Family SES and maternal sensitivity predict infant patterns of regulatory behavior in Brazilian dyads

Abstract

Infant's patterns of regulatory behavior contribute to infant socioemotional development and attachment. These behavioral patterns affect and are affected by the quality of mother-infant interaction. In most studies with full-term infants, the Social-Positive Oriented pattern (i.e., the infant's ability to soothe his/her emotions in the context of reciprocal and positive interactions) is the most prevalent pattern, followed by the Distressed-Inconsolable and by the Self-Comfort Oriented patterns. However, these patterns are understudied in other populations beyond the US and European countries. The current research addresses this gap by studying the regulatory behavior patterns and their association with mother-infant interactions in Brazilian dyads and evaluating the association of these regulatory patterns with demographics. Analyses were based on data collected for 40 infants (20 boys, 20 girls) and their mothers. Infants' regulatory behavior patterns were evaluated in the Face-to-Face Still-Face paradigm and mother-infant interaction was evaluated during free play at 3 months age. Notably, our findings indicate that Distressed-Inconsolable was the most prevalent pattern in this sample; followed by the Social-Positive Oriented and the Self-Comfort Oriented patterns. Furthermore, we found that maternal sensitivity and family SES (social-economic status) predicted infant patterns of regulatory behavior.

Patterns of regulatory behavior in the still-face paradigm at 3 months: A comparison of Brazilian and Portuguese infants

“…These findings are consistent with prior findings reported by our research team indicating that Brazilian mothers are more unresponsive and less sensitive to their infant's needs and PLOS ONE interests in the context of free play interactions at 3 months, compared to Portuguese mothers [9]. These findings also corroborate results from several other prior independent studies comparing maternal interactive behavior in Brazilian and Portuguese samples [21,26]. In fact, cross-country differences in maternal interactive behavior are commonly reported in the literature.…”

“…These findings mirror results from previous studies conducted by our research team showing that, in both Portuguese and Brazilian samples, maternal sensitivity is higher in infants with a Social-Positive Oriented pattern (or Positive Others oriented patterns in our original classification system) [ 7 , 9 , 26 ]. Therefore, the differences observed in these two samples may reflect country-specific variations in mother-infant interchanges that may contribute to dyadic successful interactions and infants’ emerging regulatory patterns.…”

“…This coding system describes three major behavior patterns of infant regulatory behavior: Social-Positive Oriented, Distressed-Inconsolable, and Self-Comfort Oriented. As described in [ 26 ], in order to assign each infant one of the three major categories (i.e., regulatory patterns), this coding system provides specific descriptions of infant behavior in each episode according to four behavioral dimensions: (a) behavior organization (e.g., the infant exhibits predominantly social positive behavior or distressful behavior or self-comforting behavior, or mixed behavior); (b) intensity of exhibited behavior (e.g., the infant displays prolonged and intense crying); (c) quality of behaviors (e.g., the infant reacts by displaying signals denoting pleasure such as smiles, laughter, and reciprocal neutral or positive vocalizations); and (d) infants’ ability to recover from negative affect during the reunion episode of the FFSF. Each category is mutually exclusive.…”

Predicting attachment in Portuguese infants born very or extremely preterm: Understanding the roles of infant regulatory behavior, maternal sensitivity, and risk factors

“…These scores suggest that many of the dyads in the current are at high risk for relational problems. Provision of early intervention services for these families would likely be beneficial (Ribeiro et al., 2020).…”