A Transactional Model Of Infant Still-Face Response And Maternal Behavior During The First Year

The present study takes a transactional approach to extend understanding of temporal relations between parenting behaviors and infant response to the face-to-face still-face, a widely used method assessing infants' affective and behavioral response to a violation of social expectations. A low-income, urban sample of 180 mothers and infants participated when infants were 4 and 6 months old. Directional relations between infants' still-face response (i.e., change in affect and gaze from interaction to still face) and three parenting dimensions were examined using cross-lagged structural equation models. Infant still-face response predicted later parenting behavior, while the reverse association was not significant. Specifically, infants with a greater reduction in positive affect from interaction to still face had parents with more positive parenting and less negative parenting behaviors 2 months later, controlling for prior parenting and concurrent infant behavior. Furthermore, infants who increased gaze to mother from interaction to still face had mothers who used more mental state talk 2 months later. Findings underscore the importance of examining transactional relations between infant and parent behaviors, and in particular highlight the influence of infants on parents. Acknowledging these infant-effects is critical to the development and implementation of interventions targeting parent-infant interactions.