Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck University of London, London, UK.
Baby Care, Procter & Gamble Service GmbH, Schwalbach am Taunus, Germany.
Infancy. 2021 May;26(3):494-514. doi: 10.1111/infa.12394. Epub 2021 Mar 29.
Naturally occurring high levels of caregiver touch promote offspring development in many animal species. Yet, caregiver touch remains a relatively understudied topic in human development, possibly due to challenges of measuring this means of interaction. While parental reports (e.g., questionnaires, diaries) are easy to collect, they may be subject to biases and memory limitations. In contrast, observing touch in a short session of parent-child interaction in the lab may not be representative of touch interaction in daily life. In the present study, we compared parent reports (one-off questionnaires and diary) and observation-based methods in a sample of German 6- to 13-month-olds and their primary caregivers (n = 71). In an attempt to characterize touching behaviors across a broad range of contexts, we measured touch both during play and while the parent was engaged in another activity. We found that context affected both the quantity and types of touch used in interaction. Parent-reported touch was moderately associated with touch observed in parent-child interactions and more strongly with touch used during play. We conclude that brief one-off questionnaires are a good indicator of touch in parent-child interaction, yet they may be biased toward representing particular daily activities and particular types of touch.
自然发生的高水平的照料者触摸可以促进许多动物物种的后代发展。然而，在人类发展中，照料者触摸仍然是一个相对研究不足的话题，这可能是由于衡量这种互动方式的挑战。虽然父母报告（例如问卷、日记）很容易收集，但它们可能受到偏见和记忆限制的影响。相比之下，在实验室中观察亲子互动的短暂时段中的触摸可能无法代表日常生活中的触摸互动。在本研究中，我们比较了德国 6 至 13 个月大的婴儿及其主要照顾者（n=71）的父母报告（一次性问卷和日记）和基于观察的方法。为了尝试描述在广泛的情境中触摸行为，我们在游戏和父母从事其他活动时都测量了触摸。我们发现，情境会影响互动中使用的触摸的数量和类型。父母报告的触摸与亲子互动中观察到的触摸中度相关，与游戏中使用的触摸相关性更强。我们的结论是，简短的一次性问卷是亲子互动中触摸的良好指标，但它们可能偏向于代表特定的日常活动和特定类型的触摸。
