Gender Differences in Infants' and Parents' Social Interaction

将在婴儿3个月和6个月时纵向评估婴儿在母婴和父婴互动中社会情感行为的早期性别差异。96名婴儿（48名男孩，48名女孩）及其母亲和父亲将参与研究。在每个年龄段，婴儿将在与每位父母进行3分钟面对面的社交互动期间进行录像。父母还将提供人口统计信息和独立完成的自我报告工具，评估他们的情绪状态，对婴儿气质的看法，养育目标，对父母身份的适应，社会支持，婚姻调整和参与婴儿照顾。将使用婴儿调节评分系统（IRSS）、成人互动调节评分系统（AIRSS）和Izard AFPEX系统对婴儿、母亲和父亲的行为和面部表情的录像带进行微分析评分。将评估母亲和父亲社会情感行为的性别相关差异以及婴儿-父母互动的二元特征。具体的假设指导下的相互调节模型和先前的研究提出。据推测，男婴比女婴更不能够调节他们的情感状态，在父母与婴儿的互动。此外，假设父亲比母亲更有可能有一个唤起互动风格。跨性别婴儿和父母之间的行为和情感差异也被假设为是上下文变量，如婚姻调整的影响。父亲和母亲在婴儿情绪调节的发展中扮演着不同的角色。孩子们也可能从每个父母那里发展出不同的行为模式，这些不同的二元体验可能会对他们的社会人格发展产生影响。然而，目前还不清楚母婴和父婴互动的特点如何影响男女婴儿的社会情绪和调节行为的发展，以及在以后的心理功能中与性别相关的差异的个体发生。因此，拟议的项目将大大增加现存的文献中的性别差异在婴儿早期，扩展理论的正常社会发展，并指导未来的研究。在婴儿3个月和6个月时，将评估婴儿在母婴和父婴互动过程中社会情感行为的早期性别差异。在每个年龄段，96名婴儿（48名男孩，48名女孩）将在与母亲和父亲的社交互动过程中进行录像。此外，每个父母的情绪状态，婴儿气质的看法，养育目标，适应父母，社会支持，婚姻的调整，并参与婴儿照顾将进行评估。该项目在评估一岁以下婴儿与母亲，特别是与父亲的社会情感互动行为的性别差异方面是独一无二的。这项研究将研究婴儿是否以及如何从每个父母那里发展出不同的行为模式，以及这是否会影响他们的社会和个性发展。这项研究还将评估父亲和母亲在婴儿控制冲动、愤怒和攻击性的能力发展中所扮演的不同角色。对这些问题的关注至关重要，并将大大增加我们对性别相关差异的起源的理解，在以后的心理功能（如男性儿童的攻击性行为的比例较高）。美国家庭正在发生变化，越来越多的孩子在没有父亲的情况下长大。该项目通过评估父亲和母亲在其子女的社会和情感发展中所起的作用，将开始处理这一重要问题。

Early gender differences in infants' social emotional behavior during mother-infant and father-infant interactions will be evaluated longitudinally at 3 and 6 months of infant age. 96 infants (48 boys, 48 girls) and their mothers and fathers will participate in the study. At each age, infants will be videotaped during a 3-minute face-to-face social interaction with each parent. Parents will also provide demographic information and independently complete self-report instruments that assess their emotional state, perceptions of infant temperament, parenting goals, adaptation to parenthood, social support, marital adjustment, and involvement in infant caretaking. The videotapes of the infants', mothers', and fathers' behavior and facial expressions will be scored microanalytically using the Infant Regulatory Scoring System (IRSS), the Adult Interactant Regulatory Scoring System (AIRSS), and Izard's AFFEX system. Gender-related differences in maternal and paternal social emotional behavior as well as dyadic features of infant-parent interactions will be assessed. Specific hypotheses guided by the Mutual Regulation Model and prior research are proposed. It is hypothesized that infant boys are less able than infant girls to regulate their affective states during parent-infant interaction. Moreover, fathers are hypothesized to be more likely than mothers to have an arousing interactive style. Behavioral and affective differences among cross-gender pairs of infants and parents are also hypothesized as are the effects of contextual variables such as marital adjustment. Fathers and mothers play different roles in the development of infant affect regulation. Children may also develop different behavior patterns from each parent, and these different dyadic experiences may have ramifications for their socio-personality development. However, it remains unclear how the characteristics of mother-infant and father-infant interactions affect the development of socio-emotional and regulatory behavior in male and female infants and the ontogenesis of gender-related differences in later psychological functioning. Thus, the proposed project will add significantly to the extant literature on gender differences in early infancy, extend theories of normal social development, and guide future research. %%% Early gender differences in infants' social emotional behavior during mother-infant and father-infant interactions will be evaluated at 3 and 6 months of infant age. At each age, 96 infants (48 boys, 48 girls) will be videotaped during social interaction with their mother and their father. In addition, each parent's emotional state, perceptions of infant temperament, parenting goals, adaptation to parenthood, social support, marital adjustment, and involvement in infant caretaking will be assessed. This project is unique in evaluating gender differences in the social emotional interactive behavior of infants under one year of age with their mothers and, in particular, their fathers. The study will examine whether and how infants develop different behavior patterns from each parent and whether this influences their social and personality development. The study will also evaluate the different roles fathers and mothers play in the development of infants' ability to control impulses, anger, and aggression. A focus on these issues is of critical importance and will significantly add to our understanding of the origin of gender-related differences in later psychological functioning (such as higher rates of aggressive behavior in male children). The American family is changing and an increasing number of children are growing up without a father at home. This project, by evaluating the role fathers and mothers play in the social and emotional development of their sons and daughters, will begin to address this important issue.