Correspondence of distress and coping behaviour with sensorimotor transitions in infancy

grantor: University of TorontoThe purpose of this study was to examine developing emotion expression and emotion regulation over the first year of life, addressing both normative changes and individual differences, with a focus on the timing of changes and their correspondence with cognitive stage shifts. Literature was reviewed related to normative behavioural changes in social-emotional development over the first year, and those changes were shown to exhibit features which correspond with Case's (1985) theory of cognitive development. Studies which indicated both predictable developmental changes and emerging individual differences in coping strategies were also shown to exhibit correspondences with cognitive development. In the present study, a fine-grained, longitudinal design was used to assess the timing of cognitive changes, specifically sensorimotor stage shifts, and to track developmental changes in both emotion experience and individual coping behaviours. Data were gathered from videotaped records of 12 babies. Mothers and babies were visited at home on 16 occasions, from the time each infant was 12 weeks to 55 weeks of age. On each visit, an examiner conducted two procedures. The first was a set of tasks designed to gauge the baby's cognitive development, using simple toys and moving objects to assess sensorimotor performance. The second involved repeatedly frustrating the baby with a series of toys handed to the baby and then taken away. The latter procedure was coded for distress, and for attentional engagement and motor behaviours. Changes in babies' emotional responses and distress-related behaviours were examined in relation to stage changes in sensorimotor performance. The results indicated that cognitive developmental shifts, indexed by tests of sensorimotor coordination, occurred around 4 months and 8-9 months, consistent with Case's theoretical timetable. There were corresponding changes in emotion expression, gauged by duration of distress. Distress-related behaviours in the study were not found to change systematically; results yielded little support for the expectation of discontinuous changes around the time of cognitive-developmental shifts. There were clear individual differences in coping behaviours, and speculative evidence was provided that individual differences exhibited stage-specific characteristics consistent with Case's model. Theoretical and clinical implications of the study are discussed.Ph.D