Early impaired response to social partners' distress may negatively impact subsequent social development. Identifying factors contributing to successful responding may inform assessment and intervention. This study explores how: (1) social impairment, and (2) partner familiarity relate to response to partners' distress. Infants with and without…

Around the end of the first year of life, infants develop a social referencing ability -- using emotional information from others to guide their own behavior. Much research on social referencing has focused on changes in behavior in response to emotional information. The present study was an investigation of the changes in neural responses that…

The paper reports on a study which tested whether infants high in negative affectivity are differentially susceptible to observed coparenting behavior in relation to their subsequent social-emotional development. Data came from a longitudinal study of 182 US dual-earner, primiparous couples and their infant children. At nine-months postpartum,…

Empirical studies have documented a variety of social abnormalities in infancy that indicate risk for later social and behavioral difficulties. There is very little research illustrating the presence of such behavioral vulnerabilities with frequent repeated measures, and the feasibility of designing interventions for improving social engagement in…

The Still-Face Paradigm (SFP) designed by Tronick, Als, Adamson, Wise, and Brazelton (Tronick, E., Als, H., Adamson, L., Wise, S., & Brazelton, T. B. (1978). Infants response to entrapment between contradictory messages in face-to-face interaction. "Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 17", 1-13) has been used for…

Infants participated in a nonsocial contingency task immediately after a social interaction with their mothers. The amount of time mothers and infants spent in a state of vocal turn-taking predicted individual differences in infants' subsequent performance on the contingency task. (PCB)

The second of a four-part series on the development of infants and toddlers, this article reviews current research on social and emotional development during the first two years and provides a selected list of activities designed to promote infants' optimal development. Attachment behavior and affective behavior are two major topics explored. (EV)

Assessed the role of maternal affect mirroring on development of prosocial behaviors and social expectancies in 2- to 3-month-olds. Found that infants whose mothers ranked high on affect mirroring (attention maintenance, sensitivity, responsiveness) ranked high on prosocial behaviors and social expectancy, whereas infants whose mothers ranked low…

Prior to expressing language, infants have mastered many means for engaging in referential communication with others. This contention can be supported by reference to (1) developmental changes in the attentional structure of communication and (2) infants' use of affective expressions as they begin to master referential communication. In an effort…

Observation indicates that affect is experienced prior to organized thought. After five months emotional responses are increasingly differentiated and independent of physical state. All childhood learning is propelled by affect. Adults who work with children must recognize their emotions to facilitate their acquisition of skills and knowledge.…

Current research concerning affective development in infants and children is selectively reviewed. The focus of findings and discussion is on three general and related topics: (1) expression of emotion and affective interaction in infancy; (2) socialization and regulation of emotion; (3) comprehension of emotions and empathy with others by…

European American, Japanese, and Chinese 11-month-olds participated in emotion-inducing laboratory procedures. Facial responses were scored with BabyFACS, an anatomically based coding system. Overall, Chinese infants were less expressive than European American and Japanese infants, suggesting that differences in expressivity between European…

Cites research on smiling and laughter to illustrate a dynamic systems approach to emotion communication. Maintains that emotion is relational and not individual; the nonreflexive aspects of emotion involve the connection between a person and a context taken as a whole. Presents findings regarding social processes involved in smiling and laughter…

Information on infant growth and development from 9-12 months of age is presented in a self-instructional format. This illustrated booklet is part of a related curriculum on parenting and child development for school-age mothers. Infant emotional behavior, cognitive development, toilet training, walking and other motor skills, and perceptual…

This study was intended to determine whether differences in maternal attitude and behavior relate to differences in infants' Strange Situation security classification. Subjects for the present study were 38 white middle-class mothers and their normal, 1-year-old infants (20 male, 18 female). Infants who were classified as to the quality of their…