Non-Attuned Mind-Mindedness, Infant Negative Affect, and Emotional Availability: Assessing Mind-Mindedness during the Still-Face Paradigm

Mind-mindedness captures caregiver orientation to infant mental states expressed in mind-related comments to infant cues, typically assessed during free play. There are two orthogonal dimensions: Appropriate comments accurately interpret the infant's experience, and non-attuned comments are judged by observers to be inaccurate interpretations. Appropriate comments have been consistently associated with optimal caregiving behavior, but less is known about non-attuned comments, rare during free play. Further, available evidence suggests mind-mindedness is independent of infant temperament, but few studies have examined relations between mind-mindedness and infant behavior during real-time interaction. We addressed these issues using the Still-Face Paradigm. Participants were 76 mothers and their 7-month-old infants. Mind-mindedness, emotional availability, and infant negative affect were independently coded. Unexpectedly, appropriate mind-related comments were not associated with emotional availability nor with infant negative affect. Mothers who made non-attuned comments showed lower emotional availability, and their infants showed more extreme responses to the still-faceeither no negative affect or crying. Infants whose mothers made non-attuned comments early showed less recovery in reunion episodes. Infant negative affect in early episodes also influenced mind-related comments; mothers whose infants showed no negative affect made fewer appropriate comments in later episodes. Implications of assessing mind-mindedness in stress contexts are discussed.