1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«The objectives were to examine: (1) how co-regulation changed following a perturbed interaction, (2) how co-regulation differed between full-term and VLBW [very low birthweight/preterm]/preterm infant-mother dyads, and (3) the association between co-regulation and the quality of the mother-infant relationship.» (p. iii)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«The current sample consisted of 87 mother-infant dyads (43 full-term) that were taking part in a larger longitudinal study. The present study focuses on the dyads when the infants were 6 months of age. The sample included two groups: infants who were born full-term and those who were born very low birth weight [...]/preterm.» (p. 8) «Mothers and infants were visited by experimenters in their homes. Their interactions were recorded in a well-lit room with minimal distractions using a Sony video camera.» (p. 10) Participants all lived in the Greater Montreal Area.

Instruments :
- Questionnaire
- Grille d’observation

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

The results show that «[a]s anticipated, co-regulation was also associated with various dimensions of the mother-infant relationship. These findings underscore the role of co-regulation and the quality of the mother-infant relationship in infants’ social-emotional development. […] As was expected, dyads engaged in higher levels of unilateral (specifically, unilateral-initiating and, to a lesser extent, unilateral-demanding) co-regulation prior to the periods of maternal emotional unavailability. This finding indicates that 6-month-old infants may take a less-active role during face-to-face interactions with their mothers during normal, unperturbed interactions. Furthermore, in line with what was hypothesized, dyads engaged in more active forms of co-regulation (i.e., symmetrical-resonant and, to a lesser extent, symmetrical-sequential co-regulation) following the SF [still-face] period.» (p. 17-18) The author also mentions that «full-term dyads spent more time in symmetrical-sequential forms of co-regulation, while VLBW/preterm infant-mother dyads spent more time in symmetrical-resonant co-regulation. These findings suggest that full-term infants are displaying more interaction skills and have a greater understanding of the back-and-forth nature of transactions than their VLBW/preterm counterparts. [M]others of full-term, but not VLBW/preterm infants, who displayed higher levels of maternal sensitivity spent more time in symmetrical co-regulation during the initial interaction.» (p. 19)