Table 3.
Caregiver-infant interaction domains, methods of investigation to study infant, caregiver and dyadic behaviours and publications that have employed these methods to study interactions.
| Domain | Defined | Method of Investigation | Relevant publication(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| INFANT | |||
| Affect | Positive or negative affect, based on body movements, vocalizations and facial expressions | Global Rating Scale (GRS; Murray et al., 1996) | Sethna et al., 2017 |
| Bosquet Enlow et al., 2011 | Catalina Camacho et al., 2019 | ||
| Gunnar et al., 1992 | Gunnar and Nelson, 1994 | ||
| Manchester Assessment of Caregiver-Infant Interaction (MACI; Wan et al., 2012, 2013) | Elsabbagh et al., 2015 | ||
| Kochanska, 1997, 1998 | Hane and Fox, 2006 | ||
| Custom | Dawson et al., 1999 | ||
| Hanford et al., 2018; | |||
| Affect recovery | Affect following a mildly stressful situation | Still-Face Paradigm; Bosquet Enlow et al., 2011 | Catalina Camacho et al., 2019 |
| Affectionate touch | Combination of deep touch (stroking, rubbing, caressing, and wiping), light touch (running the tip of the fingers on the caregiver), and touch (resting hand on caregiver) | Adapted version of Moszkowski and Stack, 2007 | Hardin et al., 2021 |
| Attachment | Specific, preferential, and enduring emotional tie between an infant and a caregiver, reflected in infants' behaviours such as separation distress, greeting at re-union and tendency to turn to caregiver when distressed. | Strange Situation Procedure (SSP; 1978; Main and Solomon, 1990) | Biro et al., 2021 |
| Cortes Hidalgo et al., 2019 | |||
| Lyons-Ruth et al., 2016 | |||
| Moutsiana et al., 2014, 2015 | |||
| Quevedo et al., 2017 | |||
| Peltola et al., 2020 | |||
| Tharner et al., 2011; | |||
| Rifkin-Graboi et al., 2019 | |||
| Attachment Behavior Q-Sort (AQS; Waters and Deane, 1985) | Leblanc et al., 2017 | ||
| Bernier et al., 2019 | |||
| Attention | The amount and quality of visual contact with an interest in the caregiver directly or through mutual focus | Manchester Assessment of Caregiver-Infant Interaction (MACI; Wan et al., 2012, 2013) | Elsabbagh et al., 2015 |
|
Bids for attention |
Behaviours used by baby to attract attention in the context of caregivers’ inattention: touch, vocalizations, offering toys, attention, grabbing, negative affect |
Divided attention task; Custom |
Dawson et al., 1999 |
| Mize and Jones, 2012 | |||
| Communication | Infant’s level of engagement and communication (e.g., vocal and non-vocal behaviour directed towards the partner) | Global Rating Scale (GRS; Murray et al., 1996) | Sethna et al., 2017, 2019 |
| Inhibition | Level of restraint of exploration: proximity to caregiver during play and when stranger approaches; latency to approach a stranger and a novel toy. | Custom | Jones et al., 2009 |
| “Interactive behaviour” | Measured using positive facial affect, directed attention, and positive vocalizations. | Custom | Jones et al., 2004 |
| Initiating joint attention | An act used to direct another’s attention to an object, event, or topic of a communicative act | Communication and Symbolic Behavioral Scales-Developmental Profile (CSBS-DP; Wetherby et al., 2002) | Eggebrecht et al., 2017 |
| Involvement | Child’s attempts to engage the mother in play in a non-urgent and relaxed way | Emotional Availability Scales (EAS; Biringen, 2008) | Licata et al., 2015 |
| Liveliness | Level of voluntary physical activity, particularly that initiated by the infant | Manchester Assessment of Caregiver-Infant Interaction (MACI; Wan et al., 2012, 2013) | Elsabbagh et al., 2015 |
| Reactivity, regulation | Baby’s strategies to regulate during a distressing situation. Orienting: attempting to engage with the partner. Distraction: attending to or attempting to manipulate an object. |
