Effects of familiar and unfamiliar objects on mother-infant interaction

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the dynamics and structure of mother-child interactions around toys vary with the familiarity of toys. Twelve mother-child dyads with a 5- or 9-month-old infant were filmed two consecutive 5-minute sessions in the presence of familiar or novel objects. By relating the mother’s behaviour to her infant’s, we were able to define episodes consisting of phases of joint engagement of the two partners on the same topic or reference object. In a context involving familiar objects, mothers more often took the initiative to introduce a topic, and they kept the child’s attention focused on the object for longer periods, by means of various manipulations. In contrast, the attractiveness of the novelty gave the infants more initiative, and the mothers followed the child by providing mostly verbal support.     

Prematurity stereotyping: effects on mother-infant interaction

The possibility that the self-fulfilling prophecy process can adversely affect the caregiving environment of premature infants was explored in this study. A portion of this process was investigated experimentally by assessing cognitive and behavioral reactions of 27 mothers to unfamiliar full-term infants who were labeled either full-term or premature. Infants who were described as premature were touched less and given a more immature toy to play with, were rated as smaller, finer-featured, and less cute, and were liked less than infants who were labeled full-term. In turn, infants labeled premature were less active during the interaction than infants labeled full-term. College students who later observed the videotapes made of the mother-infant interactions were able to accurately guess which label was assigned to the infants. The results of this study further support the existence of a prematurity stereotype and the impact of expectations on perceptions and behavior.     

Neonatal characteristics and mother-infant interaction in two observational situations.

134 mothers and their newborn infants were studied in order to evaluate the realtionship's between neonatal characteristics and mother-infant interaction. The procedure included a newborn assessment with the Brazelton Neonatal Assessment Scale and 2 mother-infant interaction observations, 1 carried out during feeding and the other during a semistructured situation. The results indicated that there were consistent relationships between infant and maternal behavior; more alert and responsive infants had more responsive and sensitive mothers. These consistencies were found for both infants and mothers across the different situations. Both infant and maternal responsiveness to a variey of social stimuli were noted.     

The rhythmic structure of mother-infant interaction in term and preterm infants

The purpose of this study was to quantify social interaction rhythms in 3- and 5-month-old term and preterm infants and their mothers. Infant-mother dyads were videotaped in a 3-min face-to-face paradigm. For each second of the interaction, separate scores were assigned to infant and mother indicating levels of affective involvement, creating 2 180-sec time series. Spectral and cross-spectral techniques were used to quantify periodicities in each member of the dyad and to estimate the synchrony or coherence of interactional rhythms between each infant and mother. Results showed the existence of periodicities in the behavior of each infant and mother at 3 and 5 months, with most subjects showing spectral peaks between .022 and .10 Hz. Increases from 3 to 5 months in behavioral periodicities were found for infants and mothers as well as for the coherence between infant-mother dyads. Term dyads showed higher coherence than preterm dyads at both 3 and 5 months. Term infants more often led the interaction at both ages. These results were taken as evidence that behavioral periodicities, which may be biologically based, underlie early mother-infant interaction and provide a temporal structure for the organization of cognitive and affective experience. Differences in synchrony between term and preterm infants may explain later reported differences in language between these groups.     

The relationship between neonatal characteristics and three-month mother-infant interaction in high-risk infants

The behavior of 4 groups of infants--healthy term, healthy preterm, sick preterm, and sick full-term--was assessed in the neonatal period using the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS). At 3 months postterm, infants and their mothers were observed and videotaped in a free-play session. Both the NBAS and mother-infant interaction data were analyzed to assess the effects of maturity (term vs. preterm), illness (sick vs. healthy), and their interaction. Results revealed that illness of the infant affected both NBAS performance and maternal behavior during the interaction at 3 moths. Infants who were ill performed poorly on the NBAS orientation dimension; this dimension was found to be significantly associated with maternal and infant behaviors at 3 months. These data demonstrate an association between early infant characteristics and subsequent mother and child interactive behaviors. They also identify postnatal illness as an important influence on the development of the mother-infant dyad.     

Transition from crawling to walking and infants' actions with objects and people

Associations between infants' transition to walking and object activities were examined. Fifty infants were observed longitudinally during home observations. At 11 months, all infants were crawlers; at 13 months, half became walkers. Over age, infants increased their total time with objects and frequency of sharing objects with mothers. Bidirectional influences between locomotion and object actions were found. Walking was associated with new forms of object behaviors: Walkers accessed distant objects, carried objects, and approached mothers to share objects; crawlers preferred objects close at hand and shared objects while remaining stationary. Earlier object activities predicted walking status: Crawlers who accessed distant objects, carried objects, and shared objects over distances at 11 months were more likely to walk by 13 months.     

Birth order and sex of sibling as determinants of mother-infant interaction.

Mother-infant interaction was assessed on 32 first- and second-born siblings when each was 3 months old. Data were colleted during 2 6-hour naturalistic home observations using a modified time-sampling technique. The sample consisted of 4 equal-size subgroups of same and opposite sex sibling pairs. Results suggested that interaction between a mother and her infant varied depending on the birth order and gender of the infant. Mothers spent significantly less time in social, affectionate, and caretaking interaction (except for feeding activities) with their second borns than they had with their firstborns; this difference was greater if the second born was female. Certain patterns of maternal behaviors appeared to be stable from one sibling to the other. Different types of interaction between the mothers and their younger infants were related to attention-seeking behavior in the firstborn male and female siblings.     

