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Maternal Touch as a Channel of Communication at Age Four Months: Variations by Infant Gender and Maternal Depression

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Abstract

Tactile contact is one of the earliest nonverbal channels through which parents shape the ways their sons and daughters feel in their own bodies and experience the relational world. In this study, we sought to explore the nuances of early tactile communication by examining a community sample of 126 mothers during interactions with their 4-month-old infants. Mothers and their infants were videotaped in the laboratory while engaging in face-to-face play. Each second of the first 2.5 min of videotaped interaction was assigned a 10-digit code for maternal tactile behavior, using the COSYMIT (Coding System for Mother-Infant Touch) to identify specific modes of touch. We then statistically examined the possibility that maternal tactile behavior would differ according to infant gender and maternal depression status. We found that infant gender and maternal depression were each significant predictors of mother-infant tactual patterns. Mothers interacting with a boy touched central body locations and varied their touch more than did those interacting with a girl. Mothers who reported depressive symptoms engaged in substantially less affectionate and more object-mediated touch than their non-depressed counterparts. These findings suggest that tactile behavior may serve as an early prelinguistic channel by which mothers transmit affective and sociocultural “messages” to their infants.

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New York State Psychiatric Institute.

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Notes

  1. Werner’s core ideas were later elaborated and enriched considerably in his joint work with his protégé Bernard Kaplan as presented in their coauthored landmark book Symbol Formation (Wiley, 1963).

  2. Although the groups were labeled Black, Latina, and White, a closer examination of maternal self-reported ethnicity suggested that these categories would be more accurately described as Black (non-Latina), Latina (Black or White), and White (non-Latina).

  3. In subsequent research (e.g., Beebe et al., 2010) we have successfully used a reduced, 11-point variation on this scale, but in the present study we opted to use the more comprehensive (16-category) scale.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to express our sincere gratitude to Ms. Gavkhar Abdurokhmonova, research assistant to Dr. Beebe from 2019 to 2022, for providing helpful updates to the literature review and for her valuable feedback on several earlier drafts of this article. We also wish to thank the journal editors and the anonymous reviewers for their attentiveness and useful recommendations while this article was under review.

Funding

The research on which this article is based was funded by The National Institute of Mental Health (Grant MH56130) to Dr. Beatrice Beebe at New York State Psychiatric Institute, affiliated with Columbia University.

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  1. Shanee Stepakoff

    Present address: Department of English, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Communication Sciences Lab (Beebe), New York State Psychiatric Institute (1994–1999), Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA

    Shanee Stepakoff

  2. New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Beatrice Beebe

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  1. Shanee Stepakoff
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  2. Beatrice Beebe
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Contributions

Beatrice Beebe was the Principal Investigator in the large longitudinal research project of which this study formed one small part. Dr. Beebe was also the director of the infant laboratory in which this research was conducted. Dr. Stepakoff and Dr. Beebe contributed to the conception and design of this study. Data collection and analysis were performed collaboratively along with members of the research team. Dr. Stepakoff was a member of the research team convened and led by Dr. Beebe who also supervised her doctoral dissertation. Dr. Stepakoff’s dissertation served as the basis for this article.

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Correspondence to Shanee Stepakoff.

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Not applicable.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all participants according to the standards in place at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, an affiliate of Columbia University. The study was conducted according to NYSPI’s policies and protocols for research with human subjects.

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Stepakoff, S., Beebe, B. Maternal Touch as a Channel of Communication at Age Four Months: Variations by Infant Gender and Maternal Depression. J Nonverbal Behav (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10919-023-00442-9

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