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When Infants Look to Their Parents: I. Infants' Social Referencing of Mothers Compared to Fathers
Author(s) -
Hirshberg Laurence M.,
Svejda Marilyn
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1990.tb02851.x
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , child development
66 12‐month‐olds were seen with their mothers and fathers in a laboratory procedure designed to compare infants' solicitation of, emotional resonance to, and self‐regulation on the basis of happy, fearful, and conflicting emotional signals from mothers versus fathers. Measures of positive and negative affect and affect lability; of look, approach, and proximity behavior; and of overall response pattern were obtained. Infants showed more positive and less negative affect and greater toy proximity with happy compared to fearful signals. Few differences emerged in infants' referencing response to mothers versus fathers. Infants looked more to mothers than fathers when no signals were given but did not differentiate between parents when only one was signaling or when both were signaling (conflict). In affective state and behavioral regulation, they were not differentially responsive to maternal versus paternal signals either when only one parent was signaling or when both were giving signals.