17183
The Relation Between Infant Social Engagement and Maternal Behavior in Infants at High-Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder
Early parent-child interactions play an influential role in shaping children’s social and communicative development, and these interactions may have an even greater impact on the development of children at high risk for developmental challenges (e.g., Landry et al., 2006). One such high risk group is infant siblings of children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD; HR-infants), who are at increased risk of developing ASD compared to infant siblings of typically developing children (LR-infants; Georgiades et al., 2012). It has been theorized that early impairments associated with ASD may affect the quality of parent-child interactions, which over time may lead to an increasingly atypical social developmental trajectory (Dawson, 2008). Social smiling is one behavior known to play a role in initiating and maintaining early parent-child interactions (Messinger & Fogel, 2007), and this behavior has been found to be reduced in HR-infants (Cassel et al., 2007). There is a lack of research on how infant social smiling may affect maternal behaviors in HR-infants, and in turn, how maternal behaviors may influence infant social smiling. It has been proposed that maternal behaviors that promote engagement and reciprocity may attenuate ASD symptom development over time for HR-infants (Dawson, 2008). Two parenting behaviors that have been identified as influential are maternal responsiveness and directiveness (Mahoney, 2008). Emerging research suggests that mothers of HR-infants display less responsive and more directive behavior when compared with mothers of LR-infants (Wan et al., 2012).
Objectives:
The objectives of this study were to examine: (1) Whether growth in infant social smiling between 9 and 18 months predicts maternal responsiveness and directiveness at 18 months; and (2) Whether maternal responsiveness and directiveness at 9 months predict growth in infant social smiling between 9 and 18 months; and (3) Whether there are differences in these relationships between HR-infants and LR-infants.
Methods:
Our total sample included 29 mother-infant dyads, 19 HR-infants (10 male) and 10 LR-infants (6 male). Observations of maternal and infant behaviors were coded during a 5-minute free play interaction. Infant social engagement was operationalized as the frequency of social smiling during this interaction. Maternal responsiveness and directiveness were measured using a modified version of the Maternal Behavior Rating Scale (Mahoney, 2008); ICCs ranged from .72-.96.
Results:
Four hierarchical regressions were conducted to examine the association between infant and maternal behaviors and risk group status as a moderator. Maternal directiveness (β=-.67, p=.01) and risk group status (β=-.45, p=.01) were independent predictors of growth in infant social smiling, with a trend for moderation (β=.41, p=.08). Growth in infant social smiling did not predict maternal responsiveness or directiveness at 18 months, and maternal responsiveness at 9 months did not predict growth in infant social smiling; there was no moderation.
Conclusions:
Higher levels of maternal directiveness were associated with slower growth in infant social smiling. The trend for moderation suggests a stronger association between directiveness and growth in social smiling for HR- infants relative to LR-infants. Data coding is ongoing.