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

Abstract

Three infant regulatory behavior patterns have been identified during the Face-to-Face Still-Face paradigm (FFSF) in prior research samples: a Social-Positive Oriented pattern (i.e., infants exhibit predominantly positive social engagement), a Distressed-Inconsolable pattern (i.e., infants display conspicuous negative affect that persists or increases across FFSF episodes), and a Self-Comfort Oriented pattern (e.g., infants primarily engage in self-comforting behaviors such as thumb-sucking). However, few studies have examined these patterns outside US and European countries or evaluated potential cross-country differences in these patterns. In this study, we compared the regulatory behavior patterns of 74 Brazilian and 124 Portuguese infants in the FFSF at 3 months of age, and evaluated their links to demographic and birth variables. The prevalence of the three regulatory patterns varied by country. The most frequent pattern in the Portuguese sample was the Social-Positive Oriented, followed by the Distressed-Inconsolable and the Self-Comfort Oriented. However, in the Brazilian sample, the Distressed-Inconsolable pattern was the most prevalent, followed by the Social-Positive Oriented and the Self-Comfort Oriented. Moreover, in the Brazilian sample, familial SES was higher among infants with a Social-Positive pattern whereas 1st-minute Apgar scores were lower among Portuguese infants with a Distressed-Inconsolable Oriented pattern of regulatory behavior. In each sample, Social Positive pattern of regulatory behavior was associated with maternal sensitivity, Self-Comfort Oriented pattern of regulatory behavior with maternal control, and Distressed-Inconsolable pattern with maternal unresponsivity.

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

“…However, it is hard to attribute the difference in the results across different studies solely to differences in infants' prematurity status (FT, MLPT, or VEPT), because many of the families in the current sample also were from higher social risk backgrounds. Another study carried out with a low-income Brazilian sample of infants born FT (Fuertes et al, 2021) found a similar prevalence of the three infant regulatory patterns as in the current study. It may be that the cumulative family and social risk factors experienced by some families in the current sample may have indirectly jeopardized parents' ability to support their infants in regulating their emotions during stressful situations, by increasing their allostatic load Diener et al, 2003;Moster et al, 2008).…”

“…In the current sample of infants born VEPT, we were able to identify the same three patterns of infant regulatory behavior as were observed in prior studies with infants born FT or MLPT (Fuertes et al., 2021), despite these infants’ greater biological and neurological immaturity and vulnerability. However, the prevalence of each pattern in the current sample varies from that observed in prior work.…”