Early patterns of mother-infant dyadic interaction: Infant, mother, and family demographic antecedents

This experiment explored multiple antecedents of differences in the quality of motherinfant interaction during a videotaped free-play episode at 5 months. Subjects were 76 mother-infant pairs participating in a longitudinal project that included extensive assessment of infants and mothers during the neonatal period. At 5 months, mother and infant interactive behaviors were independently rated, and cluster analysis was used to identify distinctive patterns of dyadic interaction. Discriminant function analyses revealed that a set of neonatally measured infant, mother, and family demographic variables correctly classified mother-infant pairs into clusters 75% of the time. A cumulative effects score derived from univariate follow-up tests showed a highly significant relation to cluster membership; the likelihood of more optimal 5-month interaction steadily increased as the number of positive antecedent conditions increased.