Social touch in mother–infant interaction affects infants’ subsequent social engagement and object exploration
Abstract Infants’ social touch with caregivers has been considered a means of regulating infant physiological and emotional state. In non-human mammals, such regulatory function also facilitates infant exploration and social behavior. However, the types of social touch in human mother–infant interac...
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2021-02-01
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Series: | Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-020-00642-4 |
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doaj-59a833a8ea68476b8b908dc1463b046f2021-02-07T12:06:19ZengSpringer NatureHumanities & Social Sciences Communications2662-99922021-02-018111110.1057/s41599-020-00642-4Social touch in mother–infant interaction affects infants’ subsequent social engagement and object explorationYukari Tanaka0Yasuhiro Kanakogi1Masako Myowa2Department of Social Sciences, Kansai University, Research Fellowships for young scientistsGraduate School of Human Science, Osaka UniversityGraduate School of Education, Kyoto UniversityAbstract Infants’ social touch with caregivers has been considered a means of regulating infant physiological and emotional state. In non-human mammals, such regulatory function also facilitates infant exploration and social behavior. However, the types of social touch in human mother–infant interaction that contribute to specific behavioral responses toward people and objects remain unclear. Using a pre- and post-task design, this study investigated the effects of social touch during mother–infant interactions on infants’ subsequent preferential looking at social stimuli, social engagement with strangers, and object exploration. Between tasks, mothers and infants spent the time playing in one of two conditions, More Physical Contact or Less Physical Contact. We found that infants in the More Physical Contact Condition showed a greater decrease in evasive behavior with the stranger and enhanced object exploration than those in the Less Physical Contact Condition. Conversely, social touch did not affect infants’ preferential looking at static social images. Among the types of social touch, the frequency of affectionate touch reduced evasive behavior to the stranger and facilitated object exploration. These results suggest that social touch, especially affectionate touch, during mother–infant interactions, assist in the modulation of infants’ evasive behaviors toward people and object exploration.https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-020-00642-4 |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Yukari Tanaka Yasuhiro Kanakogi Masako Myowa |
spellingShingle |
Yukari Tanaka Yasuhiro Kanakogi Masako Myowa Social touch in mother–infant interaction affects infants’ subsequent social engagement and object exploration Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
author_facet |
Yukari Tanaka Yasuhiro Kanakogi Masako Myowa |
author_sort |
Yukari Tanaka |
title |
Social touch in mother–infant interaction affects infants’ subsequent social engagement and object exploration |
title_short |
Social touch in mother–infant interaction affects infants’ subsequent social engagement and object exploration |
title_full |
Social touch in mother–infant interaction affects infants’ subsequent social engagement and object exploration |
title_fullStr |
Social touch in mother–infant interaction affects infants’ subsequent social engagement and object exploration |
title_full_unstemmed |
Social touch in mother–infant interaction affects infants’ subsequent social engagement and object exploration |
title_sort |
social touch in mother–infant interaction affects infants’ subsequent social engagement and object exploration |
publisher |
Springer Nature |
series |
Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
issn |
2662-9992 |
publishDate |
2021-02-01 |
description |
Abstract Infants’ social touch with caregivers has been considered a means of regulating infant physiological and emotional state. In non-human mammals, such regulatory function also facilitates infant exploration and social behavior. However, the types of social touch in human mother–infant interaction that contribute to specific behavioral responses toward people and objects remain unclear. Using a pre- and post-task design, this study investigated the effects of social touch during mother–infant interactions on infants’ subsequent preferential looking at social stimuli, social engagement with strangers, and object exploration. Between tasks, mothers and infants spent the time playing in one of two conditions, More Physical Contact or Less Physical Contact. We found that infants in the More Physical Contact Condition showed a greater decrease in evasive behavior with the stranger and enhanced object exploration than those in the Less Physical Contact Condition. Conversely, social touch did not affect infants’ preferential looking at static social images. Among the types of social touch, the frequency of affectionate touch reduced evasive behavior to the stranger and facilitated object exploration. These results suggest that social touch, especially affectionate touch, during mother–infant interactions, assist in the modulation of infants’ evasive behaviors toward people and object exploration. |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-020-00642-4 |
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