重视本科教育办好让人民满意的大学

要办好让人民满意的大学,必须重视本科教育。为此,要树立育人为本、质量第一的办学思想;要转变教学观念,注重知识、能力、素质协调发展,使学生学会学习、自主学习、个性得到全面发展;要对素质教育、英才教育、专业教育等有全面正确的认识。     

后现代管理：重视与环境互动关系

目前，国际上有一种新的思潮，认为企业管理的演进正进入一个新的发展阶段——后现代管理阶段。那么，什么是后现代管理呢？后现代管理产生的背景是什么样的呢？后现代管理的主要特征是什么呢？     

论道光朝末年清政府"以民制夷"政策的兴起

鸦片战争后，道光帝君臣为找不到既能免开边畔，又可维护“天朝”国体的“驭夷”之策而忧心忡忡。广东民众反对外国人入城的运动却让他们看到了希望。最终，清政府走上“以民制夷”的道路。     

Maternal attitudinal inflexibility: Longitudinal relations with mother-infant disrupted interaction and childhood hostile-aggressive behavior problems

Objective: The Personal Attitude Scale (PAS; Hooley, 2000) is a method that is under development for identifying individuals high in Expressed Emotion based on personality traits of inflexibility, intolerance, and norm-forming. In the current study, the goal was to measure the association between this maternal attitudinal inflexibility, early hostile or disrupted mother-infant interactions, and hostile-aggressive behavior problems in the child.MethodsIn a prospective longitudinal study of 76 low-income mothers and their infants, it was predicted that maternal PAS scores, assessed at child age 20, would be related to difficulties in early observed mother-infant interaction and to hostile-aggressive behavioral difficulties in the child.ResultsResults indicated that maternal difficulties in interacting with the infant in the laboratory were associated with maternal PAS scores assessed 20 years later. Hostile-aggressive behavior problems in the child at age five were also predictive of PAS scores of mothers. However, contrary to prediction, these behavior problems did not mediate the association between mother-infant interaction difficulties and maternal PAS scores, indicating that the child's hostile-aggressive behavior problems did not produce the link between quality of early interaction and later maternal attitudinal inflexibility.ConclusionsThe current results validate the PAS against observable mother-child interactions and child hostile-aggressive behavior problems and indicate the importance of future work investigating the maternal attitudes that are associated with, and may potentially precede, parent-infant interactive difficulties.Practice implicationsThese findings regarding the inflexible attitudes of mothers whose interactions with their infants are also disrupted have important clinical implications. First, once the stability of the PAS has been established, this measure may offer a valuable screening tool for the prenatal identification of parents at risk for difficult interactions with their children. Second, it suggests routes for more cognitive interventions around helping less flexible parents shift perspectives to better take account of their child's outlooks and needs.     

Synchrony in mother-infant interactions.

A measure of mother-infant synchrony was developed and used to compare the interactions of mothers with preterm and mothers with full-term infants. Each mother-infant dyad was observed during a standard bottle-feeding session on 3 separate occasions: once prior to hospital discharge and 1 and 3 months after discharge. Synchrony, defined by the correlation between mother and infant behavioral rates during corresponding segments of the observation session, was found to (1) distinguish between preterm and full-term groups at 3 months and (2) successfully predict below-average Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) scores at 9 months for dyads in which mother and infant behavioral rates were inversely related. Further analysis identified certain interaction characteristics related to synchromy.     

Minor phenomena and major processes of interaction with objects and peers in day care centres

The aim of this paper is to analyse the relation between interaction with objects and interaction with peers in children attending day care centres. The day care centre provides the child with an opportunity to interact with peers and for new cognitive experiences. It also provides researchers with an opportunity to study the relationships between peers and objects in the child’s cognitive construction. These two domains — peer interaction and interaction with objects — represent the two poles of a unitary system which allows the child to consolidate and acquire different kinds of knowledge. The two poles can be differently activated in the child’s cognitive construction. Their integrated study affords greater understanding of a series of behavioural phenomena which occur among peers in day care centres. Naturalistic observations on early peer interaction and object-related activities will be used to illustrate the analysis. The study of the processes involved in the child’s object- and peer-related interaction and the related behavioural phenomena can provide educational suggestions in order to ensure their actual emergence and to support their positive aspects.     

