León Gabriel A, Morris Alyssa R, Gilbertson Chase H, Turner Alexandra, Betron Haley, Ortega Leonardo Dominguez, Guillemette Sam, Kuhil Sarah, Wang Jasmin, Demenko Vlada, Liu Jasmine, Longdon Avery, Ouyang Jennifer, Saxbe Darby E
University of Southern California, United States.
Infant Behav Dev. 2024 Sep;76:101976. doi: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2024.101976. Epub 2024 Jul 16.
Positive affect synchrony, or the reciprocal exchange of positive affect during free play, can scaffold infants' socioemotional development. However, parental stress may compromise the expression and exchange of positive affect within families. The current study assesses whether parenting stress and hair cortisol are associated with positive affect synchrony during a triadic play interaction.
Within 70 different-sex dyads consisting of first-time parents and their six-month-old infants who participated in a four-minute laboratory-based free-play task, facial affect of each member of the triad was observationally microcoded at the second-by-second level. Hair samples were collected from mothers and fathers for cortisol assay, and parents completed a self-report measure of parenting stress.
Using dynamic structural equation modeling (DSEM), we found positive between-level and within-level affect synchrony across all family members, with one exception: infants' affect did not predict fathers' affect at the following timepoint. Mother-to-infant affect synchrony was greater in mothers with higher hair cortisol. Similarly, mothers with higher parenting stress tended to have greater infant-to-mother affect synchrony, and had infants that displayed less overall positive affect across the interaction.
We found evidence for bidirectional, time-lagged synchrony in the momentary positive affect of mothers, fathers, and infants. Maternal hair cortisol concentration and parenting stress seem to increase affect synchrony between mothers and infants- suggesting that parental stress may correlate with greater affective attunement, but less overall positive affect in infants.
积极情绪同步性，即在自由玩耍期间积极情绪的相互交流，能够促进婴儿的社会情感发展。然而，父母的压力可能会损害家庭中积极情绪的表达和交流。本研究评估了育儿压力和头发皮质醇水平是否与三人互动游戏中的积极情绪同步性相关。
在70对由初为人父母者及其六个月大婴儿组成的不同性别二人组中，他们参与了一项基于实验室的四分钟自由玩耍任务，对三人组中每个成员的面部表情在逐秒水平上进行观察性微观编码。采集父母的头发样本进行皮质醇检测，父母完成一份关于育儿压力的自我报告测量。
使用动态结构方程模型（DSEM），我们发现所有家庭成员之间存在正向的组间和组内情绪同步性，但有一个例外：婴儿的情绪不能预测下一个时间点父亲的情绪。头发皮质醇水平较高的母亲与婴儿之间的情绪同步性更强。同样，育儿压力较高的母亲往往与婴儿之间的情绪同步性更强，且其婴儿在整个互动过程中表现出的总体积极情绪较少。
我们发现母亲、父亲和婴儿瞬间积极情绪存在双向、时间滞后同步性的证据。母亲头发皮质醇浓度和育儿压力似乎会增加母婴之间的情绪同步性——这表明父母压力可能与更强的情感协调相关，但婴儿的总体积极情绪较少。
