Siblings’ Differential Treatment in Mexican American Families

We investigated the patterns and correlates of parents’ differential treatment of adolescent siblings in 246 two‐parent Mexican American families. In home interviews, siblings rated 7 domains of differential treatment (e.g., privileges, chores, warmth) as well as their adjustment and perceptions of parental acceptance and fairness, and both parents and adolescents reported on cultural dynamics. More gender‐typed patterns of differential treatment were evident when parents were more oriented to Mexican than Anglo culture. The links between differential treatment and youth reports of adjustment, parental acceptance, and parental fairness were moderated by adolescents’ familism values, particularly for older siblings: Differential treatment was linked more strongly to adjustment and parent‐youth relationship problems when youth reported lower levels of familism.     

The Influence of Maternal Socialization on Infants’ Social Evaluation in Two Cultures

Although a growing body of research has explored the early development of social evaluation, no research has directly compared social evaluations of infants between different cultures. In addition, there has been little understanding regarding socialization's effects on this ability. The goal of this study was to expand on earlier findings on social evaluation in infants by investigating a broader sample from two cultures, and to explore the influence of maternal socialization on infants’ social evaluation. Using the violation of expectations and the preferential reaching paradigm, four groups aged 6‐, 9‐, 12‐, and 15–18 months and their mothers from Japan and the United States (159 dyads) were compared in terms of spontaneous social evaluations. Japanese and European American infants showed similar performance in dishabituation to the inconsistent behavior and in their reaching preference for prosocial over antisocial agents, indicating that the emergence of spontaneous social evaluation is not culture‐specific. Furthermore, our study provides a novel finding regarding the relationship between mothers’ socially evaluative speech and infants’ preference for prosocial over antisocial agents. These results suggest that the development of sociomoral understanding results from complicated interactions among evolutionary, cognitive, and social factors.     

The Effect of Maternal Mirroring Behavior on Infants’ Early Social Bidding During the Still‐Face Task

Maternal mirroring behavior, which is a particularly salient form of maternal responsiveness, was investigated as a predictor of infants’ social bids in the Still‐Face Task. Mother–infant dyads engaged in the Still‐Face Task when infants were 5 months, on the cusp of the active emergence of social bidding during the still‐face phase of the task. Maternal mirroring of infants’ behavior during the interactive phases of the task was a primary predictor of infants’ social bids in the still‐face phase. When infants were divided into those who experienced higher maternal mirroring (maternal mirroring above the mean of the sample) and infants who experienced lower maternal mirroring (maternal mirroring at or below the mean), infants with higher maternal mirroring showed increases in nondistress vocalizations during the still‐face phase, indicative of social bidding, whereas the infants with lower maternal mirroring showed little change in nondistress vocalizations across the phases. Maternal mirroring allows infants to readily notice the relation between their own behaviors and those of their mothers, which may enhance infants’ early understanding that they can be active agents in instigating social interactions, as demonstrated by social bidding.     

Twelve‐Month‐Old Infants’ Sensitivity to Others’ Emotions Following Positive and Negative Events

This study investigated infants’ sensitivity to others’ congruent and incongruent emotional reactions to positive and negative events. Thirty‐six 12‐month‐old infants viewed three distinct interpersonal events (give a toy, break a toy, fight over a toy) followed by an emotional expression (happiness, sadness, anger) that was either congruent or incongruent with the preceding event outcome. The duration of infants' looking toward each emotional reaction was examined. Infants demonstrated sensitivity to incongruent emotional reactions for the give and fight events, representing the earliest evidence to date of emotional sensitivity to negative events.     

Infants’ Response to Pictures of Impossible Objects

Previous work has shown that 4‐month‐olds can discriminate between two‐dimensional (2D) depictions of structurally possible and impossible objects [S. M. Shuwairi (2009), Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 104, 115; S. M. Shuwairi, M. K. Albert, & S. P. Johnson (2007), Psychological Science, 18, 303]. Here, we asked whether evidence of discrimination of possible and impossible pictures would also be revealed in infants’ patterns of reaching and manual exploration. Nine‐month‐old infants were presented with realistic photograph displays of structurally possible and impossible cubes along with a series of perceptual controls, and engaged in more frequent manual exploration of pictures of impossible objects. In addition, the impossible cube display elicited significantly more social referencing and vocalizations than the possible cube and perceptual control displays. The increased manual gestures associated with the incoherent figure suggest that perceptual and manual action mechanisms are interrelated in early development. The infant’s visual system extracts structural information contained in 2D images in analyzing the projected 3D configuration, and this information serves to control both the oculomotor and manual action systems.     

