It has been suggested that infants’ age-typical attention biases for faces and facial expressions have an inherent connection with the parent–infant interaction. However, only a few previous studies have addressed this topic. To investigate the association between maternal caregiving behaviors and an infant’s attention for emotional faces, 149 mother–infant dyads were assessed when the infants were 8 months. Caregiving behaviors were observed during free-play interactions and coded using the Emotional Availability Scales. The composite score of four parental dimensions, that are sensitivity, structuring, non-intrusiveness, and non-hostility, was used in the analyses. Attention disengagement from faces was measured using eye tracking and face-distractor paradigm with neutral, happy, and fearful faces and scrambled-face control pictures as stimuli. The main finding was that lower maternal emotional availability was related to an infant’s higher attention to fearful faces ( = .042), when infant sex and maternal age, education, and concurrent depressive and anxiety symptoms were controlled. This finding indicates that low maternal emotional availability may sensitize infants’ emotion processing system for the signals of fear at least during this specific age around 8 months. The significance of the increased attention toward fearful faces during infancy is an important topic for future research.

中文翻译：

---

母亲情绪可用性较低与婴儿期对恐惧面孔的关注增加有关

有人认为，婴儿对面孔和面部表情的年龄典型注意偏差与父母与婴儿的互动有着内在的联系。然而，之前只有少数研究涉及这个主题。为了调查母亲的照顾行为与婴儿对情绪面孔的注意力之间的关联，我们对 149 名婴儿 8 个月大时的母婴二人组进行了评估。在自由玩耍的互动过程中观察护理行为，并使用情绪可用性量表进行编码。分析中使用了四个父母维度的综合得分，即敏感性、结构性、非侵入性和非敌意性。使用眼动追踪和面部干扰范式来测量注意力从面部的脱离情况，并以中性、快乐和恐惧的面部以及混乱的面部控制图片作为刺激。主要发现是，当婴儿性别、母亲年龄、教育程度以及并发的抑郁和焦虑症状得到控制时，母亲情绪可用性较低与婴儿对恐惧面孔的更高关注度有关 (= .042)。这一发现表明，至少在 8 个月左右的这个特定年龄期间，母亲情绪可用性较低可能会使婴儿的情绪处理系统对恐惧信号敏感。在婴儿期增加对恐惧面孔的关注的重要性是未来研究的一个重要课题。