A detailed microanalysis of 4-month mother-infant face-to-face communication revealed a fine-grained specification of essential communication processes that predicted 12-month insecure attachment outcomes, particularly resistant and disorganized classifications. An urban community sample of 84 dyads were videotaped at 4 months during a face-to-face interaction, and at 12 months during the Ainsworth Strange Situation. Four-month mother and infant communication modalities of attention, affect, touch, and spatial orientation were coded from split-screen videotape on a 1s time base; mother and infant facial-visual “engagement” variables were constructed. We used contingency measures (multi-level time-series modeling) to examine the dyadic temporal process over time, and specific rates of qualitative features of behavior to examine the content of behavior. Self-contingency (auto-correlation) measured the degree of stability/lability within an individual’s own rhythms of behavior; interactive contingency (lagged cross-correlation) measured adjustments of the individual’s behavior that were correlated with the partner’s previous behavior. We documented that both self- and interactive contingency, as well as specific qualitative features, of mother and infant behavior were mechanisms of attachment formation by 4 months, distinguishing 12-month insecure, resistant, and disorganized attachment classifications from secure; avoidant were too few to test. All communication modalities made unique contributions. The separate analysis of different communication modalities identified intermodal discrepancies or conflict, both intrapersonal and interpersonal, that characterized insecure dyads. Contrary to dominant theories in the literature on face-to-face interaction, measures of maternal contingent coordination with infant yielded the fewest associations with 12-month attachment, whereas mother and infant self-contingency, and infant contingent coordination with mother, yielded comparable numbers of findings. Rather than the more usual hypothesis that more contingency is “better,” we partially supported our hypothesis that 12-month insecurity is associated with both higher and lower 4-month self- and interactive contingency values than secure, as a function of mother vs. infant and communication modality. Thus, in the origins of attachment security, more contingency is not necessarily better. A remarkable degree of differentiation was identified in the 4-month patterns of “future” C and D infants, classified as resistant and disorganized, respectively, at 12 months. Only future D infants were emotionally distressed, with simultaneous positive and negative discrepant affect; only their mothers showed difficulty in sharing infant affect, particularly distress, and lowered their contingent coordination with infant facial-visual engagement. This lowered contingent coordination makes it more difficult for infants to come to expect that their emotional/attentional states can influence mothers to coordinate with them and thus compromi...

Principles of a dynamic, dyadic systems view of mother-infant face-to-face communication, which considers self- and interactive processes in relation to one another, were tested. We examined the process of interaction across time in a large, low-risk community sample, at infant age 4 months. Split-screen videotape was coded on a 1-s time base for communication modalities of attention, affect, orientation, touch and composite facial-visual engagement. Time-series approaches generated self- and interactive contingency estimates in each modality. Evidence supporting the following principles was obtained: (1) Significant moment-to-moment predictability within each partner (self-contingency) and between the partners (interactive contingency) characterizes mother-infant communication. (2) Interactive contingency is organized by a bi-directional, but asymmetrical, process: maternal contingent coordination with infant is higher than infant contingent coordination with mother. (3) Self-contingency organizes communication to a far greater extent than interactive contingency. (4) Self-and interactive contingency processes are not separate; each affects the other, in communication modalities of facial affect, facial-visual engagement, and orientation. Each person’s self-organization exists in a dynamic, homoeostatic (negative feedback) balance with the degree to which the person coordinates with the partner. For example, those individuals who are less facially stable are likely to coordinate more strongly with the partner’s facial affect; and vice-versa. Our findings support the concept that the dyad is a fundamental unit of analysis in the investigation of early interaction. Moreover, an individual’s self-contingency is influenced by the way the individual coordinates with the partner. Our results imply that it is not appropriate to conceptualize interactive processes without simultaneously accounting for dynamically inter-related self-organizing processes.

