Relationships between eye contact, maternal sensitivity, and infant crying

Abstract

This study addresses the longitudinal association between eye contact and maternal sensitivity during the first 12 weeks of the infants' life and relates both variables to the infants' cry behaviour at three months of age. Free-play interactional sequences of 20 mothers were videotaped at weekly intervals. At the infants' age of three months, the mothers were additionally asked to record their infants' cry behaviour using a maternal diary method over a period of three days. The amount of mutual eye contact was assessed microanalytically, and rating procedures were used to assess maternal sensitivity. Duration and frequency of infant crying were taken from the maternal diaries. The results show an increase of eye contact during the first three months, and maternal sensitivity is a stable feature remaining almost unchanged over time. This difference may explain why early sensitivity ratings cannot predict later eye contact rates, whereas, in contrast, early eye contact measures are significantly related to later maternal sensitivity. In addition, the results show that the eye contact rate is (in contrast to maternal sensitivity) related to a decrease in the duration of infants' crying.