Examines early differences in mother-infant interaction as a function of infant birth order and birth spacing. Mother and infant behaviors were observed and recorded in the home for a two-hour period. (SS)

Discusses the social development of infants in terms of a set of tasks which include identity, culturation, and reproduction. Focuses on the task of identity, the role of self-awareness in relationships, and the relationship between identity and emotional life. (RJC)

In order to specify the factor structure and stability of infant and maternal behavior, mother/infant interaction was observed when infants were 12 and 24 months of age. Mothers and infants observed in dyadic interaction in a playroom during a 15-minute free play period represented a heterogeneous sample across gender, socioeconomic status, and…

Studies 174 mother-infant dyads to determine the relation between 3-month-old infant, mother, and mother-infant interaction behavior and later attachment behavior. Individual infant differences in sociability at 3 months were found to be related to avoidant behavior and A-type attachment. (RJC)

A total of 87 infants 10 months of age received, either directly or indirectly, a positive nonverbal message, a neutral nonverbal message, or no message about a stranger. Infants, especially those with easy temperaments, were friendlier to the stranger when mothers had spoken positively, but only when the message was directly communicated.…

This study examined the social labels which are first used by infants, social differentiation on the basis of labeling behavior, and overgeneralization of social labels. Subjects were 81 infants from 9 to 36 months of age. The 9- to 24-month-olds were shown slides of themselves, their mothers, their fathers, and unfamiliar children, babies, and…

The present series of studies was undertaken to explore intersensory processing in the very young. In the first experiment 1-, 4- and 7-month-old infants experienced simultaneously their mothers' faces and voices. The various conditions consisted of displacing the voice from the face. The results indicated that infants as young as one month of age…

Fifty-two 44-month-old children were observed in a nursery school over a period of two weeks with peer and adult oriented behaviors recorded, and data analyzed in terms of the subjects' sex and birth order. Sex effects were as expected, but birth-order effects highlighted the second-born child as representing a distinct category. In particular,…

Examines the social networks of 85 young children as they made the transition from a home-centered to a school-centered existence. As children reached school age, they had increased contact with peers and decreased contact with kin. Children as young as three showed more same-sex than opposite-sex peer contact. (Author/BJV)