Developmental Changes in Infant-Stranger Interaction

Although considerable attention hos been given to the phenomenon of “stranger anxtety,” we still do not know some of the behavior01 characteristics of strangers associated with infonts’ wariness of strongers and how these may change wtth development. We olso have not systemoticolly examined the woys in which adults may vary their behavior OS o functron of the oge of the child. The following study addresses these issues. Seventy-five Infants (25 in each group of 6, 12-, ond l&month-olds) were videotaped interacting with three strongers sequentially. One stranger (the “standard stranger”) interacted with 011 of the infants first. The other strangers (N = 50) each interacted with three infants, one from each oge group. The videotapes were coded for venous aspects of infant and stranger behovior. Six-month-olds were more positive with strongers who showed more positive affect ond who did not touch them. In contrast, 12ond 18-month-olds’ reactions were related to aspects of the stranger behovior such as controllability and sensitivity. Strangers behoved very differently with 1%month-olds than with the younger infonts, allowing them more control in the interaction. Moternol reports of their infonts’ reactions to strangers obtained before the loboratory visit were significantly related to infant behavior observed in the lob.