Infants’ Speed Discrimination: Effects of Different Ratios and Spatial Orientations

This study addressed the question whether 6‐month‐olds’ speed discrimination is ratio dependent and whether an oblique effect (i.e., more accurate discrimination of cardinally as opposed to obliquely oriented objects) affects their speed discrimination skills. Infants were habituated to visual displays showing a ball moving with constant speed and tested with the familiar and a novel speed in the test phase. This ball moved either on a cardinally or obliquely oriented trajectory. Irrespective of orientation, infants looked longer at the novel speed when speeds differed by a ratio of 1:2, whereas they looked indiscriminable at the novel and familiar speeds when they differed by a ratio of 2:3. Our results show remarkable parallels to infants’ ratio‐dependent discrimination behavior in other domains (time, distance, and number), implying that different magnitudes may be processed by the same underlying mechanism. However, our findings also indicate that speed discrimination was not influenced by spatial orientation in a similar way as has been found for other visual perceptual processes.     

Very Preterm and Full‐Term Infants’ Response to Socio‐Emotional Stress: The Role of Postnatal Maternal Bonding

Very preterm (VPT) infants are at risk for altered socio‐emotional stress regulation, even in the absence of perinatal complications. Moreover, becoming a mother of a VPT infant is a traumatic event, which might affect the establishment of a bonding relationship toward the infant during the postnatal period. The main aim of the present study was to assess the association between maternal postnatal bonding and socio‐emotional stress response in 3‐month‐old VPT infants, compared to full‐term (FT) controls. Thirty‐three VPT and 28 FT infant‐mother dyads underwent the maternal Face‐to‐Face Still‐Face (FFSF) procedure to assess socio‐emotional stress regulation. Maternal postnatal bonding was measured through the Maternal Post‐Natal Attachment Scale (MPAS), which includes three scales: Quality of attachment, Absence of hostility, and Pleasure in interaction. The VPT infants exhibited less self‐directed and other‐directed regulatory behaviors during the Still‐Face episode. Mothers of VPT infants reported lower Quality of attachment compared to FT counterparts. Importantly, higher levels of Quality of attachment were associated with more other‐directed behaviors during the Still‐Face episode in FT dyads, whereas this was not observed in VPT dyads. In conclusion, VPT infants might be exposed to a double‐risk condition for socio‐emotional development, encompassing both difficulties in stress response and the exposure to a less‐than‐optimal maternal bonding.     

Infants’ Use of Force to Defend Toys: The Origins of Instrumental Aggression

The two aims of the study were (a) to determine when infants begin to use force intentionally to defend objects to which they might have a claim and (b) to examine the relationship between toddlers’ instrumental use of force and their tendencies to make possession claims. Infants’ and toddlers’ reactions to peers’ attempts to take their toys were assessed in three independent data sets in which the same observational coding system had been used (N = 200). To ensure that infants’ use of force was goal‐directed and not a simple physical reaction, we recorded infants’ reactions when peers picked up toys that the focal infants had just put down, or were nearby or in the focal infants’ mothers’ laps. The use of force in response to peers’ taking over toys was evident before the first birthday, but more common thereafter, although only a minority of children in each sample used force. Analysis of a combined data set revealed that force was deployed more often by 2‐year‐olds than younger infants, and was significantly associated with verbal references to people’s possession of objects. These observations show that toddlers do deploy force intentionally to defend their possessions.     

To Grasp or Not to Grasp: Infants’ Actions Toward Objects and Pictures

We conducted two experiments to address questions over whether 9‐month‐old infants believe that objects depicted in realistic photographs can be picked up. In Experiment 1, we presented 9‐month‐old infants with realistic color photographs of objects, colored outlines of objects, abstract colored “blobs,” and blank pages. Infants most commonly rubbed or patted depictions of all types. They also showed significantly more grasps toward the realistic photographs than toward the colored outlines, blobs, and blank pages, but only 24% of infants directed grasping exclusively at the photographs. In Experiment 2, we further explored infants’ actions toward objects and pictures while controlling for tactile information. We presented 9‐month‐old infants with objects and pictures of objects under a glass cover in a false‐bottom table. Although there were no significant differences between the proportion of rubs and pats infants directed toward the objects versus the photographs, infants exhibited significantly more grasping toward the objects than the photographs. Together, these findings show that 9‐month‐old infants largely direct appropriate actions toward realistic photographs and real objects, indicating that they perceive different affordances for pictures and objects.     

