Interactive behaviors and synchrony of mother-infant and father-infant interaction: identification and intervention

Understanding the interactive behaviors of caregivers in different contexts and the variables that influence the caregiver-infant interaction makes possible to plan and execute preventive interventions. The thesis is defended that short duration interventions in the first months of the infant’s life that use video feedback may be effective for the acquisition or maintenance of responsive interactive behaviors of caregivers, regardless of gender. The general objective of the study was to investigate the caregiver-infant interaction in two contexts of observation and to test the effect of the Program Promoting Interaction between Parents and Babies (PIPAB), considering the caregiver’s gender, sex of the infant and prematurity. Two studies were done with 63 caregiver-infant (three to seven months of age) dyads, by using observations coded with the Interdyad protocol. In study 01, it was analyzed the effect of the caregiver’s gender, infant’ sex and prematurity on the caregiver’s behaviors (stimulation, responsivity, intrusiveness, and verbalizing negatively to the infant) and on the infants’ (positive interactive behaviors, negative and noninteractive) in two contexts. Dyads were observed in free play interaction for five minutes and in the Face-to-Face Still-Face (FFSF) paradigm for nine minutes, divided into three minute episodes: 1) play - the caregiver interacts face to face with the infant, 2) still-face - the caregiver no longer responds to the infant and 3) meeting - the caregiver interacts again. Dyadic behaviors in both contexts were analyzed from three ways ANOVAs. The main results found in the free play interaction context were: (a) mothers stimulated their infants more than the fathers; (b) fathers were more responsive in the interaction with the infants than the mothers; (c) caregivers of preterm infants were more responsive than caregivers of full-term infants; (d) caregivers of full-term infants stimulated their infants more than caregivers of preterm infants; (e) preterm infants displayed more noninteractive behaviors with their parents than full-term infants. In FFSF’s play episode, these results stood out: (a) fathers of full-term infants were more responsive than mothers of full-term infants and fathers of preterm infants; (b) fathers of preterm infants were more intrusive than mothers of preterm infants and fathers of full-term infants: (c) full-term infants displayed more noninteractive behaviors in the interaction with their fathers than preterm infants in the interaction with their fathers and full-term infants in the interaction with their mothers; (d) female full-term infants and male preterm infants displayed more positive interactive behaviors than male full-term infants. In the reunion episode: (e) female infants displayed more negative interactive behaviors in the interaction with their fathers than female infants in the interaction with their mothers and male infants in the interaction with their fathers; and (f) male infants emitted more noninteractive behaviors with their fathers than female infants. From the results, we get target behaviors for intervention. In study 02, it was sought to identify PIPAB’s effect, regarding the caregiver’s gender and infant’s prematurity, on caregivers’ and infants’ behavior and dyad synchrony. 63 caregiver-infant dyads participated, and the design was pretest-posttest in a group. PIPAB two intervention sessions using video feedback. Before and after each intervention session, an observation was done regarding free play interaction. Analyses of binomial regression indicated a significant increase in caregivers’ responsivity, although, there was a rise too, in noninteractive behaviors of the infants, which may have resulted in increasing low and regular synchronicity between preintervention 1 and postintervention 2. In this period, decreases in caregivers’ intrusiveness, in negative interactive behaviors of the infants and in low and bad synchronicity also occurred. The gender of the caregiver differentiated behaviors of stimulation, responsivity and intrusiveness, and prematurity those of stimulation. Synchrony was better for full-term caregiver-infant dyads than for preterm ones. PIPAB was determined as being promising in promoting behavioral change in dyads. Still, studies are needed with other designs to evaluate its effectiveness. (AU)