Maternal /Infant Synchrony in Cortisol & Behavior

这项研究有三个具体目标：（a）调查皮质醇一致性、母婴行为同步性和母亲注意力之间的关系;（B）探索婴儿期行为同步性和认知发展之间的关系;（c）在依恋研究文献中代表性不足的人群中检验假设，特别是西班牙裔人群。将采用纵向设计，收集1周龄、3个月、6个月、12个月和18个月婴儿年龄的经产母婴对的数据。将从婴儿和母亲身上采集唾液皮质醇样本，以确定是否每个人都表现出对轻度应激事件的肾上腺皮质反应（实验前到实验后）。通过在10分钟的互动期内以10秒的间隔观察母亲和婴儿的特定行为来测量行为同步性。作为母亲敏感性的更远距离测量，将在婴儿参与视觉和听觉辨别任务的时间段期间记录母亲对其婴儿的注意力。婴儿将在四个测试阶段参与实验，以评估认知发展的各个方面及其与皮质醇一致性，行为同步性和母亲注意力的关联。据推测，婴儿或更敏感的母亲将得分高于婴儿的敏感性较低的母亲的措施，歧视，记忆，和对象标签，和母亲的敏感性将花费大量的时间与她的婴儿在一个新的情况下，在联合注意。这项研究将为不同人群中婴儿的情感、社会和智力健康提供有价值的信息。

The proposed research has three specific aims: (a) to investigate the relationship among cortisol concordance, behavioral synchrony of mother-infant pairs, and maternal attentiveness, (b) to explore the relationship between behavioral synchrony and cognitive development in infancy, and (c) to test the hypotheses on a population which is underrepresented in the research literature on attachment, specifically, a largely Hispanic population. A longitudinal design will be used, and data will be collected on primiparous mother-infant pairs at these infant ages: one week old, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months and 18 months. Salivary cortisol samples will be taken from the infant and the mother to determine whether or not each exhibits an adrenocortical response to a mildly stressful event (pre-experiment to post-experiment). Behavioral synchrony will be measured by observing specific behaviors of the mother and infant in 10-second intervals across a 10-minute interaction period. As a more distal measure of maternal sensitivity, mother's attentiveness to her infant will be recorded during time periods when her infant is participating in visual and auditory discrimination tasks. The infant will participate in experiments during four of the test sessions, to assess various aspects of cognitive development and their association to cortisol concordance, behavioral synchrony, and maternal attentiveness. It is hypothesized that infants or more sensitive mothers will score higher than infants of less sensitive mothers on measures of discrimination, memory, and object labeling, and that maternal sensitivity will amount of time spent in joint attention with her infant in a novel situation. The study will provide valuable information about the emotional, social, and intellectual health of infants in a diverse population.