Mothers' Affective Responses to High- and Low-Risk Infants During Face-to-Face Interaction: Effects of Infant Risk-Status and Age

Background: Reports documenting the affective development of infants at high- (HR) and low-risk (LR) for autism have focused on the affective expression of the infant during adult-infant interaction paradigms (e.g., Cassel et al, 2007; Merin et al, 2007). In contrast, there is little research on the parent’s behaviors during interactions.  Baranek (1999) noted the importance of examining caregiver responses during socio-emotional interactions, as parents may be engaging in “compensatory behaviors”.  This idea is of particular interest in an at-risk sample where parents have prior experience parenting a child with autism and may augment their behaviors based on this experience. 

Objectives: To determine the effect of infant risk-status (HR or LR) and age (6 or 11 months) on the affective responses of the infants’ mothers. 

Methods: Infant-mother dyads participated in a sequence of face-to-face interaction tasks (e.g., a non-specific interaction and peek-a-boo).  The non-specific (NS) interaction occurred for 2 minutes and was followed by 1 minute of peek-a-boo (PAB).   This paradigm was completed with a group of 6 and 11-month-old infants at HR and LR for autism.  Mothers’ smiling behavior was coded using the Facial Action Coding System (FACS; Ekman, Friesen, & Hagar, 2002).

Results: A 2 (task) X 2 (risk-status) X 2 (infant age) repeated measures ANOVA analyzed the proportion of time mothers spent smiling.  Results indicated that all mothers smiled more during PAB than NS interactions, F(1, 42) = 18.351, p = 0.001.  Additionally, there was a near significant interaction of task, risk-status, and age, F(1, 42) = 3.551, p = 0.066.  Follow-up ANOVAs indicated the following: 

• 6-month-old infants:  All mothers smiled significantly more during PAB than NS interaction, F(1, 24) = 7.006, p = 0.014.  Mothers of HR infants smiled significantly less across the two tasks than mothers of LR infants, F(1, 24) = 4.778, p = 0.039.   
• 11-month-old infants: Mothers of HR and LR infants smiled to a significantly different degree as a function of task, F(1, 18) = 5.582, p = 0.030.  Mothers of 11-month-old, LR infants no longer exhibit a significant increase in smiling from a NS interaction to PAB (t(10) = -1.392, p = 0.197), however, mothers of HR infants continue to demonstrate the significant increase in smiling from a NS interaction to PAB (t(10) = -4.731, p = 0.001). 

Conclusions: Mothers of HR infants appear to differ from mothers of LR infants in affective response during typical face-to-face interaction tasks and these differences shift as the infant ages.  While both mother groups display more smiling during PAB than NS interaction, mothers of HR 6-month-olds exhibit less smiling behavior overall.  As infants get older LR mothers begin to taper their smiling during face-to-face games, but HR mothers continue a smiling pattern characteristic of mothers who have much younger infants.  It appears HR mothers may be scaffolding their infant’s behavior in a way LR mothers are not.