Infant Interaction Research Articles

Fathers’ prenatal attachment representations and the quality of father–child interaction in infancy and toddlerhood.

Despite the strong evidence that fathers have a crucial role in child well-being, very little is known about the development of the father-child relationship from prenatal to postnatal period. In this longitudinal study, the fathers' prenatal attachment representations (n = 129), between 29 and 32 gestational weeks, were assessed with the Working Model of Child Interview, and the father-child interaction was analyzed with the Parent-Child Early Relational Assessment at 4 and 18 months after the birth. The results showed that fathers' prenatal balanced attachment representations were associated with more positive paternal behaviors compared to fathers with disengaged attachment representations when the child was 4 months old, but not when the child was 18 months old. In addition, positive changes occurred in the interaction quality between 4 and 18 months in all three groups of representation categories (balanced, disengaged, distorted), which offers an optimistic view of the evolving nature of the father-child relationship. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Effectiveness of The Newborn Behavioral Observation (NBO) System in Improving Mother and Infant Interaction

The interaction of mother and infant is a fundamental basis for the development of the infant. It can also determine the success of the baby in the future. About 4 out of 10 infants experience problems interacting with their parents. The NBO system was created to sensitize parents on their infant’s competencies to help them understand their infant’s behavior, and promote positive interactions between parents and their new infant. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the NBO system to improve mother-infant interactions and find out the mothers’ knowledge about their infant’s behavior when participating in this observation. This study was a cross-sectional study consisting of all the newborns and their mothers admitted to the Dr. Soetomo General Academic Hospital Surabaya from May 2019 to January 2020 who met the inclusion criteria. Mothers and infants participated in the NBO within 1-3 days after delivering their infants and one month postpartum for the second NBO. The NBO was carried out with 35 mothers and infants. The mothers’ age was on average 28.5±5.98 years old, multiparous mothers accounted for 71.4%, most infants were male (65.7%), the median gestational age was 38 weeks with the median birth weight 2900 grams. The median score of mothers’ knowledge about their infants before the NBO session was 2 (1-6). After the session, these median scores increased to 7 (5–10) significantly (p<0.001). The NBO system was significant to strengthen mother-infant interaction and increased the mothers’ knowledge about their infants’ behavior.

Can parent-infant observation predict later childhood psychopathology: a systematic review

AimsDifficulties in parent-child interaction are easily observed and are a potential target for early intervention. This study aimed to assess the utility of observation of parent-child interaction in the first year of life in identifying children at risk of developing later psychopathology, using a rigorous systematic review method.MethodEMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, MIDIRS, MEDLINE and Cochrane Library databases were searched using MeSH terms and keywords, and reference lists screened. Two authors independently reviewed papers for inclusion and completed data extraction. All peer reviewed papers studying the association between an independent observation of parent-child interaction and later childhood psychopathology in community-based samples were included. Studies based on ‘high risk’ samples (studies exclusively examining cohorts with a sibling or parent with a mental illness or studies of low birth weight or premature infants and those with other physical comorbidities) were excluded. Results were synthesised qualitatively due to high heterogeneity.Result18,226 papers were identified, nine were included in this study. Childhood psychopathology was associated with fewer positive parent-infant interactions, lower parent vocalisation frequency and lower levels of adult speech and activity. Maternal sensitivity was inversely related to separation anxiety and oppositional defiant/conduct disorders were associated with lower shared look rates. Disruptive behaviour disorders were associated with higher frequency of child vocalisation. Pervasive developmental disorders were associated with ‘abnormal’ maternal infant interactions, as assessed by community health nurses using a standardised measure.ConclusionIncluded studies reported small samples, and several of these samples overlapped. Some studies were of poor quality, but were included due to a paucity of available data. The findings may therefore have limited generalisability. Difficulties in parent-child interaction are easily observed and assessments could be made by non-specialists such as health visitors or general practitioners. Such difficulties may be an early indicator of later childhood psychopathology. Childhood psychiatric diagnoses (with the exception of Autistic Spectrum Disorders) appear associated with level of maternal activity (vocalisation, physical activity, positive parenting and shared attention). Assessments may identify at-risk families for early intervention, but further work is required to develop and validate reliable methods for risk stratification in community-based practice.

