PubMed HealthSearch

SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “Infant Behavior”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

Infant behavior and maternal adaptations in the first six months of life.

This study explored the relationship among infant temperament, maternal concern, and adjustment during early infancy, and the stability of these variables over time. Infants identified as difficult were found to change considerably across three time points (between five weeks and six months), suggesting the need for caution in prognostication with respect to temperament difficulties in infancy. Further implications for the care of young infants and their families are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological

Decreasing dangerous infant behaviors through parent instruction.

One adult and three adolescent mothers with 1-year-old infants were taught to reduce their infants' potential for injury in the home. After being taught to increase their positive interactions with their infants, the mothers were taught to child-proof the home, to use playpen time-out for potentially dangerous behaviors, and to give positive attention for safe behaviors. A multiple baseline design across subjects was used to evaluate functional control. Potentially dangerous behaviors, observed during 10 min of free play, decreased from variable and, at times, high rates during baseline to stable near-zero rates after treatment. These target behaviors remained low at a 7-month follow-up assessment.

Accidents, Home

Nutrition, infant behavior, and maternal characteristics: a pilot study in West Bengal, India.

Free activities and mother-child interaction in a standard setting were observed among undernourished and well-nourished children between the ages of 7 and 18 months in West Bengal. The undernourished boys showed less vigor in play activity, less attachment behavior toward the mother, especially in interaction across a distance, and maintained close physical contact with her more frequently than did the well-nourished boys. The mothers of the undernourished boys had lower scores in four of six measures of maternal behavior. Correlations between child and maternal scores revealed a high reciprocity in mother-child interaction for the well-nourished boys, but a lack of reciprocity for the undernourished boys. The developmental quotient and activity scores of the well- and undernourished boys were not different. However, the correlations between these and the maternal scores showed a divergent pattern of relationships for the two nutritional groups.

Anthropometry

Infant behavioral state and speech sound discrimination.

In order to investigate the interaction between infant state and speech sound discrimination, records of state were obtained from infants participating in 3 speech sound discrimination experiments which employed the high amplitude sucking procedure. A total of 94 individual records were rated for state by 2 independent scorers. When treated as an independent variable, state interacted with responsivity to sound change as measured by sucking rate increases. Infants in the more alert states demonstrated significantly higher rates of sucking following sound change. Treating state as a dependent variable revealed that state was not significantly affected by a change in stimulus conditions.

Arousal

A comparison of live and videorecord viewing of infant behavior under sound stimulation. III. Six-month-old babies.

Ten clinically normal 6-month-old infants were presented with a series of sound stimuli while their behavior was simultaneously videotaperecorded and assessed live by 2 sound-masked observers. Two weeks later the same observers assessed the behavior from the videorecords. In both situations observers were permitted to see the babies for 13 sec at each trial. The first 5 sec formed a prestimulus observation period and the following 8 sec possibly contained a sound stimulus. Between trials the observers were allowed 20 sec in which to not (1) prestimulus activity, (2) confidence in response, and (3) facial, digit, and limb movements and "wholistic"impressions (e.g., "stilling"). The agreement between the live and video situations was modest for prestimulus activity and confidence in response, and fair to good for movement item. The outcome was rather similar to that of our earlier work on neonates and 6-week infants, although it did suggest a small loss of information with the videorecording of 6-month infants.

Acoustic Stimulation

A multidimensional study of infants' behaviors associated with assumed painful stimuli: Phase II.

Researchers have found that physiologic changes occur that indicate infants do perceive pain. In the study, infants were audiovideotaped while receiving the first diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus (DPT) injection to document their responses to an assumed painful stimulus. The vocalization of crying and some facial movements were identified as behaviors associated with receiving the DTP injection. These findings support the need for nurses to use a multidimensional assessment when caring for infants believed to be having pain.

Child Behavior

Neocortical death in infants: behavioral, neurologic, and electroencephalographic characteristics.

Neocortical death is a form of the persistent vegetative state characterized by the maintenance of sleep/wakeful cycles and spontaneous respirations and the lack of cognitive function. It is difficult to diagnose in neonates and young infants because their cognitive skills are limited by inexperience and by immaturity of the central nervous system. Because neocortical death has not been described previously for this age group, we report the neurologic, behavioral, electroencephalographic, and computed tomographic characteristics of three infants who survived in the persistent vegetative state following severe brain injury. Each infant appeared to exhibit some complex behaviors, including interaction with the environment and the examiners, although the electroencephalograms documented no electrical activity of cerebral origin. Computed tomography revealed extensive destruction of the cerebral hemispheres. Infants and newborns with a history suggesting brain injury and with the neurologic and behavioral characteristics described here should be evaluated with serial electroencephalograms and computed tomography to diagnose the syndrome of neocortical death.

Brain Damage, Chronic

The Bacon Chow study: maternal nutritional supplementation and infant behavioral development.

The effect of maternal nutritional supplementation during pregnancy and lactation on the mental and motor development of infants was studied in a rural population in Taiwan. Women were randomly assigned to 2 treatment groups: 1 received a high-calorie and protein supplement ("supplement" group); the other received a placebo ("control" group). Infants received no direct supplementation. At approximately 8 months of age, the mental and motor development of the infants was assessed using a research to maternal supplementation in either scale, nor were the mental scale scores of infants of supplement mothers significantly higher than infants of control mothers. However, the motor scores of supplement infants were higher than those of control infants, which is consistent with the findings of 2 other large-scale nutritional supplementation studies.

Adult

Developing perceptions of temperament and their relation to mother and infant behavior.

Controversies about temperamental assessments raise questions about whether questionnaires, which assess parental perceptions of temperament, validly measure within-child characteristics. Thirty-eight couples were recruited from childbirth classes for a short-term longitudinal study. Mother's perceptions of activity, rhythmicity and mood were moderately stable from late pregnancy to 6 mth postnatally. Only father's perceptions of activity were stable during this time. Infants rated by parents as difficult on the Carey Infant Temperament Questionnaire at 6 mth were rated by observers as less responsive while being fed by their mothers. Results are discussed in the context of influences on parental perceptions of temperament.

Child Behavior