Parental behavior of adolescent mothers

The results of the studies reviewed lead to the conclusion that some adolescent parents are faced with excessive stress, have an inadequate social support network, lack adequate knowledge of child development, are developmentally immature, and possess inappropriate child-rearing attitudes. The lack of rigorous, well-controlled studies, however, makes these conclusions tentative at best. Each of the socioeconomic and psychological factors listed above, in addition to innate infant characteristics, affects parental behavior. Too few studies have been done to state conclusively which of these factors have major effects on adolescent parenting. Preliminary results would suggest, however, that adolescent and adult mothers interact differently with their children. The reasons why this occurs and the significance of this difference are not presently known. Although there are conflicting results, it appears as though children of adolescent parents are at a slightly increased risk for child abuse, but not suboptimal intellectual development, when compared to children of adult mothers.

Effects of paternal involvement on infant preferences for mothers and fathers

45 Swedish infants were observed at home interacting with their mothers and fathers when they were 8 and 16 months old. 15 of the fathers had spent at least 1 month (X=2.8 months) as primary caretakers. Analyses revealed that degree of paternal involvement had no effect on preferences displayed on measures of attachment and affiliative behaviors. At both ages, infants showed clear preferences for their mothers over their fathers, which contrasts with the lack of preference evident in previous studies of American infants. It is suggested that the failure to replicate earlier findings is attributable to the fact that Swedish fathers are not distinguished by an involvement in play and so are less affectively salient to their infants.

Child abusers' responses to infant smiles and cries

14 child abusers and a matched group of non-abusers watched videotapes of crying and smiling infants. Their psychophysiological responses were monitored throughout the session. After each videotape, the subjects described their emotional responses on a mood adjective checklist. The crying infant elicited heart-rate acceleration and increases in skin conductance and diastolic blood pressure from both groups, although the abusers experienced greater increases in heart rate and reported more aversion and less sympathy. Like other parents tested in this paradigm, the nonabusers responded to the smiling infant with no change in or declines in physiological activation. The abusers, however, responded to the smile and cry stimuli similarly.

Separation and reunion behaviors as criteria of attachment to mothers and fathers

Twenty infants were observed 4 times between 7 and 13 months of age in a short-term longitudinal study. Responses to separations from and reunions with mothers and fathers are reported. None of the measures showed a preference for either parent at any age. Other studies confirm that even young infants are attached to both parents. It is argued that greater attention must be paid to the family's role in social and personality development.

Effects of infant sociability and the caretaking environment on infant cognitive performance

40 middle-class mothers and their 12-month-old infants participated in an examination of the extent to which infant sociability and infant home experiences were correlated with cognitive capacity. Results indicated that the measures of the home environment (including Caldwell's Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment [HOME] inventory) were not correlated with the measures of cognitive competence (Bayley Mental Development Index [MDI], Ordinal Scales of Psychological Development) except among firstborns. Measures of the home environment were, however, correlated with measures of infant sociability (assessed inside and outside the test situation): sociable infants had sociable mothers. The infants' reactions to strange adults clearly influenced their performance in testing situations. Strong relationships were found between both measures of sociability and both measures of cognitive competence. The sociable friendly infants received higher scores on both cognitive tests than the less sociable babies did.

The relationship between quality of infant-mother attachment and infant competence in initial encounters with peers

18-month-old infants and their mothers were observed in the Ainsworth strange situation (SS) in order that security of attachment might be assessed. Infant dyads were created for observation in unstructured peer interaction according to their SS classification (security of attachment). Focus was on the subgroups within the securely attached (B) category. Results indicated a relationship between quality of infant-mother attachment and infant peer competence. The B1 and B2 infants engaged in more frequent and more sophisticated interaction with peers than did the B3 and B4 infants, who intensely sought proximity and contact with their mothers in the peer session just as in the SS. The B1 and B2 infants engaged in more distal interaction with their mothers and were more sociable with the peers' mothers and with the stranger in the SS. Implications of individual differences in quality of attachment for the development of social competence and social relationships are discussed.