Early maternal care and amygdala habituation to emotional stimuli in adulthood.

Evidence suggests that maternal care constitutes a protective factor for psychopathology which may be conditional on the level of family adversity. Given that psychopathology is frequently linked with social deficits and the amygdala with social functioning, we investigated the impact of early maternal care on amygdala function under high vs low familial risk for psychopathology. Amygdala activity and habituation during an emotional face-matching paradigm was analyzed in participants of an epidemiological cohort study followed since birth (n = 172, 25 years). Early mother–infant interaction was assessed during a standardized nursing and play setting at the age of 3 months. Information on familial risk during the offspring’s childhood and on the participants’ lifetime psychopathology was obtained with diagnostic interviews. An interaction between maternal stimulation and familial risk was found on amygdala habituation but not on activation, with higher maternal stimulation predicting stronger amygdala habituation in the familial risk group only. Furthermore, amygdala habituation correlated inversely with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diagnoses. The findings underline the long-term importance of early maternal care on the offspring’s socioemotional neurodevelopment and of interventions targeting maternal sensitivity early in life, particularly by increasing maternal interactive behavior in those with familial risk.

Mother-infant interaction in women with depression in pregnancy and in women with a history of depression: the Psychiatry Research and Motherhood - Depression (PRAM-D) study.

Little is known about the effects of depression before birth on the quality of the mother-infant interaction. To understand whether depression, either in pregnancy or in lifetime before pregnancy, disrupts postnatal mother-infant interactions. We recruited 131 pregnant women (51 healthy, 52 with major depressive disorder (MDD) in pregnancy, 28 with a history of MDD but healthy pregnancy), at 25 weeks' gestation. MDD was confirmed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Disorders. Neonatal behaviour was assessed at 6 days with the Neonatal Behavioural Assessment Scale, and mother-infant interaction was assessed at 8 weeks and 12 months with the Crittenden CARE-Index. At 8 weeks and 12 months, dyads in the depression and history-only groups displayed a reduced quality of interaction compared with healthy dyads. Specifically, at 8 weeks, 62% in the depression group and 56% in the history-only group scored in the lowest category of dyadic synchrony (suggesting therapeutic interventions are needed), compared with 37% in the healthy group (P = 0.041); 48% and 32%, respectively, scored the same at 12 months, compared with 14% in the healthy group (P = 0.003). At 6 days, neonates in the depression and history-only groups exhibited decreased social-interactive behaviour, which, together with maternal socioeconomic difficulties, was also predictive of interaction quality, whereas postnatal depression was not. Both antenatal depression and a lifetime history of depression are associated with a decreased quality of mother-infant interaction, irrespective of postnatal depression. Clinicians should be aware of this, as pregnancy provides an opportunity for identification and intervention to support the developing relationship.

Empathy and Hormonal Changes as Predictors of Sensitive Responsiveness towards Infant Crying: A Study Protocol.

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.

Mothers' neural response to valenced infant interactions predicts postpartum depression and anxiety.

It is currently unknown whether differences in neural responsiveness to infant cues observed in postpartum affective disturbance are specific to depression/anxiety or are better attributed to a common component of internalizing distress. It is also unknown whether differences in mothers’ brain response can be accounted for by effects of past episodes, or if current neural processing of her child may serve as a risk factor for development of future symptoms. Twenty-four mothers from a community-based sample participated in an fMRI session viewing their 3-month- old infant during tasks evoking positive or negative emotion. They were tracked across the ensuing 15 months to monitor changes in affective symptoms. Past and current episodes of depression and anxiety, as well as future symptoms, were used to predict differences in mothers’ hemodynamic response to their infant in positive compared to negative emotion contexts. Lower relative activation in largely overlapping brain regions involving frontal lobe structures to own infant positive vs. negative emotion was associated with concurrent (3-month) depression diagnosis and prospective (3–18 month) depression and anxiety symptoms. There was little evidence for impacts of past psychopathology (more limited effect of past anxiety and nonsignificant effect of past depression). Results suggest biased maternal processing of infant emotions during postpartum depression and anxiety is largely accounted for by a shared source of variance (internalizing distress). Furthermore, differential maternal responsiveness to her infant’s emotional cues is specifically associated with the perpetuation of postpartum symptoms, as opposed to more general phenotypic or scarring effects of past psychopathology.

