Mother-infant face-to-face interaction in Japan and the United States: A laboratory comparison using 3-month-old infants.

Abstract

In this cross-cultural comparison 36 Japanese and 36 American 3-month-old infant-mother dyads were videotaped in a standardized laboratory setting in their own countries. Mothers in both countries responded contingently to these infant behaviors, but there were differences in the type and timing of maternal behavior vis-a-vis infant behavior. Japanese mothers were more likely than American mothers to punctuate their facial expressions and vocalizations with looming upper-body movements and with touches and they were less likely to respond selectively to infant vocalizations. American mothers held their faces closer to the infants' and provided primarily facial and vocal displays for the infant. Japanese infants tended to display longer average durations of smiling and vocalizing with a lower rate of onsets compared with American infants. The results have implications for understanding the role of the face-to-face period in human development and the way in which cultural differences in interpersonal communicative style may guide the development of infant affective expression, Between 2 and 3 months of age infants begin to look into adult's eyes and to express recognition and enjoyment by responsive smiling and disappointment by crying. Because reaching, grasping, and object interest have not yet developed, adult and infant engage in face-to-face play in which the topic of conversation is the mutual exchange of looks, smiles, touches, and sounds (Stern, 1974). The function—infant regulation of positive attention and affect—and the developmental course of infant behavior during this period is similar across a variety of cultures, with only minor variations in the age of onset and peak time for gazing at mother and for social smiling (Super & Harkness, 1982). At 3 months the primary responsibility for the sequencing of faceto-face interaction is with the mother, who provides a repeated series of exaggerated vocalizations, facial expressions, and body movements, all organized in a theme and variation format (Stern, 1974). Moreover, these maternal displays are usually timed to be responsive to changes in the infant's facial expression, vocalization, and gaze direction (Fogel, 1977). It is not