Maternal influences in early social visual behavior.

Abstract

Positive attitudes toward infants were assessed in 54 primiparous mothers during pregnancy. In subsequent home observations, the frequency at 1 and 3 months of age with which mother and infant simultaneously looked at one another's faces (vis-d-vis) was recorded. At 33 months, most of these infants were shown a series of geometric and social stimuli to which total fixation times were calculated. For female infants the pregnancy ratings, vis-d-vis scores, and total fixation times to social stimuli were all positively intercorrelated. However, for males the pregnancy ratings, were significantly associated only with the 1-month score.