A Multiple‐Memory Systems Framework for Examining Attention and Memory Interactions in Infancy

AbstractVisual attention both guides and is guided by learning and memory systems. In this article, we use a multiple‐memory systems framework to examine the interplay between attention and memory that begins in early postnatal life. We review how attention and memory interact to support infant development with respect to perceptual learning about objects and features, item‐in‐context spatial memory, and reinforcement and reward learning. We argue that the multiple‐memory systems approach offers a useful organizational structure for research on interactions between attention and memory.

Processing of infant emotion in mothers with mood disorders and implications for infant development.

Atypical neurocognitive responses to emotional stimuli are core features of unipolar depression (UD) and bipolar disorder (BD). For mothers with these mood disorders, this may influence interactions with their infants and consequently infant development. The study aimed to investigate psychophysiological and cognitive responses to infant emotional stimuli, and their relation to mother-infant interaction and infant development, in mothers with BD or UD in full or partial remission. Four months after birth, mothers' cognitive responses to emotional infant stimuli were assessed with computerized tasks, while their facial expressions, galvanic skin responses (GSR), gazes, and fixations were recorded. Infant development and mother-infant interactions were also assessed. We included 76 mothers: 27 with BD, 13 with UD, and 36 without known psychiatric disorders, and their infants. Mothers with BD and UD were in full or partial remission and showed blunted GSR and spent less time looking at infant stimuli (unadjusted p values < 0.03). Mothers with BD showed subtle positive neurocognitive biases (unadjusted p values<0.04) and mothers with UD showed negative biases (unadjusted p values < 0.02). Across all mothers, some measures of atypical infant emotion processing correlated with some measures of delays in infant development and suboptimal mother-infant interaction (unadjusted p values<0.04). Mothers with mood disorders in full or partial remission showed atypical cognitive and psychophysiological response to emotional infant stimuli, which could be associated with mother-infant interactions and infant development. The study is explorative, hypothesis generating, and should be replicated in a larger sample. Investigation of the long-term implications of reduced maternal sensitivity is warranted.

Autonomic Nervous System Maturation and Emotional Coordination in Interactions of Preterm and Full-Term Infants With Their Parents: Protocol for a Multimethod Study

BackgroundThere is limited knowledge on the physiological and behavioral pathways that may affect the developmental outcomes of preterm infants and particularly on the link between autonomic nervous system maturation and early social human behavior. Thus, this study attempts to investigate the way heart rate variability (HRV) parameters are related to emotional coordination in interactions of preterm and full-term infants with their parents in the first year of life and the possible correlation with the developmental outcomes of infants at 18 months.ObjectiveThe first objective is to investigate the relationship between emotional coordination and HRV in dyadic full-term infant–parent (group 1) and preterm infant–parent (group 2) interactions during the first postpartum year. The second objective is to examine the relationship of emotional coordination and HRV in groups 1 and 2 in the first postpartum year with the developmental outcomes of infants at 18 months. The third objective is to investigate the effect of maternal and paternal postnatal depression on the relation between emotional coordination and HRV in the two groups and on developmental outcomes at 18 months. The fourth objective is to examine the effect of family cohesion and coping on the relation between emotional coordination and HRV in the two groups and on developmental outcomes at 18 months.MethodsThis is an observational, naturalistic, and longitudinal study applying a mixed method design that includes the following: (1) video recordings of mother-infant and father-infant interactions at the hospital, in the neonatal period, and at home at 2, 4, 6, 9, and 12 months of the infants’ life; (2) self-report questionnaires of parents on depressive symptoms, family cohesion, and dyadic coping of stress; (3) infants’ HRV parameters in the neonatal period and at each of the above age points during and after infant-parent video recordings; and (4) assessment of toddlers’ social and cognitive development at 18 months through an observational instrument.ResultsThe study protocol has been approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the University of Crete (number/date: 170/September 18, 2020). This work is supported by the Special Account for Research Funds of the University of Crete (grant number: 10792-668/08.02.2021). All mothers (with their partners) of full-term and preterm infants who give birth between March 2021 and January 2022 at the General University Hospital of Crete (northern Crete, Greece) will be invited to participate. The researcher will invite the parents of infants to participate in the study 1 to 2 days after birth. Data collection is expected to be completed by March 2023, and the first results will be published by the end of 2023.ConclusionsInvestigating the regulatory role of HRV and social reciprocity in preterm infants may have implications for both medicine and psychology.International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)PRR1-10.2196/28089

Capturing touch in parent-infant interaction: A comparison of methods.

