Department of Human Sciences, University of Verona.
The Nathan Kline Institute.
Dev Psychol. 2022 Feb;58(2):270-285. doi: 10.1037/dev0001298.
Very few studies have assessed infant capacity for bidirectional, contingent communication at birth, and to our knowledge there are none with preterm infants in the neonatal period. Presence versus absence of such interactive contingency makes a difference for our theories of development. We examined whether preterm infants can contingently coordinate behaviors with mothers and fathers in spontaneous communication in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), and whether mother-infant versus father-infant engagement and contingency differ. Twenty Italian preterm infants (60% girls, born 27-33 weeks, largely middle-class families) lying in a heated cot in the NICU were videotaped at 35 weeks with mothers, and fathers (counterbalanced), in face-to-face communication. Videotapes were coded on a 1-s time-base with parent and infant engagement scales. Multilevel time-series models evaluated self-contingency (auto-correlation) and interactive contingency (lagged cross-correlation). Mothers (vs. fathers) showed higher levels of engagement, interpreted as more arousing. Fathers (vs. mothers) showed more midrange engagement, interpreted as less "demanding" of infant engagement. Infants were more gaze-on-parent's-face and gaze-on-environment with mothers than fathers. Fathers interacted contingently with infants, whereas mothers did not. However, infants interacted contingently with mothers, but not fathers. When infants were in lower engagement levels 1 s prior, fathers stayed in lower engagement levels in the current second, closer to infants than mothers. We suggest that fathers were more coordinated because fathers were more able to join the infant's dampened state. We suggest that infants were more coordinated with mothers because mothers were more socially stimulating, and more familiar. We conclude that preterm infants, shortly after birth, are capable of contingent communication. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
几乎没有研究评估过婴儿在出生时是否具有双向、条件性沟通的能力，据我们所知，也没有研究涉及新生儿期的早产儿。这种互动条件性的存在与否对我们的发展理论有影响。我们研究了早产儿是否能够在新生儿重症监护病房（NICU）的自然交流中与母亲和父亲有条件地协调行为，以及母婴互动与父子互动是否存在差异。20 名意大利早产儿（60%为女孩，出生于 27-33 周，主要来自中产阶级家庭）在 NICU 的加热婴儿床中躺着，与母亲和父亲（平衡对照）进行面对面交流，并用摄像机进行拍摄。录像以 1 秒的时间为基础进行编码，同时评估父母和婴儿的参与程度。多层次时间序列模型评估了自我关联性（自相关）和交互关联性（滞后交叉相关）。母亲（与父亲相比）表现出更高水平的参与度，这被解释为更具刺激性。父亲（与母亲相比）表现出更多的中等参与度，这被解释为对婴儿参与度的要求较低。与父亲相比，婴儿与母亲在一起时更多地注视着父母的脸和环境。父亲与婴儿互动有条件，而母亲则没有。然而，当婴儿在前 1 秒处于较低的参与水平时，父亲在当前的第 2 秒中也保持较低的参与水平，与婴儿更接近，而不是母亲。我们认为，父亲更能协调婴儿，因为父亲更能适应婴儿的低能量状态。我们认为，婴儿与母亲更协调，是因为母亲更具有社会刺激性，并且更熟悉。我们的结论是，早产儿在出生后不久就能够进行有条件的沟通。（PsycInfo 数据库记录（c）2022 APA，保留所有权利）。
