Caregiver infant interactions

• Attachment


  is a deep and lasting emotional bond between infants and caregivers. Both members seek closeness and feel more secure when they are close to the other attachment figure. Each party see the other as vital for their emotional wellbeing.
• The strength of an attachment can be seen in complex caregiver-infant interactions.

  • Reciprocity
  • interactional synchrony
• reciprocity - mutual turn-taking form of interaction. each person pays close attention to the other responding to each other's signals and cues.
• Interactional synchrony - A simultaneous interaction between the infant and caregiver. Acting rhythmically. They match behaviours and emotional states.
• Imitation: the infant directly copies with the caregiver's expression.
• Sensitive responsiveness: the extent to which a parent is in tune with their child’s emotional state, showing an ability to decode signals and respond accordingly
• Child-directed speech: When a caregiver speaks in a ‘sing-song’ tone, slowing their voice and raising the pitch, helping to keep the infant's attention.
• Body contact: physical contact, especially skin to skin is necessary for bonding, especially in the first few hours of life.
• A drawback of research into caregiver-infant interactions is that ... Infants cannot directly communicate their thoughts and emotions therefore a lot of the findings in caregiver-infant interactions are inferences. Which are considered unscientific. These could be mistaken and researchers should not claim imitation behaviour as intentional as it may be an unconscious reflex response.
• Meltzoff & Moore: displayed facial expressions (such as sticking their tongue out and opening their mouth in shock) to infants 12-21 days old. Recordings of the infant's response were rated by people blind to the experiment. The study found that infant responses matched the experimenter's facial expressions. suggesting the ability to observe and reciprocate thorough imitation is present from a very early age.
• Condon & sander : videotaped interactions between infants and adults focussing on the movements of the infant in response to adult speech. Through analysing frame-by-frame video recordings, they found evidence of interactional synchrony as the neonate's (under 28 days )movements and the rhythmic patterns of the adults’ speech were coordinated. provides evidence for interactional synchrony and suggests that from birth humans have an innate ability to socially interact.
• Most studies into caregiver-infant interactions used multiple observers blind to the experiment to provide inter-rater reliability or even used complex camera systems to better analyse the interactions. This high control found within these studies indicates a high internal validity.
• Highly socially sensitive as when findings are posted parents often adapt their behaviour to fit in line with the research. and may incorrectly view themselves as good or bad caregivers. e.g. findings that suggest high levels of sensitive responsiveness are necessary for a child's development may put additional stress and pressure on parents who have to return to work quickly
• Asocial stage of attachment - 0 to 6 weeks. Babies display innate behaviours that ensure proximity to any potential caregivers. They display these behaviours to both human and non-human objects. Low perceptual ability At this stage they can be comforted by anyone
• Indiscriminate Attachment - 6 weeks to 7 months. Infants perceptual ability begins to increase and they begin to form the ability to tell apart animate and inanimate objects as well as familiar and unfamiliar individuals. They don't yet exhibit stranger and separation anxiety.
• Specific Attachment - 7 to 9 months. Babies are strongly attached to their primary caregiver (often their mother). Separation and stranger anxiety begin to develop during this stage.
• Multiple Attachment - 9/10 months +. Start to form attachments with other regular caregivers (fathers, siblings and grandparents). Stranger anxiety begins to decrease
• Stages of attachment


  1. Longitudinal observation

  2. 60 working-class babies from Glasgow studied

  3. Monthly observations and interviews in first year

  4. 18 month home visit to assess stranger and separation anxiety
• Separation anxiety occurred in most babies by 25-32 weeks
• Stranger anxiety occurred around 1 month later than separation anxiety
• In the 18-month follow up, 87% of the infants had developed multiple attachments
• The strongest attachment tended to be with the mother, who would have had the most consistent caregiver-infant interactions
• The stages of attachment may be biologically influenced processes
• Low population validity as it is hard to generalise findings from working-class mothers in Glasgow. The study may also lack temporal validity as child-rearing processes are likely to have changed since the 1960s
• Schaffer's study found that 65% of the time an infant's primary attachment figure was their mother alone, 30% of the time it was both parents and only 3% of the time was it the mother alone. However, at 18 months 75% of the infants formed an attachment with their father showing separation anxiety, suggesting the importance of the role of the father.
• Fiel's research observed primary caregiver mothers and fathers with secondary caregiver fathers. finding that in general fathers focussed on more game playing and less holding compared to mothers. however primary caretaker fathers, similarly to the mothers showed more sensitive responsiveness. highlighting when necessary fathers can adapt their behaviours to suit that of a typical primary caregiver.
• Verissimo suggested that fathers’ active play plays a crucial role in a child's socialisation. observing children's relationships with both their parents and their social interactions when they started nursery. They found a strong attachment to the father was the best predictor of the ability of a child to make friends at school.
• Social sensitive. research that argues the role of the mother can not be replaced by a father (bowlby) may lead to father-led single families and families with two fathers feeling they cannot fully provide for the needs of their infants. Similar to the biological unequipped argument.
• economic implications. lead to laws that equal paternity and maternity leave if the roles are seen as more equally important. could address the gender pay gap.
• neg. economic implications reduced economic activities, place pressure on business.
• role of the father as a primary caregiver. In modern Western society as mothers are becoming more likely to take part in the workplace there is evidence to suggest that if men take on the role of primary caregivers their interactional style changes to be more like mothers. increasing the capacity of their sensitive responsiveness
• role of the father as Active play -Fathers are seen to engage the babies in active ‘play’ activities more consistently than mothers. Father's interactions emphasise stimulation and so it is thought that their role is to encourage risk-taking behaviours