Mexican American Adolescents' Emotional Support to the Family in Response to Parental Stress

In this two‐wave longitudinal, daily diary study that followed up with 421 Mexican American parent–adolescent dyads (adolescents: M_age = 15 years, 50% males) after 1 year, we investigated the contingency between parental stressors and adolescents' emotional support to family members. Adolescents provided support to their parents and other family members at similar rates, but adolescents were more likely to provide support to other family members than to their parents on days when parents experienced a family stressor. This pattern was especially pronounced in families with parents who reported physical symptoms and adolescents with a strong sense of family obligation. Adolescents' provision of emotional support was associated with same‐day feelings of role fulfillment, but not to their concurrent or long‐term psychological distress.     

Contributions of Look Duration and Gaze Shift Patterns to Infants’ Novelty Preferences

Data from 72 infants, tested using a serial paired‐comparison paradigm, were analyzed to better understand infant novelty preferences. Infants between the ages of 15 and 26 weeks were tested in three studies with familiar stimuli displayed adjacent to novel stimuli on each trial. Differences in look duration, look number, and gaze shifts directed at novel versus familiar stimuli were assessed to measure their contributions to group and individual novelty preferences. Infants produced longer looks for novel stimuli in all three studies, and stimulus differences in look duration accounted for more than 50% of the variability in individual novelty preferences. Infants that produced more looks to novel rather than familiar stimuli did not produce overall novelty preferences unless they also looked longer at novel stimuli. Gaze shift patterns did not predict individual novelty preferences, and novel stimuli did not determine where infants looked. The infants’ visual exploration was constrained by memories for the direction of the previous look as well as by the attention‐holding features of novel stimuli.     

Infants’ Visual Attention to Baby DVDs as a Function of Program Pacing

This study examined the effects of program pacing, defined as the rate of scene and character change per minute, on infants’ visual attention to video presentations. Seventy‐two infants (twenty‐four 6‐month‐olds, twenty‐four 9‐month‐olds, twenty‐four 12‐month‐olds) were exposed to one of two sets of high‐ and low‐paced commercial infant DVDs. Each DVD was approximately 5‐min long, and the order the DVDs were viewed was counterbalanced for pace. Attention was higher during rapidly than slowly paced DVDs, particularly for the 6‐ and 9‐month‐old infants. These results support previous research documenting that attention is initially controlled by exogenous qualities (e.g., rapid pace), but with development and experience becomes more influenced by endogenous factors.     

Maternal Disrupted Communication During Face‐to‐Face Interaction at 4 months: Relation to Maternal and Infant Cortisol Among at‐Risk Families

The study evaluated the association between maternal disrupted communication and the reactivity and regulation of the psychobiology of the stress response in infancy. Mothers and infants were recruited via the National Health Service from the 20% most economically impoverished data zones in a suburban region of Scotland. Mothers (N = 63; M age = 25.9) and their 4‐month‐old infants (35 boys, 28 girls) were videotaped interacting for 8 min, including a still‐face procedure as a stress inducer and a 5‐min coded recovery period. Saliva samples were collected from the dyads prior to, during, and after the still‐face procedure and later assayed for cortisol. Level of disruption in maternal communication with the infant was coded from the 5‐min videotaped interaction during the recovery period which followed the still‐face procedure. Severely disrupted maternal communication was associated with lower levels of maternal cortisol and a greater divergence between mothers' and infants' cortisol levels. Results point to low maternal cortisol as a possible mechanism contributing to the mother's difficulty in sensitively attuning to her infant's cues, which in turn has implications for the infant's reactivity to and recovery from a mild stressor in early infancy.     

Developmental Processes in African American Families: An Application of McLoyd’s Theoretical Model

In accordance with McLoyd’s model of African American children’s development, we examined the linkages among family income, maternal psychological distress, marital conflict, parenting, and children’s outcomes in early and middle childhood, using a sample of 591 African American children from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Income during early childhood had a direct effect on behavior problems and reading recognition in middle childhood. Income also had an indirect effect on the child outcomes via maternal psychological distress and parenting. In a comparison of African American and White families, marital conflict predicted children behavior problems only in White families. Findings suggest that family psychological and material resources influence parenting as well as behavioral and cognitive outcomes for African American children.     