Custom | Swingler et al., 2007, 2014 |
| Responding to joint attention | Ability to coordinate the focus of attention by responding to e.g., gaze shift, head turn, and pointing gesture | Custom | Elison et al., 2012 |
| Responsive-ness | Degree to which the child reacts in a positive, non-urgent way to the mother, focusing on emotional rather than behavioural responsiveness as well as genuine, positive affect displayed by the child. | Adapted version of Jörg et al., 1994 | Holz et al., 2018 |
| Emotional Availability Scales (EAS; Biringen, 2008) | Licata et al., 2015 | ||
| Withdrawal | Falling asleep or being disengaged in interaction | Gunnar et al., 1992 | Gunnar and Nelson, 1994 |
|
CAREGIVER | |||
| Affect | Affective state characterized by level of caregivers’ enjoyment, effort and vitality, degree of self-consciousness, and the extent of anxiety in the interaction. | Global Rating Scale (GRS; Murray et al., 1996); | Sethna et al., 2017 |
| Extent to which the caregiver expressed positive emotions during the task through her tone of voice and facial expressions. | Calkins et al., 2004 | Bernier et al., 2016 | |
| Kraybill and Bell, 2013 | |||
| Adapted version of Gartstein et al., 2008, 2018 | Gartstein et al., 2020 | ||
| Perone and Gartstein, 2019 | |||
| Positive and negative affect of the caregiver | Feldman et al., 2011 | St. John et al., 2017 | |
| Affectionate touch | Combination of deep affectionate touch (firm patting, stroking, massaging with the whole hand) and light affectionate touch (affectionate kissing, caressing, or stroking, grazing, hugging) | Adapted version of Touch Scoring Instrument (Polan and Ward, 1994) | Hardin et al., 2021 |
| Communication | Mind-Mindedness – comments about infant internal states or intentionality | Meins et al., 2001 | Dégeilh et al., 2018 |
| Custom | Hanford et al., 2018 | ||
| Infant-directed speech | Feldman et al., 2011 | St. John et al., 2017 | |
| Disruptive communication | Atypical Maternal Behavior Instrument for Assessment and Classification (Lyons-Ruth et al., 1999) | Lyons-Ruth et al., 2016 | |
| Directiveness or support for autonomy | The degree to which infants’ behaviours are his/her focus rather than caregivers’ agenda | Whipple et al., 2010 | Dégeilh et al., 2018 |
| Emotional Availability Scales (EAS, Biringen, 2008) | Licata et al., 2015 | ||
| Intensity | Overall loudness and complexity of interaction | Manchester Assessment of Caregiver-Infant Interaction (MACI; Wan et al., 2012, 2013) | Elsabbagh et al., 2015 |
| Zhao et al., 2019 | |||
| Interaction style – depressed mothers | (i) intrusive: rough physical contact (i.e. poking), staccato actions and vocalizations; tense or fake facial expressions; (ii) withdrawn: flat affect, rare touching and vocalizing; disengaged behavior, looking away from the infant; | Adapted version of Field et al., 1990 | Diego et al., 2002 |
| Diego et al., 2006 | |||
| Field et al., 2003 | |||
| Jones et al., 1997 | |||
| Intrusiveness | Display of over-controlling behaviour or focus on her own agenda, ignoring the infant's behaviour or cues | Calkins et al., 2004 | Bernier et al., 2016 |
| Broomell et al., 2019 | |||
| Diaz et al., 2019 | |||
| Ainsworth et al., 1974 | Huffmeijer et al., 2020 | ||
| Indexed as caregiver taking toy from infant | Feldman et al., 2011 | St. John et al., 2017 | |
| Mirroring | Imitation of infants’ facial movements | Murray et al., 2016 | Rayson et al., 2017 |
| Parenting | Positive parenting: warmth, positivity, and sensitivity in interaction Negative parenting: hostility and intrusiveness; |
Adapted version of Early Parenting Coding System (Shaw et al., 2006; Hipwell et al., 2015) | Hanford et al., 2018 |
| General quality of parenting based on talking, looking at infant & social play | Beckwith and Cohen, 1984 | Beckwith and Parmelee, 1986 | |
