The mindedness of maternal touch: An investigation of maternal mind-mindedness and mother-infant touch interactions

Laura Crucianelli, Lisa Wheatley, Maria Laura Filippetti, Paul M Jenkinson, Elizabeth Kirk, Aikaterini Katerina Fotopoulou, Laura Crucianelli, Lisa Wheatley, Maria Laura Filippetti, Paul M Jenkinson, Elizabeth Kirk, Aikaterini Katerina Fotopoulou

Abstract

Increasing evidence shows that maternal touch may promote emotion regulation in infants, however less is known about how parental higher-order social cognition abilities are translated into tactile, affect-regulatory behaviours towards their infants. During 10 min book-reading, mother-infant sessions when infants were 12 months old (N = 45), we investigated maternal mind-mindedness (MM), the social cognitive ability to understand an infant's mental state, by coding the contingency of maternal verbal statements towards the infants' needs and desires. We also rated spontaneous tactile interactions in terms of their emotional contingency. We found that frequent non-attuned mind-related comments were associated with touch behaviours that were not contingent with the infant's emotions; ultimately discouraging affective tactile responses from the infant. However, comments that were more appropriate to infant's mental states did not necessarily predict more emotionally-contingent tactile behaviours. These findings suggest that when parental high-order social cognitive abilities are compromised, they are also likely to translate into inappropriate, tactile attempts to regulate infant's emotions.

Keywords: Contingency; Infant touch; Maternal touch; Mind-mindedness; Mother-infant interaction.

Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Examples of the illustration of Book One (a) and Book Two (b). Adapted from Wheatley, L. (2017). Mother-Infant Interaction During Book Sharing Across Socio-Economic Status Groups (Doctoral thesis). Retrieved from University of Hertfordshire Research Archive (http://uhra.herts.ac.uk/handle/2299/17516).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Scatter plot representing the significant multiple regression model taking into account the predicted values of non-attuned mind related comments and total quantity of maternal touch on non-contingent maternal touch at 12 months.

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Source: PubMed

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