Sex differences in neonatal eye contact time.

Abstract

In recent years, the expanding field of infancy research has wit nessed a major shift in focus from the study of discrete mother and infant behaviors to that of an interactive systems approach to the mother-infant dyad, with increasing emphasis on the infant's contri bution to the interaction (Bell, 1971; Lewis & Rosenblum, 1974). As a result of this change, researchers have attempted to identify vari ables in the newborn's behavior that could influence the baby's social environment. It has also been suggested that subtle sex differences in the infant may very well be influencing the mother's handling of the baby (Hittelman, 1975; Korner, 1974; Olley, 1973). The purpose of this paper is to study the relationship between the infants' sex and their capacity to maintain eye contact. Neonatal eye contact is an important variable to study since it has been shown to have a profound impact on the development of maternal attachment (Greenman, 1963, Klaus, Kennel, Plumb, & Zuehlke, 1970; Robson, 1967; Wolff, 1963) and on infant attachment as well (Brazelton, Tronick, Adamson, Als, & Weise, 1975). Eye contact is one of the earliest social behaviors under the infant's control. Immediately after birth newborns are capable of maintaining visual fixation and pursuit (Brazelton, 1973; Hershenson, 1964; Wolff, 1965) and making visual discriminations (Fantz, 1958). Visual pursuit is a highly reliable be havior with a wide range of individual differences (Bartens, Birns, & Ronch, 1971). Friedman (1972) has concluded that newborn infants have the ability to process and regulate visual impact by turning their eyes away from a stimulus or visually searching for it. Commenting on a similar phenomenon, Brazelton (1973) has reported that new borns may turn their head to look at an examiner's face and attend