The Regulation of Infant Negative Emotions: The Role of Maternal Sensitivity and Infant-Directed Speech Prosody

This study explored the role of maternal sensitivity and infant-directed speech (IDS) prosody in infants' expression and regulation of negative emotion. Seventy mothers and their 3-month-old infants were observed during the Still-Face Paradigm (SFP). Maternal sensitivity and IDS prosody were assessed at baseline and infant negative affect in the baseline, still-face, and reunion episodes. Results showed that prototypical IDS prosody characterized by wider fundamental frequency (F0) variability was related to decreases in infant's negative affect, but only if accompanied by maternal sensitivity. Infants of sensitive mothers who spoke with more prototypical IDS prosody showed better abilities to regulate negative affect during the SFP. When prototypical IDS prosody was accompanied by low maternal sensitivity, infants showed lower regulation of negative emotions. In conclusion, infant negative affect regulation in a dyadic setting is facilitated by an optimal combination of both more prototypical maternal IDS prosody and maternal sensitive responsiveness. Implications for the study of mother-infant interaction are discussed.