The Smiling Behavior of Infants at High- and Low-risk for Autism, Their Mothers, and an Unfamiliar Adult: the Effects of Interaction Task, Infant Risk-status, and Infant Age
Year: 2010
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: The infant siblings of individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are at risk for atypical development of affective reciprocity. Early affective atypicality may become most apparent through the comprehensive study of these high-risk infants' emotional expressions, the affective expressions of interacting adults, and changes in this expressivity as a result of development and interactive context. The current study examined the interactive smiling behavior of 6- and 11-month-old infants with (high-risk) and without (low-risk) a sibling with ASD, their mothers and an unfamiliar adult blind to risk status. Smiling was measured across two adult-infant interaction contexts, a non-specific (NS) interaction and peek-a-boo (PAB). During interaction with their mothers 6- and 11-month-old low-risk (LR) infants demonstrated significantly more smiling during PAB than a NS interaction. In contrast, high-risk (HR) infants showed delayed development of affective reciprocity, not showing an increase in smiling during PAB until 11 months of age. During interaction with an unfamiliar adult HR and LR infants performed similarly at 6 and 11 months of age. An investigation of mothers' smiling demonstrated that mothers of HR 6- and 11-month-old infants smile significantly less than mothers of LR infants, while also smiling significantly more high intensity smiles than mothers of LR infants. The smiling behavior of the unfamiliar adult was not significantly affected by infant risk-status or age, but by interaction type alone; with more smiling and more high intensity smiles occurring during PAB than a NS interaction.
Author: Sarah F. Hannigen
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W583463776