Abstract
Naturally occurring high levels of caregiver touch promote offspring development in many animal species. Yet, caregiver touch remains a relatively understudied topic in human development, possibly due to challenges of measuring this means of interaction. While parental reports (e.g., questionnaires, diaries) are easy to collect, they may be subject to biases and memory limitations. In contrast, observing touch in a short session of parent-child interaction in the lab may not be representative of touch interaction in daily life. In the present study, we compared parent reports (one-off questionnaires and diary) and observation-based methods in a sample of German 6- to 13-month-olds and their primary caregivers (n=71). In an attempt to characterize touching behaviors across a broad range of contexts, we measured touch both during play and while the parent was engaged in another activity. We found that context affected both the quantity and types of touch used in interaction. Parent-reported touch was moderately associated with touch observed in parent-child interactions and more strongly with touch used during play. We conclude that brief one-off questionnaires are a good indicator of touch in parent-child interaction, yet they may be biased toward representing particular daily activities and particular types of touch.
Highlights
Touch is often referred to as the earliest sense to develop (e.g., Fulkerson, 2014) and an important means of contact between an infant and their caregiver (Hertenstein, 2002)
We focus on associations between putative equivalent measures
Researchers wanting to investigate the relationship between touch and infant development face a difficult challenge of choosing the right measure(s) to capture the dimensions of touch they are interested in
Summary
Touch is often referred to as the earliest sense to develop (e.g., Fulkerson, 2014) and an important means of contact between an infant and their caregiver (Hertenstein, 2002). An important insight coming from this animal research is that there is significant individual variation in parent touching behavior. Touching behaviors in animals are identifiable—for example licking/grooming, and arched- back nursing (LG-ABN) in rats (Caldji et al, 1998)—a nd can be quantified over long periods of time. This results in representative estimates of caregiver tactile stimulation and can be used to accurately identify caregivers who engage in low or high levels of contact. When aiming to examine correlates of parental touch-related behaviors, especially when the focus is on patterns occurring over longer periods of time, researchers studying human development have much more limited options
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