| Constructed based on (i) Acceptance-Rejection, (ii) Sensitivity-Insensitivity, (iii) Degree of Availability, and (iv) Appropriateness of Pace in Feeding & (v) non-intrusive. | Adapted version of Ainsworth, 1976; Park et al., 1997 | Hane and Fox, 2006, 2010 | |
| Quality of parenting based on positive facial affect, directed attention and positive vocalization | Custom | Jones et al., 2004 | |
| Responsiveness | All behaviours executed in response to the infant behaviours (vocal, facial or motor) | Adapted version of Jörg et al., 1994 | Holz et al., 2018 |
| Sensitivity | Caregivers’ response to the infant’s communication cues; the extent to which it is contingent and appropriate to the infant’s needs and experiences; | Global Rating Scale (GRS; Murray et al., 1996) | Sethna et al., 2017, 2019 |
| Manchester Assessment of Caregiver-Infant Interaction (MACI; Wan et al., 2012, 2013) | Elsabbagh et al., 2015 | ||
| Zhao et al., 2019 | |||
| Coding Interactive Behavior (CIB; Feldman, 2012) | Pratt et al., 2019 | ||
| Mini Maternal Behavior Q-Sort (MBQS) e.g. Moran et al (2009a, 2009b), Tarabulsy et al (2009). | Lee et al., 2019 | ||
| Rifkin-Graboi et al., 2015, 2019 | |||
| Wang et al., 2019 | |||
| Wen et al., 2017 | |||
| Ainsworth et al., 1974 | Huffmeijer et al., 2020 | ||
| Calkins et al., 2004 | Bernier et al., 2016 | ||
| Diaz et al., 2019 | |||
| Adapted version of Calkins et al. (2004) | Swingler et al., 2014, 2017 | ||
| Emotional Availability Scales (EA; Biringen, 2008) | Licata et al., 2015 | ||
| Adapted version of Gartstein et al., 2008, 2018 | Perone and Gartstein, 2019 | ||
| Custom | Gartstein et al., 2020 | ||
| Combination of the measures of (i) Cooperation/ Attunement (ability to accurately interpret infants’ cues and to adjust the interaction correspondingly); (ii) Positivity (positive affect and attitude, no overt signs of feeling overwhelmed or criticism towards infant); (iii) Accessibility/. Availability (consistent attentiveness toward the infant, even when engaged in other tasks). | Adapted version of Maternal Behavior Q-Sort (MBQS); e.g. Moran et al (2009a, 2009b), Tarabulsy et al (2009). | Bernier et al., 2019 | |
| Composed of: (i) sensitivity to non-distress, (ii) positive regard and (iii) intrusiveness (reversed) | NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 1999 | Nolvi et al., 2020 | |
| Composed of: (i) sensitivity; (ii) structuring (iii) non-intrusiveness, (iv) nonhostility. | Adapted version of Emotional Availability Scales (EA; Biringen, 2008) | Taylor-Colls and Pasco Fearon, 2015 | |
| Stimulation | Extent to which the caregiver directly stimulated infant’s body for the purpose of heightening the infant’s level of arousal | Adapted version of Jörg et al., 1994 | Holz et al., 2018 |
| Attempts to attract the infant’s attention or to establish contact with him/her. | Custom | Gartstein et al., 2020 | |
|
DYADIC | |||
| Affect synchrony | Number of caregiver-child positive affect episodes within approach-proximal position. | Adapted version of Feldman and Eidelman, 2004 | Pratt et al., 2019 |
| Directedness | Dyadic activity or assessment of who directs most of the activity – parent or child | Custom | Gartstein et al., 2020 |
| Dyadic intensity | Intensity, not quantity, of mutual engagement at its most optimal | Custom | Gartstein et al., 2020 |
| Mutuality | Degree of dyadic sharedness and reciprocity of experience | Field et al., 1990 | Jones et al., 2004 |
| Manchester Assessment of Caregiver-Infant Interaction (MACI; Wan et al., 2012, 2013) | Elsabbagh et al., 2015 | ||
| Reciprocity | Attunement and turn-taking; characterised by high coordination and synchrony |
Beckwith and Cohen, 1984 |
Beckwith and Parmelee, 1986 |
| Manchester Assessment of Caregiver-Infant Interaction (MACI; Wan et al., 2012, 2013) |
Elsabbagh et al., 2015 |
||
| Perone and Gartstein, 2019 | |||