Fragmented sleep is common in infancy. Although night awakening is known to decrease with age, in some infants night awakening is more persistent and continues into older ages. However, the influence of fragmented sleep on development is poorly known. In the present study, the longitudinal relationship between fragmented sleep and psychomotor…

Using a longitudinal, prospective adoption design, the authors of this study examined the effects of the environment (adoptive parents' depressive symptoms and responsiveness) and genetic liability of maternal depression (inferred by birth mothers' major depressive disorder [MDD]) on the development of fussiness in adopted children between 9 and…

Examined continuity, stability, and change in behaviors reflecting infant reactivity and regulation. Subjects were 100 infants of 5 and 10 months old. Found that infant behaviors during frustrating situations showed both change and continuity, but the relationship between reactivity and regulation changed in that both factors became more…

Determined whether individual neonate characteristics could be detected and reliably measured in preterm infants. Results showed that preterms were highly self-consistent in their reactions to stimuli from neurobehavioral assessments. Highly reliable individual differences among infants were also seen. Individual consistencies and differences in…

Thirty-eight infants at age one were seen with their mothers in a strange situation test. On the basis of reunion behavior in this situation, each infant was rated for security of attachment to the mother. Maternal behaviors were observed in a mother-child free-play setting when the infants were 21 months old. (JMB)

Tests three previously untested hypotheses central to the theory of Brazelton and colleagues about the sequential structure of mother-infant face-to-face interaction. Results show that with some revision the hypotheses describe the structure of mother-infant face-to-face interaction from three to nine months of age. (Author/RH)

To investigate the development of symbolic play, 18 Japanese normal boys and girls were individually tested once every even-numbered month from when they were 12 to 24 months of age. Symbolic play was generally defined as behavior which represents actual or imagined experience by using objects, gesture or language alone or in combination. The…

The human infant is now considered capable of active informational interaction with the environment. This study tested certain hypotheses concerning the nature of that interaction. These hypotheses, developed partly from Piaget's work, are (1) that repeated visual encounters with a stimulus pattern leads first to attentional preference for that…

Longitudinal data concerning fear responses in 30 boys and 30 girls observed from ages one month to 8 1/2 years suggest that in males--but not in females--a predisposition to a particular level of fearfulness is set by events that occurred before 6 months of age. (Author/MG)

Explores particulars that may partially account for the remedial influence on development of interactions between infants and caregivers. Videotaped interactions between 20 prematurely born toddlers and their mothers were described in terms of dyadic joint attention to features of the environment. (Author/RH)

Makes the case that hierarchical linear models or longitudinal multilevel models are a better alternative than standard regression models for empirical tests of predictive developmental hypotheses. Describes a multivariate longitudinal model linking developmental data to a criterion and presents an example from a study of the prediction of infant…

This paper presents arguments for greater use of sophisticated research strategies and statistical analyses of data in dealing with the real-life complexity of social interaction. Three possible procedures are proposed and illustrated in a study of interactions between mothers and their 8- to 18-month-old children. The first strategy is to…

The study involving 147 infant-mother pairs explored the relationship among infant temperament, maternal concern, and adjustment during early infancy, and the stability of these variables over time. (Author/SBH)