Early Face-to-Face Interaction and Its Relation to Later Infant-Mother Attachment.

Face-to-face interaction between 26 infants and (a) their mothers and (b) a relatively unfamiliar figure was observed longitudinally between 6 and 15 weeks of age in the home environment. Highlights of normative findings are that infants became more responsive over this time period, whereas maternal behavior did not change. In the sample as a whole, infants were more responsive to the mother than to the unfamiliar figure on only I measure, bouncing. Individual differences in maternal behavior were stable throughout, but individual differences in infant behavior were not. Individual differences in interaction were analyzed and summarized by means of a factor analysis. Factor I opposed positive infant responsiveness to minimal response and maternal playfulness to impassiveness. Factor II contrasted maternal contingent pacing, infant delight, and prolonged interaction with routine maternal manner, abruptness, negative infant response, and brief interaction. Individual differences in interaction were found to be related to later differences in infant-mother attachment, as assessed by a strange-situation procedure at 51 weeks of age. Infants later identified as securely attached were more responsive in early en face encounters than infants judged to be anxiously attached, and their mothers were more contingently responsive and encouraging of interaction. Infants later identified as anxiously attached were more unresponsive and negative in early en face interaction than securely attached infants, and their mothers were more likely to be impassive or abrupt. Securely attached infants were more positively responsive to the mother than to an unfamiliar figure in early face-to-face episodes, while anxiously attached infants were not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]