Childhood experiences of maltreatment,reflective functioning and attachment in adolescent and young adult mothers: Effects on mother-infant interaction and emotion regulation

BackgroundMaternal childhood experiences of maltreatment affect parenting and have consequences for a child’s social-emotional development. Adolescent mothers have a higher frequency of a history of maltreatment than adult mothers. However few studies have analyzed the interactions between adolescent mothers with a history of childhood maltreatment and their infants.ObjectiveThe aim of the study was to examine the effect of maternal childhood experiences of maltreatment on mother-infant emotion regulation at infant 3 months, considering both infant and mother individual emotion regulation and their mutual regulation.ParticipantsParticipants were 63 adolescent and young adult mother-infant dyads recruited at a hospital.MethodsThe mothers were administered the Adult Attachment Interview to evaluate reflective functioning and attachment and the Childhood Experiences of Care and Abuse was used to evaluate maternal childhood experiences of maltreatment. Mother-infant interactions were coded with a modified version of the Infant Caregiver Engagement Phases.ResultsDyads with mothers with childhood maltreatment (vs dyads with mothers with no maltreatment) spent more time in negative emotional mutual regulation (p = .009) and less time in positive and neutral mutual emotion regulation (p = .019). Cumulative maternal childhood experiences of maltreatment were associated positively with mother and infant negative states at individual and dyadic level and with the AAI scales of Passivity and Unresolved Trauma (p < .05). The effect of cumulative maternal childhood experiences of maltreatment on mother-infant emotion regulation was direct and not mediated by maternal attachment and reflective function.ConclusionsMaternal childhood experiences of maltreatment increase the risk connected to early motherhood, affecting mother-infant emotion regulation.     

艺术院校与文化惠民的互动模式研究

艺术院校发展与地域文化建设息息相关。高校文化与地域文化都是社会文化的子系统,两者有着密切的关联,研究地方艺术院校与文化惠民的互动途径与协同发展具有重要现实意义。本文主要从产学研互动模式、文化互动模式、整合互动模式三方面阐述艺术院校服务文化惠民的主要途径。     

协调利益格局,实现和谐稳定

转型时期严重失衡的利益格局已经成为阶层关系失调、社会冲突频发的总根源.协调利益关系,建立大致平衡的利益格局,成为化解阶层矛盾,实现社会和谐稳定的重要内容.其基本要略是:加快城乡统筹和一体化进程,促进城乡均衡发展;发展经济,增加就业机会;继续推进覆盖面更广泛的社会保障体系的建设;继续加大收入分配调节力度,建立、健全合理的分配制度;健全民主制度,搭建各阶层进行公平利益博弈的政治制度平台.     

Developmental changes and socioeconomic differences in mother-infant picturebook reading

Picturebook reading is a common form of interaction between parents and young children. This study examined developmental changes and socioeconomic differences in picturebook interactions of motherinfant Argentine dyads. 21 middle and 18 low SES mothers with their 12 to 24 months-old infants interacting with two different books, were observed. It was found that mothers of both SES groups adjusted the level of their demands not only to the task requirements (books) but also to the age of the infant. However, it was also found that the style of the interaction was different depending on the SES of the mother-infant pair. A more demanding and elaborated maternal language along with a linguistically more competent child were found in the middle SES group.     

Continuity of individual differences in the mother-infant relationship from six to thirteen months

The current study searched for continuities in mother-infant interaction observed at home, maternally perceived infant difficultness, and infant developmental competency. Also assessed were the possible moderator variables of maternal report of satisfaction with adjustment to the infant and background characteristics, for example, SES, presence of other young children, and infant gender. 128 dyads were assessed at ages 6 and 13 months. Many of the variables used to evaluate continuity were composites based on factor analysis. Bivariate correlations between 6- and 13-month variables produced a complex picture. In broad overview, as predicted by the prior literature, they indicated some degree of stability for mother variables and markedly less for the infant variables. Canonical correlation analysis yielded 3 significant canonical variates, producing a more integrated picture. The dimensions of continuity revealed by these variates were (1) Affectionate, Intellectually Stimulating Mothering, which had modest-to-moderate links to the indexes of infant competence; (2) Infant Temperamental Difficultness, which was determined mainly by consistency in mother report on 2 age-adjusted versions of the Infant Characteristics Questionnaire but which also contained loadings for objectively observed infant fussing, crying, and social demandingness; and (3) an unnamed dimension which resembles a pattern of intense involvement, both positive and negative, seen in older, clinically referred families.     

The use and effectiveness of maternal scaffolding in mother-infant games

Maternal behaviors within mother-infant games were examined to determine the amount, type, and functional value of maternal helping behaviors. 17 mother-infant pairs were videotaped on monthly visits from 8 to 16 months as they played 5 separate games. 2 of these games, roll the ball and peekaboo, were analyzed in terms of "rounds" of each game. Results show that dyads play more rounds of both games in the first months that infants perform game-relevant behaviors (e.g., returning a ball, performing uncovering or covering-uncovering). Maternal attention-getting and physical "stage-setting" behaviors occur in the early rounds of both games. In roll the ball, maternal hands-out and reinforcement behaviors increase in the months after the child begins to return the ball, while the percentage of rounds in which dyads play nonreturn variants decreases. Infants are more likely to return a ball when mother holds out her hands than when she does not. Infants are also able to perform returning or uncovering in game contexts before they perform similar behaviors in cognitive tests. The general similarity of findings in the peekaboo and roll-the-ball games, in spite of differences in the amounts of scaffolding, attention-getting, stage-setting, and reinforcement behaviors between the 2 games, indicates that the types and functions of maternal helping behaviors may be generalizable to other contexts of mother-infant interactions.