Manuela Lavelli

Early mother-infant interaction during breast- and bottle-feeding.

Abstract Thirty-two primiparous mothers with their neonates, 20 breast-fed and 12 bottle-fed, were videotaped during feeding longitudinally (at 3, 10 days, 1 and 3 months) in order to investigate whether patterns of mother-infant interaction observed during breast- and bottle-feeding differ also for behavior not directly related to sucking. Infant state, sucking behavior, mother behavior and mother-infant interaction were analyzed by both sequential and non sequential analysis. Results suggest that the method of feedings affects mother-infant interaction observed during and just after feeding also for some behavior not directly related to sucking. The percentage of mutual touch, tactile stimulation and mothers gaze to infant was significantly more elevated during breast-feeding. Independently of the feeding mode, significant sequential dependencies between infant state of alertness and auditory stimulation, and auditory stimulation and mutual gaze were found.

Interdyad Differences in Early Mother-Infant Face-to-Face Communication: Real-Time Dynamics and Developmental Pathways

A microgenetic research design with a multiple case study method and a combination of quantitative and qualitative analyses was used to investigate interdyad differences in real-time dynamics and developmental change processes in mother-infant face-to-face communication over the first 3 months of life. Weekly observations of 24 mother-infant dyads with analyses performed dyad by dyad showed that most dyads go through 2 qualitatively different developmental phases of early face-to-face communication: After a phase of mutual attentiveness, mutual engagement begins in Weeks 7-8, with infant smiling and cooing bidirectionally linked with maternal mirroring. This gives rise to sequences of positive feedback that, by the 3rd month, dynamically stabilizes into innovative play routines. However, when there is a lack of bidirectional positive feedback between infant and maternal behaviors, and a lack of permeability of the early communicative patterns to incorporate innovations, the development of the mutual engagement phase is compromised. The findings contribute both to theories of relationship change processes and to clinical work with at-risk mother-infant interactions.

Neonate and Infant Emotion Expression Perceived by Adults

This exploratory study investigates the meaning that adults attribute to the facial expressions of neonates and young infants using different types of scales, and tries to assess whether adult judgments get more precise as the infants get older. We videotaped longitudinally six infants facial expressions in 5 everyday life situations at 3 days, 1 month, and 3 months old. Untrained adult decoders had to assess the activation and pleasure/displeasure levels signaled by the isolated videotaped facial expressions, recognize the stimulus situations, and attribute a verbal label to each expression. Our results showed that inter-decoder agreement was higher when the babies facial expressions were considered as signals of activation or of pleasure/displeasure, and decreased significantly when the expressions had to be interpreted as signals of specific situations or when a verbal label had to be ascribed. The specificity and the accuracy of the answers, and inter-decoder agreement, were higher for the older infants.

Parenting Infants: Socialization Goals and Behaviors of Italian Mothers and Immigrant Mothers From West Africa

This study was aimed at contributing to the understanding of cultural parenting strategies in a context of immigration. Socialization goals (SGs) and parenting behaviors during interaction with 3-month-old infants of first-generation West African immigrant mothers in Italy and autochthonous Italian mothers were compared. The relation between SGs and maternal behaviors within the two groups was also examined. As expected, results showed that West African immigrant mothers placed more emphasis on SGs related to hierarchical relatedness and a proximal parenting style than Italian mothers, who emphasized SGs related to psychological autonomy and a distal parenting style. Although there were no significant differences in the amount of overall vocal/verbal behaviors between the two samples, West African immigrant mothers showed longer durations of rhythmic vocalizing and singing than Italian mothers, who showed more affectionate talking. Compared with the literature on West African parenting strategies, this result suggests a possible increased amount of talking of immigrant mothers in the new language-driven environment, but maintenance of a protosong structure typical of their culture of origin. Furthermore, a significant association between socialization goals and parenting behaviors was found in the Italian group of mothers but not in the sample of immigrant mothers, suggesting that the weaker links between goals and behaviors in the immigrant sample may express a reorganization in the composition of parenting beliefs and practices.

Differences in practices of body stimulation during the first 3 months: ethnotheories and behaviors of Italian mothers and West African immigrant mothers.

This study investigated cultural differences, continuity and change of practices concerning body stimulation in a context of immigration. Parenting behaviors during the interaction with infants at 4, 8 and 12 weeks, and parenting ethnotheories at 12 weeks of first-generation West African immigrant mothers in Italy and autochthonous Italian mothers were compared. A qualitative inspection of ethnotheories using a thematic approach was included. As expected, results showed that immigrant mothers placed more emphasis on motor stimulation and showed longer durations of rhythmic motor and rhythmic tactile behaviors than Italian mothers; the latter placed more emphasis on tactile stimulation than immigrant mothers. The practice of motor stimulation in immigrant mothers was also adapted to values of the new context of life, becoming a positive interaction game with a mutual exchange of positive emotions. Findings express the complexity of a multidimensional process of acculturation.