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

Authors

Cristin M Holland, John Sideris, Barbara L Thompson, Pat Levitt, Grace T Baranek

Published in

OTJR : occupation, participation and health. Pages 15394492261476582. Aug 25, 2026. Epub Aug 25, 2026.

Abstract

Infants and their caregivers reciprocally influence each other through transactions within everyday activities, facilitating further child development.
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.
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.
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.
Transactions occurring within play occupations between infants and caregivers across early development are critical for development of social-emotional competencies.

PMID:
42643020
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 26 Aug 2026.

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