How do mothers signal shared feeling-states to their infants? An investigation of affect attunement and imitation during the first year of life

The present study examined how mothers signal shared feeling-states to thei r infants. Affect attunement and imitation were investigated cross-cultural ly in 39 mother-infant dyads from Sweden (N = 22) and the former Yugoslavia (N = 17) during the first year of life. Video-recordings of playful intera ction between mothers and their infants were analysed using the Affect Attu nement Protocol. A significant negative association between imitation and a ge was found, while there was a significant positive association between af fect attunement and age. Single occurrences of affect attunement appeared a lready at two or three months of age, and by 6 months of age episodes of af fect attunement were more common than imitation. Frequencies of imitation a nd affect attunement were similar cross-culturally and in terms of gender, although there was a significant interaction between age and gender. The re sults suggest that the signalling of shared feeling-states is not a static process. Mothers do not signal shared feeling-states in the same manner at different ages. Imitation is the most important process during the earliest months, but is superseded by affect attunement earlier than previously tho ught. The functional implications of this developmental variation are discu ssed.