Abstract
Sensitive responsiveness refers to parents’ ability to recognize and respond to infants’ cues and has been linked to parental empathy. Additionally, oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (AVP) are hormones important for sensitivity and empathy. The aim of this study is to test the links between dispositional empathy along with changing OT and AVP levels and responsiveness to a life-like doll in couples and to verify whether these factors are predictors of responsiveness to a child’s cues. Exploratory analyses include predictors of sensitive responsiveness: polymorphisms of OXTR, AVPR1a and CD38 genes, personal characteristics and relational factors. The project employs standardized experimental settings that can be used with non-parents and the assessment of parental sensitive responsiveness towards their child. The participants are couples expecting their first child (111) and childless couples (110). The procedure involves caretaking of a life-like doll. Salivary samples and questionnaire data are collected in a planned manner. In the second part, the expectant couples are invited for the assessment of their sensitivity to their own child (Free Play episodes). Parental sensitivity is assessed using the Ainsworth Sensitivity Scale. This paper presents an interdisciplinary research project that reaches beyond the questionnaire measurement, considering many factors influencing the dynamics of adult–infant interaction.
Highlights
To test the individual differences in parental sensitive responsiveness, we implement an experimental design with the use of a life-like doll to be used with expectant and non-expectant couples and the subsequent assessment of sensitive responding towards own child for the couples that participated in the study during pregnancy
We are able to control many factors influencing the dynamics of adult–infant interaction
The main goal of the current study is to examine the predictive effects of empathy and hormonal factors on sensitive responsiveness to infant crying in a standardized setting before the birth of the couples’ own child, we aim to test whether these factors are predictors of responsiveness to their own child’s cues
Summary
Behavioral and emotional cues and to respond during interaction in a well-timed, reciprocal and mutually rewarding manner [1] It is often conceptualized as parental sensitivity or parental sensitive responsiveness to the child’s signals. Res. Public Health 2021, 18, 4815 wish it and putting him or her down when he/she wants to explore the environment; or socially responding to his or her attempts to initiate interaction [3]. It is the most powerful way to provoke a change in an infant’s situation compared to other signaling behaviors, and it is the most apparent early attachment behavior [7] Such distress vocalizations prompt a parental response in the service of modulating stress and stimulating protection. Infant–parent interaction is dynamic and is influenced by many contextual factors, as well as the characteristics of the infant and the parent [8,9]
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