Maternal mirroring predicts positive behavioral and socioemotional adjustment beyond infancy: Interactions with an infant carrying intervention

Little research has examined how affective caregiving processes, such as maternal mirroring, interact with physical caregiving contexts, such as infant carrying, to influence later child adjustment. The present study examined whether maternal mirroring during infancy prospectively predicted behavioral adjustment and socio-cognitive functioning, and whether participation in an infant carrying intervention moderated these associations. Participants were young mothers ( N = 75; M age =19.45, SD =2.39; 57.4% non-white) and their infants enrolled in a longitudinal randomized controlled trial of infant carrying. Dyads were randomly assigned to either an infant carrying intervention or a book-reading control condition during the first seven months postpartum. Maternal mirroring was assessed at seven months on the Still-Face Procedure using second-by-second coding of affective, vocal, and behavioral contingent interactions. Longitudinal outcomes at 3.5 years old included child internalizing and externalizing problems, emotional reactivity, empathy, and narrative coherence. Regression models using full information maximum likelihood estimation indicated that greater maternal mirroring predicted lower internalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms, and emotional reactivity. Participation in an infant carrying intervention significantly moderated associations between mirroring and socio-cognitive outcomes. Specifically, greater mirroring predicted higher empathy and greater narrative coherence among children assigned to the infant carrying intervention but not among children in the control condition. Findings suggest that maternal mirroring during infancy may support children’s emotional and behavioral adjustment, while infant carrying may strengthen the positive influence of mirroring on early childhood socio-cognitive developmental capacities.