1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«The current study observed babies’ adaptation in three placement settings: Residential Care (RC; France), Foster Families (FF; Québec) and Infant–Mother Centre (IMC; Québec).» (p. 281) The first objective is to «describe the ways in which newborns adapt to their placement environment, by observing behaviour during and after feeding over the course of the first 6 weeks of their placement.» (p. 281) The second objective is to «determine whether the newborns’ behavioural adaptations differ according to the type of placement [and to] examine the potential association between the newborns’ behavioural adaptations and placement modalities.» (p. 281)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«Observations began from the first week of placement. […] Nineteen babies were selected, including eight babies placed in a French RC, five placed in FF and six placed in the IMC […]. At the beginning of data collection, babies in the younger group (Age 1, n = 13) ranged in age from 1 to 2 weeks (M = 1.30 weeks, SD = 0.48); the older group (Age 2, n = 6) ranged in age from 5 to 12 weeks (M = 7.83 weeks, SD = 2.4). Case records indicated that babies were placed for the following reasons: pending adoption (n = 8), maltreatment (n = 3) and at-risk situation (n = 8).» (p. 281-282)

Instruments :
Grille d’observation

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

Results show that among «the behaviours studied [in this study], alert wakefulness and sleeping vary as a function of age at placement for the entire sample. Indeed, in all three placement modalities, [the authors] observed throughout the feeding phases that the older babies spent more time in alert wakefulness and less time sleeping. As expected, infants’ disposition to discover and interact with their physical and social environment […] is therefore present and incremental from birth. Thus, though newborns are not autonomous, their biological development is rapid enough for them to quickly open them to learning and socialization. Regarding visual exploration, this capacity is certainly present at birth and is in fact one of the most active behaviours of this early period, yet contrary to expectations from the literature […], no difference in visual exploration was observed as a function of age at placement. […] As such, [the] results agree with Paul et al. (1996) in showing that, among infants, the feeding period, characterised by satiety, is not conducive to the expression of locomotor ability.» (p. 287)