Serra Juliana F, Miguel Helga, Araújo Filipe, Sampaio Adriana, Pereira Alfredo F
Psychological Neuroscience Lab, Psychology Research Center, School of Psychology, University of Minho.
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Dev Psychol. 2025 Jan 9. doi: 10.1037/dev0001897.
Social touch is a crucial part of how mothers interact with their infants, with different touch types serving distinct purposes in these exchanges. However, there is still a limited understanding of how mothers' touch behavior adapts to specific interactive tasks, particularly throughout infancy. To address this gap, we observed mother-infant dyads at 7 and 12 months during three structured social play tasks: (a) play with objects, (b) play without objects, and (c) play with a difficult object. Using an adapted version of the Ordinalized Maternal Touch Scale, we categorized every touch performed by the mother. The effect of the infant's age and play tasks on the proportion of time mothers touch their infants was evaluated using Bayesian beta mixed models, taking into account both the total quantity and the Ordinalized Maternal Touch Scale touch categories. Results showed that (a) the frequency of maternal touch is prevalent in dyadic interactions and lowered in triadic object play; (b) mothers used affectionate, static, and playful touch categories more often in dyadic play tasks; (c) in triadic play task, mothers used object-mediated touch more frequently; (d) the total frequency of maternal touch decreased across infant age, which was primarily due to a decrease in static and object-mediated touch; and (e) maternal touch varies depending on the complexity of object play task. Our findings suggested that the developmental trajectory of maternal touch behavior is modulated by the infant's evolving needs and the different challenges in object versus nonobject play tasks. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).
社交触摸是母亲与婴儿互动的关键部分，不同类型的触摸在这些互动中有着不同的目的。然而，对于母亲的触摸行为如何适应特定的互动任务，尤其是在整个婴儿期，我们的了解仍然有限。为了填补这一空白，我们观察了7个月和12个月大的母婴二元组在三项结构化社交游戏任务中的表现：（a）玩物体，（b）无物体玩耍，以及（c）玩难度较大的物体。我们使用改编后的序数化母亲触摸量表，对母亲的每一次触摸进行分类。使用贝叶斯β混合模型评估婴儿年龄和游戏任务对母亲触摸婴儿时间比例的影响，同时考虑触摸总量和序数化母亲触摸量表的触摸类别。结果表明：（a）母亲触摸的频率在二元互动中普遍存在，在三元物体游戏中降低；（b）母亲在二元游戏任务中更频繁地使用深情、静态和好玩的触摸类别；（c）在三元游戏任务中，母亲更频繁地使用物体介导的触摸；（d）母亲触摸的总频率随着婴儿年龄的增长而下降，这主要是由于静态和物体介导的触摸减少；（e）母亲的触摸因物体游戏任务的复杂性而异。我们的研究结果表明母亲触摸行为的发展轨迹受到婴儿不断变化的需求以及物体与非物体游戏任务中不同挑战的调节。（PsycInfo数据库记录（c）2025美国心理学会，保留所有权利）
