Developmental Transactions Between Infant Gaze and Maternal Responsiveness and Measures of Social-Emotional Competence in Toddlerhood

BACKGROUND: Infants and their caregivers reciprocally influence each other through transactions within everyday activities, facilitating further child development. OBJECTIVES: This study assessed a transactional pathway between infant gaze capacities and maternal responsiveness across development and associations with child joint engagement at 24 months and social-emotional competence at 36 to 42 months of age. METHODOLOGY: Videos of mother-child play at 2, 6, 9, 12, 18, and 24 months were used to behaviorally code infant gaze, maternal responsiveness, and child joint engagement. Mothers completed a parent-report measure of social-emotional competence about their child at 36 to 42 months. Structural equation modeling tested the developed transactional model. RESULTS: The proposed transactional pathway between infant person-gaze capacities and maternal responsivity across 2 to 18 months mediated joint engagement, while joint engagement was associated with social-emotional competence. CONCLUSION: Transactions occurring within play occupations between infants and caregivers across early development are critical for development of social-emotional competencies.