Articles and Interview by Beatrice Beebe (USA)
Maternal into-the-face behavior, shared attention, and infant distress during face-to-face play at 12 months: Bi-directional contingencies
Galligan, R. P., Beebe, B., Milne, D., Ewing, J., Lee, S. H., & Buck, K. A. (2018). Infancy, 23(1), 538-557. doi:10.1111/infa.12234
This work documents bi-directional contingencies in the regulation of maternal intrusion and infant behavior during face-to-face play at 12 months. We describe a new maternal intrusion behavior, moving a toy or hand “into-the-face” of the infant, and we investigate its bi-directional associations with infant-initiated shared attention, infant distress, and infant gaze, during mother–infant face-to-face play at 12 months. The play was videotaped split-screen, with infants seated in a high chair. Videotapes were coded on a 1-sec time base for mother and infant gaze (at partner, toy, both, or gaze away); infant distress; and maternal intrusion behavior, “into-the-face.” We defined “infant-initiated shared attention” as mother and infant looking in the same second at a toy that the infant-initiated interest in. We documented that maternal into-the-face behavior decreased the likelihood of infant-initiated shared attention, increased the likelihood of infant distress, and decreased the likelihood of infant gazing away. Reciprocally, infant distress and gazing away increased the likelihood of mother into-the-face. In moments when the dyad was engaged in infant-initiated shared attention, mother into-the-face was less likely. We suggest that mother into-the-face behavior disturbs an aspect of the infant’s experience of recognition.
Rhythms of Dialogue in Infant Research and Child Analysis: Implicit and Explicit Forms of Therapeutic Action
Harrison, A.M. & Beebe, B. (2018). Psychoanalytic Psychology, 35(4), 367-381.
This article illustrates the vital role of the microprocess in therapeutic action in a child analytic case. Increasingly psychoanalysis is attempting to integrate the essential “backdrop” of the implicit, nonverbal moment-by-moment process into the narrative domain of language and symbols. We present vignettes from an analytic case of a 3- to 5-year-old child, treated by the first author, to illustrate the integration of the verbal narrative with the implicit moment-by-moment process of vocal rhythms and “action turns.” We offer a method of explicating the integration of the two levels of meaning. Using second-by-second video microanalysis, we present selected sequences of analytic process, diagramming the details of the verbal narrative and its associated patterns of vocal rhythms and action turns. Neither the verbal narrative nor the nonverbal process could be fully understood without reference to the other.
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-23938-001
Family Nurture Intervention for Preterm Infants Facilitates Positive Mother–Infant Face-to-Face Engagement at 4 Months
Beebe, B., Meyers, M.M., Lee, S.H., Lange, A., Ewing, J., Rubinchik, N., . . . Welch, M. G, (2018). Developmental Psychology, 54(11), 2016-2031. doi:10.1037/dev0000557
Although preterm infants are at risk for social deficits, interventions to improve mother–infant interaction in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) are not part of standard care (SC). Study participants were a subset from a randomized controlled trial of a new intervention for premature infants, the Family Nurture Intervention (FNI), designed to help mothers and infants establish an emotional connection. At infants’ 4 months corrected age, mother–infant face-to-face interaction was filmed and coded on a 1-sec time base for mother touch, infant vocal affect, mother gaze, and infant gaze. Time-series models assessed self- and interactive contingency. Comparing FNI to SC dyads, FNI mothers showed more touch and calmer touch patterns, and FNI infants showed more angry-protest but less cry. In maternal touch self-contingency, FNI mothers were more likely to sustain positive touch and to repair moments of negative touch by transitioning to positive touch. In maternal touch interactive contingency, when infants looked at mothers, FNI mothers were likely to respond with more positive touch. In infant vocal affect self-contingency, FNI infants were more likely to sustain positive vocal affect and to transition from negative to positive vocal affect. In maternal gaze interactive contingency, following infants’ looking at mother, FNI mothers of male infants were more likely to look at their sons. In maternal gaze self-contingency, following mothers’ looking away, FNI mothers of male infants were more likely to look at their sons. Documentation of positive effects of the FNI for 4-mo. mother–infant face-to-face communication is useful clinically and has important implications for an improved developmental trajectory of these infants.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30284883
Interview:
Decoding the non-verbal language of babies (Parts 1 & 2) — Interview with Beatrice Beebe, PhD
(2019). “Viewpoint,” American Enterprise Institute (aei.org), Season 4, Episode 5.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=Wyzy4ShfgFE
(2019). “Viewpoint,” American Enterprise Institute (aei.org), Season 4, Episode 6.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N50jY6vWEOM
Facial interactions between a mother and her infant are seldom treated as a topic that demands great attention from science. AEI’s Katharine B. Stevens and Beatrice Beebe, PhD discuss the scientific breakdown of these interactions and how they impact the baby’s mind not only in infancy, but in adulthood as well.
Beatrice Beebe,
New York State Psychiatric Institute #108
1051 Riverside Drive
New York NY 10032
Email Beatrice Beebe