How do infants plan and guide locomotion under challenging conditions? This experiment investigated the real-time process of visual and haptic exploration in 14-month-old infants as they decided whether and how to walk over challenging terrain - a series of bridges varying in width. Infants' direction of gaze was recorded with a head-mounted eye tracker and their haptic exploration and locomoto...

OBJECTIVE To assess the anxiety, emotions, thoughts, and coping behaviors of parents 1 week after they receive the results of screening of their infant's genetic risk of type 1 diabetes mellitus. DESIGN Survey. SETTING The population-based Type 1 Diabetes Prediction and Prevention project conducted in Turku. PARTICIPANTS Parents of 443 consecutive high-risk infants and 506 next-born low-r...

Two hundred and thirty-three 5-month-old infants and their mothers participated in a study designed to examine the influence of maternal sensitivity and infant neurophysiology, as well as interactions between these, on infants' regulatory behavior and reactivity to emotional challenge. Maternal sensitivity was measured during two mother-child free-play episodes prior to the challenge task. Infa...

Introduction:According to the theory of ethology, separation of infants from their mothers immediately after birth can interfere with the infants’ innate breastfeeding behaviours. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of an interventional program, based on the theory of ethology, on infants’ breastfeeding competence. Methods:In total, 114 primiparous, healthy, full-term mothers (withi...

IMPORTANCE Child maltreatment is a serious public health problem that disproportionately affects infants and toddlers. In the interest of informing prevention and intervention efforts, this study examined pregnant women's attributions about infants as a risk factor for child maltreatment and harsh parenting during their children's first and second years. We also provide specific methods for pra...

To evaluate breastfed infants' responses to scented objects, we videotaped the facial and bodily reactions of sixty-three infants as they explored, in succession, three toys that were identical in appearance but different in their characteristic odor. Two of the toys were scented with odorants previously shown to be transmitted to human milk, one with ethanol and the other with vanilla, whereas...

OBJECTIVE This study compared bottle-feeding behaviors in preterm infants with and without bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) during the initial hospitalization. METHOD Individual sucking characteristics and feeding transitional rates were compared in 41 preterm infants (22 boys, 19 girls) with BPD and 99 infants (44 boys, 55 girls) without BPD. Observations of the first bottle feeding and obse...

Recent research has revealed the important role of multimodal object exploration in infants' cognitive and social development. Yet, the real time effects of postural position on infants' object exploration have been largely ignored. In the current study, 5- to 7-month-old infants (N = 29) handled objects while placed in supported sitting, supine, and prone postures, and their spontaneous explor...

Interpersonal synchrony increases cooperation among adults, children, and infants. We tested whether increased infant helpfulness transfers to individuals uninvolved in the movement, but shown to be affiliates of a synchronously moving partner. Initially, 14-month-old infants (N = 48) watched a live skit by Experimenters 1 and 2 that either demonstrated affiliation or individuality. Infants in ...

To determine whether the "depressed" behavior (e.g., less positive affect and lower activity level) of infants noted during interactions with their "depressed" mothers generalizes to their interactions with nondepressed adults, 74 3-6-month-old infants of "depressed" and nondepressed mothers were videotaped in face-to-face interactions with their mothers and with nondepressed female strangers. ...