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.

Emotional availability in women with bipolar disorder and major depression: A longitudinal pregnancy cohort study.

Poorer mother-infant interaction quality has been identified among women with major depression; however, there is a dearth of research examining the impact of bipolar disorder. This study sought to compare mother-infant emotional availability at 6 months postpartum among women with perinatal major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder and no disorder (control). Data were obtained for 127 mother-infant dyads from an Australian pregnancy cohort. The Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-5 was used to diagnose major depressive disorder (n = 60) and bipolar disorder (n = 12) in early pregnancy (less than 20 weeks) and review diagnosis at 6 months postpartum. Prenatal and postnatal depressive symptoms were measured using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, along with self-report psychotropic medication use. Mother and infant's interaction quality was measured using the Emotional Availability Scales when infants reached 6 months of age. Multivariate analyses of covariance examining the effects of major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder on maternal emotional availability (sensitivity, structuring, non-intrusiveness, non-hostility) and child emotional availability (responsiveness, involvement) were conducted. After controlling for maternal age and postpartum depressive symptoms, perinatal disorder (major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder) accounted for 17% of the variance in maternal and child emotional availability combined. Compared to women with major depressive disorder and their infants, women with bipolar disorder and their infants displayed lower ratings across all maternal and child emotional availability qualities, with the greatest mean difference seen in non-intrusiveness scores. Findings suggest that perinatal bipolar disorder may be associated with additional risk, beyond major depressive disorder alone, to a mother and her offspring's emotional availability at 6 months postpartum, particularly in maternal intrusiveness.

Short Communication: Infanticide of Javan slow loris (Nycticebus javanicus) in captivity

Abstract. Sushadi DS, Phadmacanty NLPR, Wahyudin M, Wirdateti 2021. Short Communication: Infanticide of Javan slow loris (Nycticebus javanicus) in captivity. Biodiversitas 22: 1606-1611. Over the past decade, the population of Javan slow loris (Nycticebus javanicus) in the wild has continued to decline. Various conservation efforts by the government and NGOs have been carried out, but still have not yielded significant results. Many studies have highlighted the impact of poaching and forestland conversion as a cause, but the natural behavior of N. javanicus, especially infant care interactions, is poorly studied. We investigated the case of a 5-day-old Javan slow loris baby named Monda, found dead in captivity. Monda was born in captivity and impounded with its mother and an adult male. She was found dead decapitated with a sign of injury on the right arm. Microscopic fecal examination of the other lorises showed hair and bone fragments in the male feces. Based on this finding, it is possible that infanticide also occurs in slow lorises in its natural habitat but may have been underreported.

The neurochemistry of social reward during development: What have we learned from rodent models?

Social rewards are fundamental to survival and overall health. Several studies suggest that adequate social stimuli during early life are critical for developing appropriate socioemotional and cognitive skills, whereas adverse social experiences negatively affect the proper development of brain and behavior, by increasing the susceptibility to develop neuropsychiatric conditions. Therefore, a better understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying social interactions, and their rewarding components in particular, is an important challenge of current neuroscience research. In this context, preclinical research has a crucial role: Animal models allow to investigate the neurobiological aspects of social reward in order to shed light on possible neurochemical alterations causing aberrant social reward processing in neuropsychiatric diseases, and they allow to test the validity and safety of innovative therapeutic strategies. Here, we discuss preclinical research that has investigated the rewarding properties of two forms of social interaction that occur in different phases of the lifespan of mammals, that is, mother-infant interaction and social interactions with peers, by focusing on the main neurotransmitter systems mediating their rewarding components. Together, the research performed so far helped to elucidate the mechanisms of social reward and its psychobiological components throughout development, thus increasing our understanding of the neurobiological substrates sustaining social functioning in health conditions and social dysfunction in major psychiatric disorders.

