The Reciprocal Nature of Mother-Infant Interaction

in Ethnically Diverse, Very Low Birth Weight Infants

Jean Lowe, Ph.D., Sarah Erickson, Ph.D. , Peggy McLean B.A., and Lu-Ann Papile M.D.

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the bi-directional nature of mother-infant interactions in a cross sectional single cohort of ethnically diverse infants born very low birth weight (VLBW) and their mothers (N = 50; infants 6-8 months old). Interactions were coded in 1 second intervals while dyads participated in the Still Face paradigm (SF). We found gender main effects wherein female infants demonstrated less positive affect and mothers of male infants engaged in more reciprocal play. Results revealed that infant affect and maternal responsiveness were highly correlated at each play episode, and mothers who responded contingently to infant affect had infants who demonstrated greater positive affect. In addition, as infants exhibited greater distress subsequent to a SF episode, mothers were more responsive. When dyadic interactions were placed in the context of infant perinatal medical history, cognitive development, and temperament, gestation, gender, and IBQ soothability were unique predictors of infant affect, each at a single episode only, and only secondary in strength to maternal responsiveness. In investigating these associations using maternal responsiveness as our criterion variable, we found that infant affect was consistently the strongest predictor across SF episodes. Our finding of tremendous synchrony between infant affect and maternal responsiveness is well supported by the larger literature, but has not previously been investigated with ethnically diverse, VLBW samples. Furthermore, results suggest that although perinatal variables have some limited association with infant affect or maternal responsiveness, they are relatively less significant than the more proximal behavior of the dyadic partner.

Index terms: prematurity, emotional regulation, very low birth weight, infant affect, maternal responsiveness.