Socioemotional Development in Infants and Toddlers

1. Socioemotional Development in Infants and Toddlers Chapter 6

2. Attachment • emotional tie to a specific person or persons • exists across time and space • infants tend to form attachments with primary caregivers

3. Attachment • Bowlby’s early work • Early infancy—orientation without discrimination.(2-4 mos) • Orients to any attending adult • Little discrimination among caregiving adults • Middle infancy—orientation with discrimination (6-8 mos) • Gazing preference for primary caregivers • Responds differentially to primary caregivers

4. Bowlby’s Early Work on Attachment • Late infancy early toddlerhood—safe-base attachment (6-12 mos) • Actively seek to be near caregivers • Seek proximal contact • Become distressed when caregiver leaves (bond across time and space) • Toddlerhood—goal corrected partnerships • Recognize motives of caregivers • Toddler adjusts behaviors to needs and motives of caregivers

5. Ainsworth’s work • Strange situation (page 193, Table 6.1) • Stranger anxiety—signals attachment • Separation anxiety—signals attachment • Attachment Status • Secure Attachment • Mother return: infant seeks contact; cling tightly; allows mother to comfort and soothe • Majority of infants show secure attachment

6. Ainsworth’s work • Attachment Status • Insecure Avoidant Attachment • No preference for mother (avoids or shows equal preference for mother and stranger) • Mother leaves infants undisturbed; • Continue playing with stranger

7. Ainsworth’s work • Attachment Status • Insecure Resistant\ Ambivalent Attachment • Exaggerated stranger and separation anxiety • Exaggerated need to maintain proximal contact with mother • Some resistant to mother’s attempts to soothe • Some passive with mother’s attempts to console • Some variable in response (cycles of calm and anger) • Variable in status

8. Ainsworth’s work • Attachment Status • Parental quality and attachment (sensitive responsiveness) • Secure Attachment • Timely response • Appropriate response • Insecure disorganized or disoriented Attachments • abusive parents or parents who suffered abuse themselves

9. Ainsworth’s work • Insecure Attachments • indifferent parenting—response only when necessary or when the parent is impacted • indulgent parenting—over stimulating; intrusive; • unresponsive parenting—neglectful • Mothers of insecurely attached infants • tense • irritable • unresponsive; little interest • mechanical handling • scheduled vs. demand feeding

10. Infant Characteristics, Caregiver Characteristics and Attachments • Easy Infants--associated with greater frequency of secure attachments • Special needs—associated with insecure attachments • Fussy or difficult infants associated with higher levels of irritability-- tend to develop insecure attachments with mothers who have low levels of social support • Model tends to be bidirectional with infant characteristics interacting with caregiver characteristics to yield the attachment status

11. Infant Characteristics, Caregiver Characteristics and Attachments • Fathers’ role in attachment: • fathers’ roles tend to reflect mothers’ roles in relationships with attachment statuses • Child care and caregiver attachment: • with quality child care, no difference in attachment given caregiver is responsive in sensitive and timely ways when with infant

12. Infant Characteristics, Caregiver Characteristics and Attachments • NICHD—Child Care Report (2006): • Quality of out of home child care related to: • Family income, education, parenting style • Higher quality out of home child care related to higher levels of cognitive and social development • Effect sizes range from moderate to small

13. Attachment and Developmental Outcomes • Long-term outcomes: • securely attached infants tend to have some early advantage over other attachment statuses; • higher quality care later in childhood and adolescence can overcome early attachment challenges;

14. Social Risk and Children’s Health Outcomes • Larson, et al. (2008) • High School education or less • Family income <200% federal poverty level • Single parent household • Minority racial/ethnic group • Uninsured • Family conflict • Low maternal mental health • Unsafe neighborhood

15. Social Risk and Children’s Health Outcomes • Larson, et al. findings: • Overall, family income, minority status, & maternal mental health independently predicted poorer health status • As the number of social risk factors increased the child’s health status decreased • Mechanism of effect is likely related to cumulative higher levels of stress as number of risks increase

16. Erikson’s first psychosocial stage: Trust vs. Mistrust • Two tasks: • establish sense that the environment is going to meet basic needs in a timely and appropriate manner • establish sense that the self is an active agent in one’s own outcomes

17. Erikson’s first psychosocial stage: Trust vs. Mistrust • caregivers who establish a sensitive responsiveness are likely to develop a sense of trust • infant comes to learn that differential cries relate to differential outcomes • Infant develops a sense of contingency between behaviors and outcomes—a sense of agency

18. Erikson’s 2nd psychosocial stage: Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt • Toddler seeks to assert preferences beyond simple needs (e.g. particular type of food rather than simply hunger) • Caregivers can provide choices of acceptable options to establish a sense of autonomy • Caregivers who are not sensitive to and provide opportunities for toddlers to exercise some preference can create doubt within the toddler

19. Temperament • The reactivity of the infant to the environment • Genetics plays a significant role in temperament • Temperament is measured across nine dimensions (Table 6.5, pg 204) • Activity level, rhythmicity, intensity of reaction, etc. • Profile based on levels of each dimension

20. Temperament • Temperament Constellations: • Easy: generally positive; stable rhythm of movement, sleep adapts to new situations, smiles • Slow-to-Warm-Up: slow to adapt to new situations; mildly negative response; more intense reactions than Easy babies but less than difficult babies • Difficult: intense negative reactions to new situations; slow to adapt; irregular patterns of sleeping and activity overall;

21. Temperament • Based on an interaction of genetics and interactions with the environment • Balance between temperament and environment determines outcomes

22. Temperament • Scarr: • Passive: infant’s environment is frequently based on biological parents so, genetic tendency is reinforced by the environment • Parents who accommodate to their infant’s temperament tend to have more successful outcomes

23. Emotions • In the first 12 months of life, infants tend to respond differentially and more sensitively to expressed emotions by caregiver • Fear, anger, sadness, interest, joy resulted in differential responses to the visual cliff • Infants reference the reactions of caregivers as cues for their own reactions • From very early on, infants tend to respond to distress cries from other infants

24. Emotions • Toddlers: • Sense of self as independent entity leads to: • Self conscious emotions • Expanded emotional repertoire • Guilt, embarrassed, pride • Comparison of one’s own behaviors to some standard is linked to cognitive and social development

25. Infant and Toddler Play • Infant Play • Mutual gaze—first awareness of the other • Sensorimotor Play— • Focus is on interactions with motion and objects in the environment • Some level of novelty is preferred • Repetition of actions is frequent • Toys over which infants can assert control tend to be preferred and build a sense of agency (Bandura, 1977; c.f. Erikson, trust—mistrust)

26. Infant and Toddler Play • Toddler Play • With language, mobility, and cognitive development, toddlers move to more socially mediated play • Coordinated imitation—tend to repeat others’ actions • Early toddler play remains focused on motion and objects (e.g. block stacking) • As maturation occurs, more social role play begins;

27. Infant and Toddler Play • Toddler Play • More advanced levels of social play (negotiating roles, changing roles) tend to be related to more lasting friendships across childhood • Conflicts arise! • Distraction and diversion tend to work best with toddlers • Conflicts tend to be based on possession of objects or turns at some desired activity • Possession is ownership (similar to dog rules)

28. Infant and Toddler Play • Toddler Play • As language and symbolic thought improve, toddlers begin make-believe play • Imaginary roles and substitution of one object for another (shoe becomes a truck) occurs • Children can appear to be much more cognitively advanced in play with peers than alone.