Sculpting Culture: Early Maternal Responsiveness and Child Emotion Regulation – A UK-Italy Comparison

Abstract

Mother-infant interactions, including culturally specific features, have been found to predict child socio-emotional development (e.g., social communication and emotion regulation (ER)). However, research is lacking on the specific processes involved. We used a cross-cultural, longitudinal design, and a microanalytic coding approach to address this issue. Fifty-two mother-infant dyads were recruited from the UK ( N = 21) and Italy ( N = 31), representing Northern European and Mediterranean cultures, respectively. While these cultures share core features of parent-child relationships, their values about emotional expressiveness differ. We observed face-to-face mother-infant interactions at 2 months (T1), and coded infant socio-emotional behavior and maternal responses. Children were seen again at 2 years (T2), when their ER in the face of frustration, using the Barrier Task, was assessed, and the occurrence of different “mature” strategies (communicative and autonomous) coded. Results revealed common features of interactions at T1 (infant socio-emotional expressions, and maternal positive responses), but also cultural variation in the frequency of different infant cues (more pre-speech in UK infants, more smiles in Italians), and of maternal responses to them. While greater overall maternal responsiveness at T1 predicted more mature ER in general at T2, cultural differences in early responsiveness to specific infant behaviors predicted later group differences in children’s use of particular ER strategies, with UK children using more communicative strategies, and Italians more autonomous. Findings indicate that positive maternal behaviors that are common across cultures (e.g., responsiveness) promote overall successful child emotion regulation, while culturally specific features of interactions are associated with how child socio-emotional outcomes are expressed.

Evidence for cultural differences in affect during mother–infant interactions

“…Accordingly, the high arousal of the Palestinian-Arab mothers in our study may reflect an effort to keep the infant engaged in a positive state. Together, these findings in adults and infants point out that self-regulation can be rooted in cultural norms, and sculpted at an early age via mother-infant interactions 110 . By responding to the infant's affective signals, mothers and other caregivers provide immediate regulation but also help the infant to become more independent in self-regulation 39,[111][112][113][114] .…”

Similarities and differences in the functional architecture of mother- infant communication in rhesus macaque and British mother-infant dyads

“…Such findings on the importance of maternal mirroring complement the wider evidence on the capacity of human infants themselves to imitate, or mirror, others' facial gestures 25,26 , with the two lines of research converging to suggest common neural mechanisms underlying the capacity for experiencing self-other equivalence 27 . Notably, our subsequent cross-cultural and clinical research showed that this same fundamental functional architecture applied to mother-infant interactions in European samples with distinctive values concerning socio-emotional expressiveness (Italian and British), and even to dyads where infant facial expressiveness is affected by cleft-lip, and with the same effects on infant functioning [28][29][30] .…”

“…Given the importance of these parent-infant interactions for infant social development in our previous research 23,24,[28][29][30] , a critical question, and one not previously investigated, is whether the same fundamental 'functional architecture' that we previously identified is found in groups of non-human primates too. Intuitive parenting behaviours, including providing supportive care, encouraging locomotion, playful interactions and contingent responses to infant social signals, have been described in many primate species, although differences in particular parenting styles depend on the rate of infant development, as well as the social structure 31 .…”

Comparison of Japanese and Scottish Mother–Infant Intersubjectivity: Resonance of Timing, Anticipation, and Empathy During Feeding

“…This functional architecture is a part of intersubjectivity of infants to respond in certain ways to specific forms of parental display (Murray et al, 2016). Bozicevic et al (2021) demonstrate that cultural difference in maternal responsiveness mediate difference in the infant's later communicative behavior.…”