Emerging Social Regulatory Capacities as Seen in the Still-Face Situation

Early mother-infant interactions support infants' abilities to deal with stressful situations such as the withdrawal of maternal attention. The "still-face" paradigm provides a framework for studying the range of social regulatory capacities available to infants during stressful times...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:Child Development. - Wiley for the Society for Research in Child Development, 1930. - 61(1990), 3, Seite 754-763
1. Verfasser: Mayes, Linda C. (VerfasserIn)
Weitere Verfasser: Carter, Alice S.
Format: Online-Aufsatz
Sprache:English
Veröffentlicht: 1990
Zugriff auf das übergeordnete Werk:Child Development
Schlagworte:Social sciences Behavioral sciences Biological sciences Political science
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:Early mother-infant interactions support infants' abilities to deal with stressful situations such as the withdrawal of maternal attention. The "still-face" paradigm provides a framework for studying the range of social regulatory capacities available to infants during stressful times. This study examined the responses of 62 3-4-month-old infants during the still-face situation. Infants' responses were coded in real time along 3 dimensions: gaze, affect, and state. 3 findings are presented: (1) Generally, infants responded to the still-face situation with predominantly neutral affect and looking away from their mothers. (2) Infants who looked longer at their mothers early in the still-face showed longer early positive affect and protested her absence less. (3) Girls more often showed an intensely negative response to the still-face. These findings are discussed in the context of the development of social regulatory capacities in infancy.
ISSN:14678624
DOI:10.2307/1130960