Infant touching behaviour during mother-infant face-to-face interactions

The study of infant communication during mother–infant interactions has largely focused on infants' distal behaviours, while neglecting their more proximal behaviours, such as touch. Yet, touch is an important modality through which infants and mothers communicate; it is also a vital means thro...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Infant and child development 2007-06, Vol.16 (3), p.307-319
Main Authors: Moszkowski, Robin J., Stack, Dale M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Babies
Canada
Fingers
Foreign Countries
Infants
Interaction
Interpersonal Communication
Learning Modalities
Maternal characteristics
Mother-Infant interactions
Mothers
Nonverbal communication
Parent Child Relationship
Sensory Experience
Social interaction
still-face procedure
Studies
Tactual Perception
Touch
Young Children
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The study of infant communication during mother–infant interactions has largely focused on infants' distal behaviours, while neglecting their more proximal behaviours, such as touch. Yet, touch is an important modality through which infants and mothers communicate; it is also a vital means through which infants self‐regulate and explore their surroundings. The present study was designed to investigate the touching behaviours of 44, 51/2‐month‐old, healthy, full‐term infants during face‐to‐face mother–infant interactions. A still‐face (SF) procedure was used in order to examine differences in the types and locations of infant touch across normal and perturbed interaction periods, when mothers exhibit changes in their emotional availability. Results revealed that infant touch varied with changes in maternal availability. During the SF period, when mothers were unavailable, infants used more active, soothing, and reactive tactile behaviours (stroke, finger, pat, and pull), and they spent more time touching themselves. In contrast, infants used mostly passive touch (static) during the Normal periods, when their mothers were available. They also spent a significant portion of time touching their mothers. The variations in infant touch across periods suggest that infants communicate their affective states through touch. The findings also support the regulatory and exploratory roles of infant touch, especially during periods of maternal unavailability. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
ISSN:1522-7227
1522-7219
1522-7219
DOI:10.1002/icd.510