MATERNAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO INFANT REGULATION OF AROUSAL

The purpose of the current study was to longitudinally enomine the relations between general characteristics of maternal behavior and the degree to which infants demonstrate an ability to regulate arousal. Thirty-two infant-mother dyads were visited at home and videotaped in two 3-min episodes of face-to-face interaction at 1 and 4 months infant age. Infant gaze behavior, head orientation, and facial expressions provided a composite index of infant arousal regulation. Results revealed positive within- and across-time associations between maternal interactive behaviors and infants' arousal-regulating abilities. Two features of 1-month maternal beahavior-state and physical activity-were highlighted in the prediction of 4-month infant arousal regulation. More specifically, hierarchical regression analyses revealed that these 1-month maternal behaviors accounted for a significant percent of the variance in 4-month infant arousal regulation, whereas earlier infant arousal regulation and concurrent maternal behaviors made insignificant contributions.