Infant Reactivity and Reliance on Mother during Emotion Challenges: Prediction of Cognition and Language Skills in a Low‐Income Sample

Abstract

This investigation considers the association between patterns of emotional reactivity and reliance on mother in infancy and cognitive and language developments at age 2. Low-income women (N = 518) and their firstborn infants participated in (1) a lab-based assessment where emotion challenges were presented when the infants were 6 to 9 months old, and (2) an assessment of language and cognitive skills at age 2. After controlling for birthweight, early sensorimotor delay, and age at testing, infants who displayed a pattern of combined high reactivity and high reliance on mother in response to positive, anger, and fear emotion challenges had higher cognitive and language skills at age 2 compared with infants who displayed patterns of low reactivity and low reliance on mother. Children who showed high fearful distress and low reliance on mother and whose mothers had low psychological resources had especially poor developmental outcomes. The role of maternal availability in the socialization of emotion and early communication is discussed.

Emotional vitality in infancy as a predictor of cognitive and language abilities in toddlerhood

“…This study has both important similarities to and differences from the original study (Robinson and Acevedo, 2001) that assessed EV in infancy in relation to cognition and language in toddlerhood. The labs were different in the two studies, but the same emotion-eliciting procedures (Lab-TAB, Goldsmith and Rothbart, 1994) were used.…”

“…Thus, replication in a smaller sample would reduce concern that the effects of EV are small and highly vulnerable to reductions in power. Second, the rates of low EV were significantly reduced by an early intervention (Olds et al, 2002), especially among children of low-resource mothers who participated in the Robinson and Acevedo (2001) investigation. Since the theory behind EV posits that it reflects early developmental strengths, and since one study has shown that rates of low vitality can be reduced by an intervention in a high-risk sample, EV may be a construct with substantial clinical utility.…”

“…In sum, the goals of the current study were twofold: First we wanted to replicate the general findings of the original study (Robinson and Acevedo, 2001), i.e. that EV in infancy is associated with better language and cognitivedevelopmental scores in toddlerhood, in order to support its usefulness as a target for improvement in early interventions.…”

“…Thus, Robinson and Acevedo (2001) asserted that the emergence of EV is likely associated with neurological maturation as well as features of the attachment relationship that appear in the middle of the first year. Moreover, emotional availability of a caregiver increases the likelihood that a child will continue active sharing of emotions, whereas emotional unavailability may reduce a child's motivation to seek out his caregiver in this way (Robinson et al, 1997).…”

“…In a previously published report, Robinson and Acevedo (2001) described and investigated the construct of emotional vitality (EV) in infancy}the lively expression of emotion shared with others}and its developmental consequences. That study used a standardized, laboratory-based paradigm (Goldsmith and Rothbart, 1994) to assess individual differences in 6-month-olds' reactivity and regulation in response to emotion challenges and compared patterns of highvitality (i.e.…”