Research Institute of Child Development and Education, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Infant Behav Dev. 2012 Jun;35(3):523-32. doi: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2012.02.004. Epub 2012 Jun 19.
Gaze direction, expressive behaviors and vocalizations are infants' first form of emotional communication. The present study examined the emotional configurations of these three behaviors during face-to-face situations and the effect of infants' and parents' gender. We observed 34 boys and 32 girls (mean age of 18 weeks) during the normal face-to-face interaction with their mother and with their father. Three main behaviors and their temporal co-occurrence were observed: gaze direction at the partner as an indication of infants' attention, positive and negative facial expressions as emotional communication, and vocalizations as first forms of utterances. Pairwise, infants' production of vocalizations, positive facial expressions and gaze were strongly coordinated with each. In addition, the majority of vocalizations produced during positive facial expressions coincided with gaze at the parent. Results on the effect of gender showed that infants (both boys and girls) produced coordinated patterns of positive facial expressions and gaze more often during the interaction with the mother as compared to the interaction with the father. Results contribute to the research on infants' early expression of emotions and gender differences.
注视方向、表情行为和发声是婴儿最初的情感交流形式。本研究考察了这三种行为在面对面情境中的情感组合，以及婴儿和父母性别对其的影响。我们观察了 34 名男孩和 32 名女孩（平均年龄为 18 周）在与母亲和父亲正常面对面互动时的情况。观察到了三种主要行为及其时间上的共同出现：注视伙伴的方向表示婴儿的注意力，积极和消极的面部表情作为情感交流，以及发声作为最初的言语形式。婴儿发声、积极面部表情和注视之间两两高度协调。此外，在积极面部表情期间产生的大多数发声与注视父母一致。性别影响的结果表明，与与父亲互动相比，婴儿（男孩和女孩）在与母亲互动时更频繁地产生积极面部表情和注视的协调模式。研究结果有助于研究婴儿早期的情绪表达和性别差异。