Sex differences in responsiveness to infants: a developmental study of psychophysiological and behavioral responses

Sex differences in responsiveness to infants were investigated by comparing physiological responses to infants with overt behavioral reactions. The former were assumed to be more biologically determined than the latter whereas overt behavioral responsiveness was presumed to be more affected by societal norms than were psychophysiological indices. The subjects were boys and girls in middle childhood and early adolescence. Psychophysiological indices showed that children, like parents, responded differentially to infant smiles and cries. As predicted, there were no sex differences on psychophysiological measures of responsiveness to babies. When permitted to interact with a baby, however, girls interacted more and ignored less than boys did. The results suggest that sex differences in overt responsiveness to babies are attributable to societal pressures rather than innate factors. Sex differences appear to wax and wane depending on the salience of sex stereotypy in differing developmental phases.

The development of sibling relationships in infancy: a short-term longitudinal study

24 infants and their preschool-aged siblings were observed in a laboratory playroom in the presence of their parents. Observations took place when the infants were 12 months old and again 6 months later. Analysis of the social behavior revealed that, at both ages, the children assumed differentiable roles in their interactions: The infants "followed" by observing and imitating while the preschoolers "led" by drawing the infants' attention and by assertive dominance. Over time, infants became increasingly willing to direct social behaviors toward their siblings. There was remarkable behavioral stability across time, with the infants' early propensities seemingly causally related to later pre-schoolers' behavior. Older girls directed more social behaviors to siblings than boys did. The amount of parent-directed behavior was affected by the number of adults present, whereas the amount of sibling-directed behavior was unaffected.

The cardiovascular response to acoustic stimuli

The purposes of this investigation were to determine whether adults display alterations of cardiac rate under acoustical stimulus conditions and whether such alterations are influenced by signal level. The stimulus consisted of a narrow band of noise centered at 1 000 Hz and presented at 20, 40, 60 and 80 dB SPL. The stimulus was found to produce alterations of heart rate significantly different from variation under non-stimulus conditions, indicating that cardiovascular responses occurred. However, the responses themselves were unaffected by differences of sound pressure level.

Infant approach behavior as related to attachment

The chief purpose of this study was to identify characteristics that distinguish approach as an attachment behavior from approach serving other behavioral systems. Locomotor approaches of 16 male and 10 female white middle-class infants to an attachment figure (the mother) and to a nonattachment figure (the visitor-observer) were examined under naturalistic conditions at home. Observations were made during 4-hour home visits at 3-week intervals; those from 26 to 54 weeks were used. When approach was examined in a free-choice situation and without regard to behavioral context, infants approached the mother proportionally (though slightly) more often than the visitor (p less than .05). In 2 behavioral contexts, however, spontaneous infant approaches were sharply differential to the mother; approaches accompanied by crying and approaches terminating in a pickup appeal were directed almost exclusively to the mother (p less than .0001 for both). Touching upon completion of the approach was not differential, except in the context of a pickup appeal. Object-oriented approaches were more often directed to the visitor than to the mother (p less than .002) and may be either exploratory or affiliative. It is suggested that neither approach nor touching can be assumed to serve the attachment system without consideration of context- both environmental and behavioral.

Parent-infant interaction in 8-month-olds

Twenty 8-month-olds were observed interacting with their parents in a structured laboratory situation. Their responses to separations from each parent and the entrance of a strange adult were recorded. These events did not result in the predicted intensification of parental preferences. Before and after the "stressors," infants showed slight and equivocal preferences for their mothers over their fathers. Implications are briefly described.

The sociability of two-year-olds with their mothers and fathers

Twenty-one two-year-olds were observed interacting with their parents in a laboratory playroom. Previously reported analyses had found that they displayes no preferencd for interaction with either parent. The present analysis found that there was a high degree of correlation between the sociability of the cild with his mother and his sociability with his father. Possible implications of this finding are discussed.

A Fatal Infection with an Organism of the Proteus Group

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