This paper introduces researchers and scholars to psychosocial qualitative methods when researching affective aspects of classroom pedagogy. It theorises affect as felt processes that defy representation circulating in teaching and learning. Turning to the psychoanalytic field of infant observation, the author outlines the immense potential of…

Depression in mothers is consistently associated with reduced caregiving sensitivity and greater infant negative affect expression. The current article examined the real-time behavioral mechanisms underlying these associations using Granger causality time series analyses in a sample of mothers (N = 194; 86.60% White) at elevated risk for…

Family systems research has identified two key processes (spillover and compensatory), linking interparental relationship quality to the parent-child relationship. However, previous research has focused on the parent as the sole initiator and had not often considered the role of the child in these processes. The present study adds to the…

Early interaction is a dynamic, emotional process in which infants influence and are influ­enced by caregivers and peers. This chapter reviews new developments in behavior imag­ing--objective quantification of human action--and computational approaches to the study of early emotional interaction and development. Advances in the automated…

Infants attend daycare at an early age, which raises questions about children's sensitivity to the childcare environment and the role of different temperamental traits in their development in the early years. In a two-year longitudinal study with parent- and caregiver-reported data for Dutch children at the age of 1 and 2 years (120 children from…

Caregivers' sensitive responses to infant cry have long-term consequences for adaptive child development. Although mounting evidence suggests that parents who experience high emotionality to infant cry respond less sensitively to infant cry, there is a dearth of knowledge on potential mechanisms underlying individual differences in emotionality to…

Maternal oxytocin is connected to aspects of parenting including sensitivity, warmth, positive affect, and affectionate touch. Oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) polymorphisms are associated with circulating oxytocin levels, altered brain activity, and parenting behaviors. This study aimed to replicate prior work on OXTRsingle-nucleotide polymorphisms…

This study examines the relationship between the psychological states of Korean mothers and early childhood development. In the study, 480 mothers were classified into three groups: cluster A mothers were happy and competent, cluster C were depressed and stressed, and cluster B were neither depressed nor happy. The tendency of infant developmental…

Extracting general rules from specific examples is important, as we must face the same challenge displayed in various formats. Previous studies have found that bimodal presentation of grammar-like rules (e.g. ABA) enhanced 5-month-olds' capacity to acquire a rule that infants failed to learn when the rule was presented with visual presentation of…

Why is a face with a smile but non-happy eyes likely to be interpreted as happy? We used blended expressions in which a smiling mouth was incongruent with the eyes (e.g., angry eyes), as well as genuine expressions with congruent eyes and mouth (e.g., both happy or angry). Tasks involved detection of a smiling mouth (perceptual), categorization of…

Background: The low expression polymorphism of the MAOA gene in interaction with adverse environments (G × E) is associated with antisocial behaviour disorders. These have their origins in early life, but it is not known whether MAOA G × E occurs in infants. We therefore examined whether MAOA G × E predicts infant anger proneness, a temperamental…

Some parenting behaviours and child characteristics can result in future behavioural problems. Relatively little is known about parenting behaviours in Pakistani-origin women, and how the timing of migration to the United Kingdom might affect such behaviours. We analysed differences in parenting behaviours and six-month infant temperament by…

This study examined the role of anger in infancy and its interaction with maternal warmth in predicting children's socioemotional development. Participants included a demographically diverse sample of 316 mothers and children from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) study. Infants were followed across 3 waves of data…

The concept of maternal affect attunement has evoked considerable theoretical interest, but attempts at empirical validation have been scarce. The aim of this study was to refine the coding scheme for assessment of maternal affect attunement and to establish the internal validity of the measure. Forty dyads with seven-month-old infants and their…

The aim of this study was to investigate the relations between pregnancy and childbirth factors and subsequent quality of maternal interactive behavior in a sample of 116 full-term infants and their mothers. Mothers reported on the conditions of childbirth when infants were 6-8 months of age, and their interactive behavior was observed during a…