The association between infant development and mother-infant quality of interaction in free play activities

Introduction: The mother-infant quality of interaction may influence the infant development in different levels. Objectives: To assess mother-infant quality of interaction, infant development and family resources and their interactions. Methods: Descriptive, correlational study including a random sample of 42 Portuguese healthy infants and their parents. At 11 months, mothers described their infants’ temperament using the Temperament Scale (Lopes dos Santos, Fuertes & Sanches-Ferreira) and identified their family resources with Family Support Scale Family Inventory (Dunst, Jenkins & Trivette); Family Needs Survey (Bailey & Simeonsson) and Parent Responsability Scale (McBride & Mills). Child development was assessed using The Schedule of Growing Skills II (Bellman, Lingam & Aukett). At 12 months, mothers were observed and taped playing with their infants; videos were scored with Care-Index (Crittenden) to assess mothers’s sensitivity. Results: The quality of mother-child interaction was strongly related with infant development outcomes. The infants with better development indicators (e.g., manipulation, vision, speech-language, hearing, language, social interaction and cognition) tended to be more cooperative and had more sensitive mothers. Autonomy was negatively correlated with maternal control and social interaction. Speech-language was negatively associated with maternal passivity. Mothers with higher education levels received more help from fathers and exhibited higher scores on maternal sensitivity. Conclusions: Maternal sensitivity is associated with infant development. In turn, infants with better developmental outcomes were more cooperative, engaged and reciprocal when playing. Infant development and mother-infant quality interaction are mutual affected.