The socialization of emotions during nursing: The role of contingent maternal facial expressions. [French]

Although maternal contingent responses to their infant's facial expressions of emotions is thought to play an important role in the socialization of emotions, available data are still scarce and often inconsistent. To further investigate how mothers' contingent facial expressions might influence infant emotional development, we undertook to study mother-infant dyads in 4 episodes of face-to-face interaction during the first year. Mothers' facial expressions were strongly related to their infant's facial expressions of emotions, most of their contingent responses being produced within one second following infants' facial expressions. Specific patterns of responses were also found. The impact of maternal contingent responding on infants' expressive development was also examined