Frank A. Pedersen

Infant Development in Father-Absent Families.

In a sample of 55 black infants (age 5-6 months) living in the inner city in lower socioeconomic circumstances, 27 infants were being reared by their mothers in single-parent families. Male infants who had experienced minimal interaction with their fathers were significantly lower on the Bayley Mental Developmental Index and in measures of social responsiveness, secondary circular reactions, and preferences for novel stimuli. Female infants in this sample appeared unaffected by the fathers presence or absence. After weighing alternative interpretations of the findings, we conclude that the father is a significant component in the early environment and that both observational studies and conceptual development of the role of the father in infancy are needed.

Developmental observations of diadic gazing in relation to the fear of strangers and social approach behavior.

This report describes relations among maternal attitudes assessed during pregnancy, the frequency of mother-infant gazing assessed at 1 and 3 months of age, and 3 measures of approach-avoidance behavior, including infant-stranger gazing, assessed at 8 and 9/ months in 45 infants. For males, mother-infant gazing correlates positively with infant-stranger gazing and another social approach variable. The latter 2 variables and mother-infant gazing, again for males, correlate positively with antecedent maternal attitudes. For both sexes, stranger-infant gazing is intercorrelated with the other approach-avoidance variables. The possible significance of these relations is discussed.

Conceptualization of Father Influences in the Infancy Period

There is no longer a need to intone the standard opening litany that psychologists have been preoccupied with maternal influences to the exclusion of other social agents. On the contrary, there is now considerable evidence of research interest in father-infant relationships, the paternal role, and distinctive aspects of father-infant interaction. The more serious problem, however, is that there has not been an adequate effort to conceptualize paternal influences in the infancy period. To redress this oversight, we will present some theoretical ideas in order to encourage the development of an explanatory network for research on fathers. The central thesis is that father influences must be understood as occurring within the family unit. It is not meaningful to make global generalizations about what fathers do, or what their effects are, without considering the larger family context.

The early resumption of employment by mothers: Implications for parent-infant interaction

Abstract Home observations of mother-father-infant interaction and mother-infant interaction were contrasted in middle-class families in which the mother was employed or a full-time caregiver. First-born infants and their parents were observed at 3 months. The results indicate that when mother, father, and infant were together parents in the single wage-earner families provided more tactile stimulation to their babies; fathers in single wage-earner families tended to interact more with their infants than did mothers, while in dual wage-earner families mothers tended to interact more than fathers; and fathers in single wage-earner families exceeded fathers in dual wage-earner families in interactions with their infants. By contrast, mothers in the two groups showed very little difference in their interactions with their babies. No significant differences were found for maternal behavior in the three-person observation, and a single behavior differentiated between the groups in the mother-baby observation, with homemaker mothers more often making visual contact with their babies. The implications of these findings are discussed, both with respect to further research, and with regards to the development of children of employed mothers.

Variation in Infant Experience Associated with Alternative Family Roles

Observational data on the young child interacting with either mother or father derive primarily from studies of families with traditional roles: the mother characteristically is the infant’s primary caregiver and the father fulfills the wage-earner role. Conceptualizations of maternal and paternal relationships, particularly theories stemming from the psychoanalytic tradition, similarly assume this family-role organization. Contrary to the dominant empirical and conceptual notions of early experience, however, there is a clear secular trend among all industrialized nations toward families more typically having two wage earners even when there are very young children (Cook, 1978). Indeed, the rate of increase in employment rates for U.S. mothers is greatest for those with young children. In the period in which employment rates doubled for mothers with school-age children, there was a threefold increase for mothers with pre-school-age children. In 1979 over 40% of U.S. mothers with children under age 3 were employed outside the home (U.S. Department of Labor, 1979). Despite the increasing prevalence of dual-wage-earner families, little is known about whether families with two wage earners have different styles of interacting with and caring for the young infant than is characteristically found in the traditional single-wage-earner family.

The Interplay between Cognition and Motivation in Infancy

Throughout the history of psychology there has been lively controversy around the concept of intelligence. A recurrent issue has been whether it is meaningful to conceptualize intelligence as a global attribute or whether it is more meaningful conceptually to think of it in terms of its component functions (Burt, 1972; Guilford, 1956; Spearman, 1927; Wechsler, 1950). For some time there has also been unease about the isolation of cognitive abilities from other aspects of functioning (Dem-ber, 1974; Rapaport, 1951; Wechsler, 1950). The basic question is whether cognitive behaviors are a separate domain, an isolated segment of functioning, or whether these abilities are integrally related to other personality and motivational characteristics. Controversy on these issues has been sharpened in recent years as our concepts of motivation have changed and our view of cognitive functioning has become more differentiated.

Cesarean childbirth: Psychological implications for mothers and fathers†

Home observations, ratings of interaction, and interviews were carried out in families with first-born 5-month-old infants. Comparisons were made between two groups of families differing as to whether the childbirth had been a Cesarean or vaginal delivery. Fathers whose babies had been born by Cesarean delivery reported greater involvement in child care and were rated as more responsive to infant distress. Both mothers and fathers tended to show less animation in interactions with their infants following a Cesarean delivery: mothers engaged less frequently in vigorous physical stimulation and showed less reciprocal positive affect with their infants, and fathers smiled less at their infants.