Stranger Approach Research Articles

Stranger Responses: Effects of Familiarity, Stranger's Approach, and Sex of Infant

Most investigators examining contextual influences on infant responses to a stranger have limited their study to the initial responses of the infant. Few have considered infant reactions beyond the first minutes of the encounter or the enduring effects of contextual variables once mothers have left. The present study examines the effects of stranger's style of approach, familiarity with the stranger, and infant sex on infant response before and after maternal separation. Familiarity was operationalized in 2 ways: the length of time mothers stayed before leaving infants with the stranger and meeting the stranger a second time. Findings suggest that all these factors influence infant behavior. Ifants looked and smiled at the stranger significantly more when approached slowly. Contrary to expectations, infants (particularly girls) who met the familiar stranger after 1 week protested significantly more when left with her at that time. Trends indicate the length of time mothers stayed was least influential since most infants became extremely distressed once mothers departed.

Stranger Responses: Effects of Familiarity, Stranger's Approach, and Sex of Infant

Stranger Responses: Effects of Familiarity, Stranger's Approach, and Sex of Infant

Wariness of Strangers and the Study of Infant Development

SROUFE, L. ALAN. Wariness of Strangers and the Study of Infant Development. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1977, 48, 731-746. The construct of wariness of strangers is sufficiently viable to withstand recent critiques and to have an important place in an integrated view of infant development. Negative reactions to strangers appear to be a general phenomenon, although there is considerable individual variation in age of onset and in developmental course. The manifestation of aversive reactions is highly influenced by dontext and procedural variations. When procedural and coding variations are taken into account, stranger approach studies reveal consistent developmental trends; negative reactions are rare in the first half year, common by 8 or 9 months, and increasingly frequent throughout the first year. The range of reactions can be reliably coded, and even subtle aversive responses have been validated in a variety of ways. There is evidence of some stability of negative reactions, though consistency of individual differences in type of reaction has not been adequately assessed. The meaning and significance of wariness are most clearly seen when examined in interaction with the affiliative, exploratory, and attachment systems and when its implications for major problems in cognitive, social, and emotional development are considered.

“Stranger” Distress: Confirmation of a Developmental Shift in a Longitudinal Sample

Whether infants normally develop distress to a stranger in the second half year of life is an important and apparently unresolved question in view of recent criticisms of prior research. To answer the question whether there is a developmental shift in infants' reactions to a standardized approach by a stranger, a longitudinal study was carried out of 14 infants tested during monthly home visits from months 4 through 12. Films of facial expressions were rated to establish the presence and absence of distress. Positive as well as negative facial expressions were recorded, and attention was given to details of behavioral reactions rather than to pooled indices of behavior. All infants tested showed distress at some point in the first year with a mean age of onset of 8 months. Distress tended to persist on subsequent testings. The developmental course of the infants' reactions involved two opposite functions: a decline in positive responding and an increase in negative responding in association with the stranger's approach during the second half of the first year. Thus, we concluded that a developmental shift was found, and, in conjunction with other recent work contrasting reactions to mothers, the shift was interpreted as due to reactions to strangers.

INFANTS' GREETING PATTERNS TO STRANGERS

ABSTRACTNaive observers coded facial behaviors (eye direction, eye openness, and mouth) of 40 infants from videotapes of the infant's face and upper torso as the infants watched the approach of a stranger. Patterns of facial movement show that the infants are interested, their eyes remain forward, are slightly wide or normal and the mouth is relaxed. This pattern occurs significantly more often than any other. Indications of fear (mouth contracted or corners down, gaze aversion, eyes very wide) and joy (eyes a bit wide, mouth corners up, looking ahead) were blended with interest, but did not occur in isolation. No age differences were found in this analysis. Sex differences were found in patterns of eye openness. The results were contrasted with previous findings of infant “fear” and were compared to adult reactions in similar stranger approach situations.

STRANGERS IN AN INFANT'S LIFE

Recent observations suggest that the concept of “Stranger anxiety” has been over-simplified and that at least some of the fears shown are due to situational factors rather than to innate fears. To compare the effectiveness of varying environmental conditions in reducing infants' distress at being left with a stranger, the length of time during which the mother stayed with the infant-stranger pair before leaving them alone together and the manner in which the stranger first approached the baby and mother were systematically varied. 40 infants (mean age 53.1 weeks) from intact white families were studied. Only four of the infants fussed when the stranger first entered the room while mothers were present. However, once the mother left, infants responded significantly more negatively (p<.001) to the stranger's approach. When the stranger approached the babies slowly and focused most of his initial attention on the mothers, infants looked at him (p<.005) and smiled at him (p<.025) significantly more than when he quickly came up and focused attention on the infants. The length of time mothers stayed before leaving (3 vs. 10 minutes)did not significantly affect infants' behavior. 17 infants returned one week later to test whether meeting the stranger a second time diminished distress. Infants (particularly girls) protested significantly more at being left during the second visit (p<.05). These observations should help caregivers of young children be alert to and overcome conditions which heighten stranger protest.