Infant behaviors influence mothers' provision of responsive and directive behaviors

Mother-infant interactions are important to infant development because they are predictive of infants' social, cognitive, and language development (Lamb et al., 2002, Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2001). Because maternal responsive and directive behaviors are associated with differential infant outcomes, it is important to investigate influences on mothers' provision of responsive and directive behaviors. Yet, the dyadic interaction literature is predominantly unidirectional from maternal behavior to infant outcomes. Therefore, the current study examined infant initiating behaviors and consequent maternal responses in a sample of 26 13-month-old infants and their mothers, videotaped during 5 min of free-play. Findings revealed that infants produced a variety of initiatives, and that these different infant initiatives prompted differential patterns of maternal responsive versus directive behaviors. Further, results of analyses of divergent types of maternal directive behaviors - Responsive Directives, ReDirectives, and Intrusive Directives - also may help clarify major discrepancies in the current literature regarding the positive and negative effects of maternal directiveness.