The role of mother's prenatal substance use disorder and early parenting on child social cognition at school age

AbstractThis prospective longitudinal study examined how maternal prenatal substance use disorder (SUD) and early mother–infant interaction quality are associated with child social cognition (emotion recognition and mentalization) at school age. A sample of 52 poly‐substance‐using mothers receiving early interventions and 50 non‐users, along with their children, was followed from pregnancy to school age. First‐year mother–infant interaction quality was measured with EA scales. At school age, child facial emotion recognition was measured with DANVA and mentalization with LEAS‐C. SUD group children did not differ from comparison children in social cognition, but higher severity of maternal prenatal addiction predicted emotion recognition problems. High early mother–infant interaction quality predicted better emotion recognition and mentalization, and mother–infant interaction quality mediated the effect of prenatal SUD on emotion recognition. The results highlight the need for early treatments targeting both parenting and addiction, as well as long‐term developmental support for these children.Highlights We examined how mother's prenatal substance use disorder (SUD) and early mother–infant interaction predict child social cognition at school age. Questionnaires, observational and computer tasks were used. Maternal prenatal addiction severity and early parenting problems predicted problematic child social cognition. Early interventions should simultaneously target addiction and parenting. Attention should also be paid to the long‐term developmental support of children.

Characterizing cardiorespiratory interaction in preterm infants across sleep states using visibility graph analysis.

Cardiorespiratory interaction (CRI) has been intensively studied in adult sleep, yet not in preterm infants, in particular across different sleep states including wake (W), active sleep (AS), and quiet sleep (QS). The aim of this study was to quantify the interaction between cardiac and respiratory activities in different sleep states of preterm infants. The postmenstrual age (PMA) of preterm infants was also taken into consideration. The CRI during sleep was analyzed using a visibility graph (VG) method, enabling the nonlinear analysis of CRI in a complex network. For each sleep state, parameters quantifying various aspects of the CRI characteristics from constructed VG network including mean degree (Dm) and its variability (Dsd), clustering coefficient (CCm) and its variability (CCsd), assortativity coefficient (AC), and complexity (DSE) were extracted from the CRI networks. The interaction effect of sleep state and PMA was found to be statistically significant on all CRI parameters except for AC and DSE. The main effect between sleep state and CRI parameters was statistically significant except for CCm, and that between PMA and CRI parameters was statistically significant except for DSE. In conclusion, the CRI of preterm infants is associated with sleep states and PMA in general. For preterm infants with a larger PMA, CRI has a more clustered pattern during different sleep states, where QS shows a more regular, stratified, and stronger CRI than other states. In the future, these parameters can be potentially used to separate sleep states in preterm infants.NEW & NOTEWORTHY The interaction between cardiac and respiratory activities is investigated in preterm infant sleep using an advanced nonlinear method (visibility graph) and some important characteristics are shown to be significantly different across sleep states, which has not been studied before.

Maternal History of Childhood Maltreatment and Control Strategies: A Search for Mechanisms

AbstractObjectiveThe current study examined whether and how mothers' personal history of childhood maltreatment related to control strategies toward their children during infancy in mainland China.BackgroundAlthough previous studies have linked mothers' history of childhood maltreatment to negative control with their children, no study has systematically investigated the effect of maternal history of childhood maltreatment on control strategies varying in the levels of power assertion and its underlying mechanisms.MethodDrawn from a two‐wave observational study, participants were 233 Chinese mother–infant dyads. The mothers reported their history of childhood maltreatment at 6 months of child age (T2), and executive function and marital satisfaction at 14 months of child age (T2). Additionally, maternal control strategies toward children were coded from videotaped mother–infant interactions at both T1 and T2.ResultsThe results showed that T1 maternal history of childhood maltreatment was negatively predictive of T2 gentle control, after controlling for T1 gentle control and maternal education status. Furthermore, a chained mediation path from T1 maternal history of childhood maltreatment to T2 negative control through T2 executive function and then T2 marital satisfaction was found.ConclusionMothers with a childhood maltreatment history tend to use less gentle control toward their 14‐month‐old infants, whereas the intergenerational transmission of maternal history of childhood maltreatment to negative control is prevented by better executive function and higher satisfaction in marital relations.

