INFANT INTERACTIONS WITH ADULTS IN DAY-CA RE-CENTERS - EVOLUTIVE DEPENDENCIES VS COUNTER-EVOLUTIVE RISK AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MOTHER-INFANT RELATIONSHIP

As part of a broader research project on the construction of the self six infants were observed longitudinally in day-care centers between t he ages of five months and three years. Interviews were conducted with the six mothers in order to evaluate the intersubjective characterist ics of the mother-infant relationship. For three of the six children, the mother was a caregiver in the center. This article deals with << p ropping >> processes, defined as the affective-cognitive transformatio ns by means of which infants develop networks of links with and betwee n external and internal objects which are used for support during deve lopment and serve as a relay of the maternal object. The present analy sis is limited to propping on the adults in the day-care center (careg ivers, observer, and, for three of the children, mothers). Two factors were considered: the intersubjective quality of the mother-infant rel ation, and the presence or absence of the mother as a caregiver in the day-care center. The results showed that (1) even when very young, th e infants under observation differentiated between the various functio ns of the adults, and adapted their behavior to them ; (2) each child exhibited a unique and sometimes very creative way of using dependenci es on an adult's psychic apparatus to construct his or her own modes o f psychic functioning; and (3) the developmental dynamics and the rich ness of the observed transformations were found to depend on the quali ty of the contact and distancing in the mother-infant relationship and on the concrete conditions for its actualization, which can either pr omote or hinder, and sometimes even block, the construction of the mot her's absence.