Examination of 12-month-old infant coping behavior: A longitudinal study of relations among parenting behavior, infant coping behavior, and infant problem behavior.

摘要

The aim of the present study is to explore coping in infancy, with respect to parenting behavior and to its potential consequences in behavioral development in early childhood. Coping has been widely considered as an individual's adaptive response to environmental demands, necessary for everyday functioning and survival. Although the ways in which adults cope with small and large challenges in life have been much studied for their consequences in psychological health, presently there is only a small body of literature on coping in infancy, and little is known about how coping is established and how it relates to behavior development in early childhood.;190 African American mother-infant dyads participated in the study. The dyads visited a laboratory when the infants were 4, 12, and 24 months old; their interaction sessions were videotaped and interviews were conducted with the mothers. At 4 months, three key parenting behaviors -- sensitivity, intrusiveness, and detachment -- were assessed from videotaped mother-infant interactions. At 12 months, infants' coping behavior was assessed through a social expectancy violation task. At 12 and 24 months, infants' behavior problem was assessed with a parent report measure.;Infants responded to the expectancy violation with five main ways of coping -- approaching, social-referencing, attention shifting, fussing, and fixed gazing behavior -- and some of these coping behaviors co-occurred as part of the infants' coping repertoire. Attention shifting behavior was significantly related to more sensitive parenting behavior and lower externalizing behavior problems, while approaching behavior was related to higher externalizing behavior problems. Findings are discussed with respect to constitutional underpinnings, social learning and infant cognition, and their interaction.