Mother-infant affect synchrony as an antecedent of the emergence of self-control.

This study examined relations between mother-infant affect synchrony and the emergence of children's self-control. Mother-infant face-to-face play and infant difficult temperament were examined at 3 and 9 months. Maternal and infant affective states at play were coded in 0.25-s frames, and synchrony was computed with cross-correlation functions. Self-control, verbal IQ, and maternal warm discipline were assessed at 2 years. Maternal synchrony with infant affect at 3 months (infant-leads-mother-follows relation) and mutual synchrony at 9 months (cross-dependence between maternal and infant affect) were each related to self-control at 2 years when temperament, IQ, and maternal style were partialed. Infant temperament moderated the relations of synchrony and self-control, and closer associations were found between mutual synchrony and self-control for difficult infants. Shorter lags to maternal synchrony at 3 months were independently related to self-control. The mutual regulation of affect in infancy, as moderated by temperament, is proposed as an important contributor to the emergence of self-regulation.

From categorization to classification: a comparison among individuals with autism, mental retardation, and normal development.

Free-sorting, matrix, and class-inclusion tasks were administered to 16 participants with autism, 16 participants with mental retardation (MR), and 16 normal children, matched for mental age. On perceptual matrices, participants with MR performed less well than those with autism, who performed less well than normal children. On functional matrices, participants with autism and those with MR performed less well than normal children. Participants with autism performed less well than participants with MR and normal children in free-sorting representational objects and in the class-inclusion tasks, which require higher operational thought. These results suggest that individuals with autism have difficulties with tasks that necessitate internal manipulation of information. This impairment is discussed in relation to the cognitive deficit characterizing autism.

Onset and duration of breast feeding among Israeli mothers: relationships with smoking and type of delivery.

A study of 190 mothers of firstborn, 6 month-old infants showed that different mechanisms affect onset and duration of breast feeding. Maternal education is related both to onset and duration of breast feeding; more highly educated women begin breast feeding and they breast feed for a longer period. Type of delivery is significantly associated with onset of breast feeding, even when controlling for educational level: cesarean delivered women are less likely to begin breast feeding than mothers delivered vaginally, although once breast feeding has begun, type of delivery no longer plays any role. Smoking is associated only with duration of breast feeding and not with onset. Among those women who breast feed for a long period, all are non-smokers. Women usually do not resume smoking immediately after giving birth which may explain why smoking is associated only with duration and not with onset of breast feeding. The results suggest the importance of influencing mothers so they do not resume or, at least, delay resumption of smoking as long as possible after parturition, in order to increase the likelihood of breast feeding. Caesarean delivered women should be encouraged to begin breast feeding while still in hospital.

Fathers' and mothers' perceptions of temperament in Israeli neonates: effects of adoption and social class.

As part of a longitudinal follow-up study of the development of adopted and biological children in Israel, 87 couples were administered the Bates Infant Characteristics Questionnaire when their first infants were 21 to 30 days old. Middleclass adoptive parents and a middle-class biological-parent control sample constituted one group. A second group comprised a lower-class sample. Mothers in all groups saw the child as more difficult in terms of strength of cry and reactions to being dressed as compared to fathers. Mothers perceived the child as more predictable for diaper changes and sleep. Adoptive parents saw their child as easier, that is, having more stable and positive mood states. Adoptive mothers saw their neonates as more active than the biological mothers. Middle-class parents saw their children as more soothable and as less disturbing in their emotional behavior than lower-class parents. The results indicate that neonatal temperament can be studied and that parental perception is influenced by sex of parent, biological relationship to the child and environmental factors, such as social class and early intervention.