Socio-emotional stress regulation in infants with visual impairment: Exploring the role of maternal vocal and tactile behavior

This database includes the raw data linked with the paper “Socio-emotional stress regulation in infants with visual impairment: Exploring the role of maternal vocal and tactile behavior”, published on Personality and Individual Differences. In this paper we report on data on the association between maternal vocal and tactile behaviors and the emotionality of infants with visual impairment (VI) compared to sighted controls (SI) during the Face-to-Face Still-Face paradigm. Procedures 45 infants (24 VI and 21 SI) and their mothers participated in a videorecorded 6-minute observational procedure including the well-acknowledged Face-to-Face Still-Face (FFSF) paradigm. Videos were micro-analytically coded (in 2 seconds bins) for infant’s emotionality (i.e., positive and negative) and the types of maternal vocalizations and touch (i.e., socio-cognitive, affective). Analytical plan The analytical plan involved comparing the socioemotional stress regulation of infants with visual impairment (VI) and sighted infants (SI) across the Face-to-Face Still-Face (FFSF) paradigm using repeated-measure analyses of variance to assess Group differences in negative and positive emotionality across the Episodes (i.e., Play, Still-Face, and Reunion) episodes. Maternal interactive behaviors (pragmatic and nurturing touch, socio-cognitive and socio-affective vocalizations) were similarly analyzed for episode and group effects. Non-parametric correlations using Spearman rho coefficient, were conducted to explore associations between maternal behaviors and infant emotionality within each group. Findings in brief The findings showed that infants with VI exhibited typical stress responses during the still-face episode, but their ability to engage positively during playful social interactions is lower compared to sighted counterparts. Maternal vocal and tactile behaviors did not differ in the two groups, however different patterns of associations with the infants’ emotionality emerged.