Digitally-mediated parent–baby touch and the formation of subjectivities

This article examines how the use of emergent smart baby monitors re-mediates parent–baby touch, notions of connection, parental sensing and the interpretation of babies’ bodies, and contributes to the formation of subjectivities. Domestic baby monitors are a mid 20th-century phenomenon which normalizes parental anxieties. While baby monitoring is not new, the ‘next generation’ of wearable bio-sensing baby monitors offers a different relationship to the body via the physiological tracking of babies, and the sending of information or alerts to parents’ via connected mobile apps. These devices have been associated with creating unnecessary parental anxiety and the digital ‘replacement’ of parental touch, although little research exists on their use in the context of parent–infant interaction or touch. The authors present a qualitative case study of one such technology, Owlet, to explore how parents experienced, understood and negotiated the discourses of parent–infant touch that circulate around and through Owlet, with particular attention to the relationship between visual and tactile resources. The study focuses on both its multimodal design and take-up by parents through analysis of interviews with the Owlet designer, Owlet as a product, focus groups with parents and families’ home experiences of Owlet. Data is analysed through a tri-part lens, which first combines multimodal social semiotic and sensory ethnographic approaches, and then the analytical concept of governmentality. The findings are discussed in relation to four analytical themes: (1) creating a desire for digitally mediated touch; (2) spatiality of digitally mediated connection; (3) formulating the ‘right kind’ of touch; and (4) reconfiguring ‘knowing touch’. The authors discuss multimodal discourses pertinent to the shaping of parent–baby touch practices including: rationality and efficiency; individualism, autonomy and freedom; and self-improvement and empowerment. They conclude that the discourses that coalesce around Owlet contribute to the reconfiguration of parent–baby touch and the formation of neoliberal subjectivities.

The Role of Affectionate Caregiver Touch in Early Neurodevelopment and Parent-Infant Interactional Synchrony.

Though rarely included in studies of parent–infant interactions, affectionate touch plays a unique and vital role in infant development. Previous studies in human and rodent models have established that early and consistent affectionate touch from a caregiver confers wide-ranging and holistic benefits for infant psychosocial and neurophysiological development. We begin with an introduction to the neurophysiological pathways for the positive effects of touch. Then, we provide a brief review of how affectionate touch tunes the development of infant somatosensory, autonomic (stress regulation), and immune systems. Affective touch also plays a foundational role in the establishment of social affiliative bonds and early psychosocial behavior. These touch-related bonding effects are known to be mediated primarily by the oxytocin system, but touch also activates mesocorticolimbic dopamine and endogenous opioid systems which aid the development of social cognitive processes such as social learning and reward processing. We conclude by proposing a unique role for affectionate touch as an essential pathway to establishing and maintaining parent-infant interactional synchrony at behavioral and neural levels. The limitations of the current understanding of affectionate touch in infant development point to fruitful avenues for future research.

Investigation of Factor Structure and Validation of the Parent - Infant Interaction Questionnair

Background: the birth of a premature baby puts a lot of stress on the family. This stress is due to the lack of physical, emotional and psychological readiness of the parent to enter this premature baby and the family faces many needs, therefore, attention to the specific issues and needs of these families is considered. Objective: The purpose of the present study was to construct and investigate the factor structure and validation of the parent - infant interaction questionnaire in Behshahr. Method: After translation, design and approval of items by experts in the field of psychology and psychometrics, 222 mothers with infants over 2 months were selected by convenience sampling method and based on the criteria of Klein, moreover, this questionnaire was administered to them. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were used to evaluate the construct validity. Result: According to the research findings, 3 factors and 19 items were identified. In addition, the confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the three - factor model of this questionnaire. To measure the reliability of the test, the KR-20 method was used, whose coefficients ranged from 0.610 to 0.803. Conclusion: The results indicate that the questionnaire has desirable psychometric properties and is a good tool for measuring mother - infant interaction.