Abstract

Touch is the basis of infants’ social, emotional, and cognitive development. Yet, it remains largely understudied in developmental research. A series of three studies were designed to expand our limited knowledge of parents’ and infants’ touching behaviours, including the synchrony of maternal-infant touch, across various types of parent-child interactions over time.
Study 1 utilized an extensive longitudinal design whereby healthy mother-infant dyads (N=12) were observed at 1-, 3-, 5-, 7-, and 9-months postpartum and within two normative interaction contexts (face-to-face; floor play). Study 2 implemented a longitudinal research design whereby typically developing newborns, mothers, and fathers (N=22) were observed immediately after birth and following the physiological stress of labor/delivery, and again 3- months later, following the social stress of maternal emotional unavailability via the Still-Face procedure (SF; Tronick et al., 1978). Study 3 used a cross-sectional research design examining mother-infant dyads (N=41) with high vs. low risk of maternal depressive symptomatology during instances of infant crying within the context of the SF and Separation (SP; Field et al., 1986) procedures at 4-months postpartum.
Overall, results revealed that touch is a pervasive and extensive communicative modality for both infants and parents, including those at-risk, within normative and perturbed contexts, starting from birth and across the first 9-months of life. Study 1 demonstrated that during typical/playful mother-infant interactions from 1- to 9-months postpartum, dyads initially displayed behavioural matching and later transitioned toward synchronous patterns entailing the parallel use of complementary types of touch. Study 2 revealed that mothers and infants displayed an inverse pattern of tactile synchrony (coordinated, converse changes in touch) from the immediate postpartum period to the reunion period of the SF procedure 3-months later. In Study 3, mothers and infants displayed a positive pattern of tactile synchrony (coordinated, analogous changes in touch) within the context of infant crying at 4-months postpartum. However, dyads in the high depression group displayed significantly less affectionate touch. Among other findings, results from all three studies underscored the soothing and regulatory functions of touch. Findings meaningfully contribute to our knowledge of early parent-infant dynamics and support a direction toward comprehensive examinations of touch across infancy.