A longitudinal analysis of inhibition of infant distress: The origins of social expectations?

doi:10.1016/S0163-6383(83)80042-3

Infant Behavior and Development

Volume 6, Issues 2–3, 1983, Pages 339-351

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0163-6383(83)80042-3 Get rights and content

Changes in infant responding during a distress-relief sequence were assessed longitudinally in 13 infants between 2 and 6 months of age and again at 10 months. A standardized soothing procedure was administered by the infant's own mother and by an unfamiliar female in successive sessions within each month. Over the first six months, the latency to stop crying decreased and the number of infants who quieted at the approach of the soother increased. Although crying was not differentially attenuated until the 10 month observation, when the mother was more effective, infants renewed crying more rapidly following maternal soothing at all ages. These data strongly suggest that infants learn both the social consequences of their own cries as well as the environmental cues which predict those consequences at very young ages. In addition, they support hypotheses that generalized social expectations of caregiving precede expectations of caregiving from a specific individual.

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The purpose of this study was to examine methodologically independent infant, maternal, and dyadic variables to predict security of attachment. The subjects were 52 mothers and their firstborn infants from middle- to upper-middle-class backgrounds. Prenatal assessment of maternal characteristics included measures of depression, anxiety, and self-efficacy. Infant characteristics were assessed via a standardized laboratory procedure at 3 months of age. Dyadic behaviors were observed in the home also at 3 months of age. At 12 months of age, security of attachment was assessed in the Strange Situation procedure. Results indicate that prenatal maternal anxiety and dyadic behaviors involving distress management were the best predictors of security of attachment. This study provides support for the role of maternal characteristics measured in the prenatal period as well as mother-infant dyadic patterns involving distress management in determining subsequent security of attachment.

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^*: This research was supported in part by NIMH Grant Nos. 24711 and 32307 to the second author. Portions of the data were presented at the meetings of the Eastern Psychological Association, Philadelphia, April 1974, and subsequently constituted the basis for a master's degree, completed by the first author under the direction of the second. Donald B. Rubin, Senior Statistical Research Advisor at Educational Testing Service and Editor of The Journal of the American Statistical Association, designed the data analyses. We thank Jeffrey Fagen for statistical advice. The third author is now at the Department of Psychology, Hunter College, New York, NY 10031.

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A longitudinal analysis of inhibition of infant distress: The origins of social expectations?*

Attachment and dependency: A comparison

Infant crying and maternal responsiveness

Child Development

Visual differentiation, intersensory integration, and voluntary motor control

Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development

The origins of reciprocity: The early mother-infant interaction

A two process model of infant visual attention

Merrill-Palmer Quarterly

Of human bonding: Newborns prefer their mothers' voices

Science

Habituation to an acoustic pattern as an index of differences among human neonates

Journal of Auditory Research

Pattern discrimination and selective attention as determinants of perceptual development from birth

Maternal responding and the conditioning of infant crying: Directions of influence within the attachment-acquisition process

Auditory responsivity in the human neonate

Nature

Growing by leaps: The form of early development

The Sciences

Growing by leaps: The form of early development

The Sciences

Ontogeny of mechanisms controlling food and water intake

A comparison of stimuli effective in soothing distressed infants

Dissertation Abstracts International