A LONGITUDINAL-STUDY OF MATERNAL INTERACTIONAL STYLES AND INFANT VISUAL-ATTENTION

Sixty-five mother-infant dyads (infants at ages 6 and 8 months) partic ipated in a longitudinal study of interactional and attentional relati onships. interaction was coded as attention following (AF), attention switching (AS), or joint attention. A laboratory-based assessment of i nfant fixation duration was used. AF and AS were unrelated at 6 months but inversely related at 8 months. Surprisingly, AF and AS were unrel ated to joint attention. All variables were stable, and, except for a few correlations at 6 months, fixation duration was unrelated to inter action variables. These findings suggest that joint attention does not typically occur with infants younger than 9 months, but mothers may b egin a pattern of interaction, AF or AS, with the you ng infant before joint attention emerges.