaptive (i.e., dysregulated) trajectory of development. Past research has focused primarily on the role of caregivers as an external regulator, although there is evidence that infants have a role in their own emerging self-regulation (Morales et al., 2005). Some studies (e.g., Crockenberg & Leerkes, 2004) lend greater understanding to the role of infant and maternal behaviors in emerging self-regulation but have yet to examine the relative contribution of infant and maternal behavior on infant regulatory development. This study addresses these limitations and offer new understanding of infant and maternal contributions to co-regulatory processes by addressing three primary aims: (1) to explore the contribution of infant gazing behavior on their own dysregulation (i.e., the infant actor effect); (2) to examine the role of maternal gaze on infant dysregulation (i.e., the mother partner effect); and (3) to explore whether these effects differ by social interaction context.

Hypotheses. It was hypothesized that infants who spend more time gazing at their mother would be less dysregulated. Given prior research that supports that infants can influence mother’s emotional state (Hall & Morsbach, 1989), it was predicted that infant gaze will be associated with less maternal dysregulation. As infants are still immature and rely heavily on their mother as an external regulator (Beeghly et al., 2011), it was predicted that the effect of maternal gaze on infant dysregulation will be stronger than the influence of infant’s own gaze. Finally, it was expected that the function of gaze as regulatory would vary depending on the nature of the interaction task.

Sample. The sample includes 322 low-income, under-resourced Mexican-American mothers and their infants (53.7% female) recruited as part of larger, longitudinal investigation in a large, Southwestern city.

Procedure. Mothers completed a home visit when infants were 6 months old. During this home visit, research assistants video recorded mothers interacting with their infants in their homes during specified tasks: free play, soothing, teaching, and peekaboo. Recorded mother-infant interactions were later coded for maternal and infant gaze (Feldman, 1998) and dysregulation (Lin & Crnic, 2012). To address the first two research aims, actor partner interdependence (APIM) models were estimated using Mplus 8.1. Missing data was accounted for in the model with full information likelihood estimation (FIML).

Results. See Table 1 for descriptive statistics. Study results revealed differing associations among maternal and infant gaze and infant dysregulation, and these associations differed depending on the interaction context (Figure 2). Generally, infant gaze was related to less infant dysregulation except for during the soothing task. Likely other strategies were more important for reducing infant dysregulation following a frustrating arm restraint task. Notably, maternal gaze was related to more infant dysregulation during the teaching task. This task was meant to frustrate mothers, so maternal gaze may have consisted of pushing the infant to complete a task beyond their capability.

Authors

• Lauren van Huisstede, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author

• Linda J. Luecken, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author