Social referencing in infancy: a glance at fathers and marriage

Social referencing refers to the tendency of a person to look to a significant other in an ambiguous situation in order to obtain clarifying information. The aims of the study were to assess the extent to which infants use fathers as referencing targets, and to assess the familial context that might mediate referencing to both parents. 40 11-month-old infants were observed once with their mothers and once with their fathers in a 15-min social referencing situation that involved entrance of a female stranger as the ambiguous stimulus. Infants used their fathers and mothers as referencing targets to an equal extent. Additionally, marital satisfaction was found to be a significant modifier of referencing. A hierarchical regression analysis indicated that paternal marital satisfaction predicted social referencing to fathers as well as to mothers; no effect was found for maternal marital satisfaction alone. This suggests that in order to better understand early socioemotional development, it is necessary to consider the interdependence among various relationships within the family.