| Quality of mother-infant interaction is determinant of the infant's later personality, social and cognitive functioning, and possibly mental health. Infants' primarily bring their temperament characteristics to the table. Mothers bring their temperament as well as level of, and response to, stress. Infant and maternal characteristics impact the quality of interaction, such as the level of sensitivity, responsivity, synchrony, or reciprocity. Quality of mother-infant interaction is not predetermined or fixed, and can be improved upon through intervention. Knowledge of variables affecting the interaction can aid in the focus of intervention.; This largely correlational study first examined congruence between infant and maternal temperament presentations. It then sought to examine temperament factors and parental stress, which moderate and contribute to sensitivity/responsivity and synchrony/reciprocity, in mother-infant interactions. Sixty-five parents of infants aged 6, 9, and 12 months, from the San Francisco Bay Area, completed questionnaires that assessed dimensions of infant and parent temperament, demographic information, and level of stress experienced in the role of being a parent. In addition, mother-infant dyads were videotaped and observed during a semi-structured play episode.; Results indicated a lack of congruence between infant and maternal temperament presentations. This suggests that infant temperament does not match maternal temperament to a significant degree, when based on the mothers' perceptions. Most of the hypotheses were based on an initial measurement and assumption of congruence between infant and maternal temperament presentations. Since congruence was not found, most of the subsequent hypotheses could not be tested. Results from the remaining hypothesis indicated that infant and maternal temperament sadness, combined, accounted for an amount of variance of synchrony/reciprocity that closely approached significance.; Findings suggested the following: limitations likely existed in the areas of sample size and range of participants, and in the operationalization of the measurement of mother-infant interaction; the mode of measurement of infant temperament may have been a methodological weakness, or infant and maternal temperament are not, in fact, congruous; and infant and maternal temperament sadness explain some variance in synchrony/reciprocity. Suggestions for future researchers, and application of this line of research to the study of personality disorders, are put forth. |
