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Preterm infants' affective responses in independent versus toy‐centered play with their mothers
Author(s) -
Garner Pamela W.,
Landry Susan H.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
infant mental health journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.693
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1097-0355
pISSN - 0163-9641
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0355(199223)13:3<219::aid-imhj2280130308>3.0.co;2-9
Subject(s) - affect (linguistics) , psychology , developmental psychology , joint attention , communication , autism
The affective behavior of medically high‐risk (HR) and low‐risk (LR) infants, along with a control group of full‐terms (FT), was compared at 6 months of age during a 5‐minute independent and a 5‐minute toy‐centered play session with their mothers. Because previous research has shown that joint toy play places a burden on the attentional capacities of HR infants, it was predicted that they would show less positive affect and more negative affect in toy‐centered (vs. independent) play and joint attention (vs. face‐to‐face) interactions than would the LR or FT infants. Results showed that the HR infants displayed fewer smiles across the independent and mother toy‐centered play condition and across face‐to‐face and joint attention interactions than LR or FT infants. The findings also indicated that the mother's presence facilitated the expression of positive affect for all three infant groups.