Family Influences on Mexican American Adolescents’ Romantic Relationships: Moderation by Gender and Culture

This study examined prospective associations between the family context and adolescents’ romantic relationships as moderated by adolescents’ gender and culture among Mexican American families (N = 189). Adolescents at Time 1 (early adolescence) were on average 12.29 years of age (SD = 0.50) and 54% female. Mothers and fathers reported on family structure and dynamics during early adolescence, and youth reported on their romantic relationship involvement and quality during middle and late adolescence. Results from path analyses indicated that family structure and dynamics (supportive parenting, consistent discipline, and parent–adolescent and interparental conflict) were associated with adolescents’ romantic involvement and quality, and with differences by adolescents’ gender and culture. Findings highlight Mexican American family contexts that contribute uniquely to adolescents’ romantic relationships.     

Neural Correlates of Encoding Predict Infants’ Memory in the Paired‐Comparison Procedure

The present study used event‐related potentials (ERPs) to monitor infant brain activity during the initial encoding of a previously novel visual stimulus, and examined whether ERP measures of encoding predicted infants’ subsequent performance on a visual memory task (i.e., the paired‐comparison task). A late slow wave component of the ERP measured at encoding predicted infants’ immediate performance in the paired‐comparison task: amplitude of the late slow wave at right‐central and temporal leads decreased with stimulus repetition, and greater decreases at right‐anterior‐temporal leads during encoding were associated with better memory performance at test. By contrast, neither the amplitude nor latency of the negative central (Nc) component predicted infants’ subsequent performance in the paired‐comparison task. These findings are discussed with respect to a biased competition model of visual attention and memory.     

Infants’ Lexical Processing Efficiency is Related to Vocabulary Size by One Year of Age

By 15–18 months, infants’ skill in interpreting familiar words, or lexical processing efficiency (LPE), improves substantially and is correlated with vocabulary size concurrently and several months later. Prior to this age LPE is quite poor, and to date there is little evidence that it is related to vocabulary size. If this relation only emerges once infants have relatively good LPE, and also know a substantial number of words, it could suggest that the processes that support the rapid growth in vocabulary commonly observed as infants approach age 2 may not yet be functional in the earlier stages of lexical development. However, using a modified LPE task we found that 12‐month‐olds with better LPE understood more words at that age and also produced more words several months later. These results suggest that meaningful individual differences in LPE are already emerging by 12 months and may support lexical development across the second year.     

An Examination of Cross‐Racial Comparability of Mother‐Child Interaction Among African American and Anglo American Families

This study examined the cross‐racial comparability of maternal quality of assistance and supportive presence coded from a video protocol using data from the Infant Health and Development Program for low‐birth‐weight, premature 30‐month‐olds and their mothers. Evidence of equivalence of measures is necessary before comparisons can be made across groups. Multiple‐group mean and covariance structures analysis was used to demonstrate the invariance of the measures and make comparisons for Anglo American and African American treatment and comparison groups of dyads. Comparisons across groups indicated similar variances and correlation between child and maternal behavior. Differences were found between the mean scores, with Anglo American treatment families scoring the highest.     

The Social Ecology of Child Development in the Mexican American Population

Abstract

This article explores the influence of contextual factors on the developmental outcomes of Mexican American children. The contextual structure of child development is conceptualized as a complex system of environments, including the socio-demographic, social service, academic, and parental home environments. Based on an extensive review of the current theoretical and empirical literature, we find that the disadvantaged social position of Mexican American children has detrimental implications for all other aspects of their environment, thus hindering their development. In addition, although Mexican American parents are highly competent in providing a nurturing and culturally-rich environment, there is a often a discontinuity between the home environment and both the academic and the social service environments.     

Reciprocal Associations Among Maternal and Child Characteristics of At‐Risk Families: A Longitudinal Actor–Partner Interdependence Model

Researchers have found linear associations among maternal and child characteristics. However, family systems theorists suggest that relationships are more complex and family members are interdependent. We used actor–partner interdependence modeling to unravel associations among maternal and child characteristics to predict outcomes in adolescence. We used data from 361 mother–child dyads from the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect and found both actor and partner effects. Maternal depression and history of victimization were associated with children's later reports of lower mother–adolescent relationship quality. Children's perceptions of relationship quality were also associated with mothers' later depressive symptoms and perceptions of relationship quality. Overall, results highlighted interdependence among mothers and their children over time. We discuss implications for marriage and family therapists.