Associations of 6-week maternal depressive symptoms [Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D)] with 4-month mother-infant self-and interactive contingency patterns during face-to-face play were investigated in 132 dyads. Self-and interactive contingency (auto-and lagged cross-correlation, respectively) were assessed by multilevel time-series analysis. Infant and mother gaze, facial and vocal affect, touch, and spatial orientation behaviors were coded second-by-second from splitscreen videotape, and a multimodal measure of facial-visual "engagement" was constructed, generating nine modality pairings. With higher CES-D, the self-contingency of both partners was lowered in most modalities. With higher CES-D, interactive contingency values were both heightened (in some modalities) and lowered (in others), varying by partner. These results are consistent with an optimal midrange model. With higher CES-D, interactive contingency showed the following patterns: (a) Mothers and their infants had a reciprocal orientational sensitivity; (b) mothers and infants manifested a reciprocal intermodal discordance in attention versus affect coordination, lowering gaze coordination, but heightening affective coordination; (c) infants heightened, but mothers lowered, touch coordination with partner touch-an "infant approach-mother withdraw" touch pattern. Nonlinear analyses indicated that altered self-and interactive contingency were similar at both the low ("denial") as well as the high ("endorsement") poles of depressive symptoms, in half the findings. These complex, multimodal findings define different aspects of communication disturbance, with relevance for therapeutic intervention. RESUMEN: En un grupo de 132 díadas se investigaron las asociaciones entre los síntomas de depresión maternal a las 6 semanas (CES-D) y patrones de 4 meses de contingencia propia e interactiva entre la madre y el infante durante el juego cara a cara. Las contingencias propia e interactiva (propia y demorada correlación mutua, respectivamente) fueron evaluadas por medio de un análisis a varios niveles y en una serie de momentos temporales. La mirada del infante y la madre, el afecto facial y vocal, el acto de tocarse, y las conductas de orientación espacial fueron codificadas sección por sección, a partir de una videograbación con pantalla dividida, y una medida multimodal de contacto facial y visual fue construída, todo lo cual generó 9 pareamientos de modalidades. En los casos de más altos niveles de CES-D, la autocontingencia de cada una de las partes bajó en la mayoría de las modalidades. En los casos de más altos niveles de CES-D, los valores de contingencia interactiva subieron en ambas personas (en algunas modalidades) y bajaron (en otras), según cada individuo, consistente con un modelo intermedioóptimo. En los casos de niveles más altos de CES-D, la contingencia interactiva mostró los siguientes patrones: (1) las madres y sus infantes tenían una sensibilidad de orientación recíproca; (2) las madres y los infantes m...

Associations of 6-week postpartum maternal self-criticism and dependency with 4-month mother-infant self- and interactive contingencies during face-to-face play were investigated in 126 dyads. Infant and mother face, gaze, touch, and vocal quality were coded second by second from split-screen videotape. Self- and interactive contingencies were defined as auto- and lagged cross-correlation, respectively, using multilevel time-series models. Statistical significance was defined as p<.05. Regarding self-contingency, (a) more self-critical mothers showed primarily lowered self-contingency, whereas their infants showed both lowered and heightened, and (b) infants of more dependent mothers showed primarily lowered self-contingency, whereas findings were absent in mothers. Regarding interactive contingency, (a) more self-critical mothers showed lowered attention and emotion contingencies but heightened contingent touch coordination with infant touch, and (b) more dependent mothers and their infants showed heightened facial/vocal interactive contingencies. Thus, maternal self-criticism and dependency have different effects on mother-infant communication.

Associations of maternal self-report anxiety-related symptoms with mother–infant 4-month face-to-face play were investigated in 119 pairs. Attention, affect, spatial orientation, and touch were coded from split-screen videotape on a 1-s time base. Self- and interactive contingency were assessed by time-series methods. Because anxiety symptoms signal emotional dysregulation, we expected to find atypical patterns of mother–infant interactive contingencies, and of degree of stability/lability within an individual’s own rhythms of behavior (self-contingencies). Consistent with our optimum midrange model, maternal anxiety-related symptoms biased the interaction toward interactive contingencies that were both heightened (vigilant) in some modalities and lowered (withdrawn) in others; both may be efforts to adapt to stress. Infant self-contingency was lowered (“destabilized”) with maternal anxiety symptoms; however, maternal self-contingency was both lowered in some modalities and heightened (overly stable) in others. Interactive contingency patterns were characterized by intermodal discrepancies, confusing forms of communication. For example, mothers vigilantly monitored infants visually, but withdrew from contingently coordinating with infants emotionally, as if mothers were “looking through” them. This picture fits descriptions of mothers with anxiety symptoms as overaroused/fearful, leading to vigilance, but dealing with their fear through emotional distancing. Infants heightened facial affect coordination (vigilance), but dampened vocal affect coordination (withdrawal), with mother’s face—a pattern of conflict. The maternal and infant patterns together generated a mutual ambivalence.