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. 2012 Feb 1;43(2):171-197.
doi: 10.1177/0022022110388563.

Emotional Relationships in Mothers and Infants: Culture-Common and Community-Specific Characteristics of Dyads from Rural and Metropolitan Settings in Argentina, Italy, and the United States

Marc H Bornstein  1 , Diane L Putnick, Joan T D Suwalsky, Paola Venuti, Simona de Falco, Celia Zingman de Galperín, Motti Gini, Marianne Heslington Tichovolsky
Affiliations

Emotional Relationships in Mothers and Infants: Culture-Common and Community-Specific Characteristics of Dyads from Rural and Metropolitan Settings in Argentina, Italy, and the United States

Marc H Bornstein et al. J Cross Cult Psychol. .

Abstract

This study uses country and regional contrasts to examine culture-common and community-specific variation in mother-infant emotional relationships. Altogether, 220 Argentine, Italian, and U.S. American mothers and their daughters and sons, living in rural and metropolitan settings, were observed at home at infant age 5 months. Both variable- and person-centered perspectives of dyadic emotional relationships were analyzed. Supporting the notion that adequate emotional relationships are a critical and culture-common characteristic of human infant development, across all samples most dyads scored in the adaptive range in terms of emotional relationships. Giving evidence of community-specific characteristics, Italian mothers were more sensitive, and Italian infants more responsive, than Argentine and U.S. mothers and infants; in addition, rural mothers were more intrusive than metropolitan mothers, and rural dyads more likely than expected to be classified as mid-range in emotional relationships and less likely to be classified as high in emotional relationships. Adaptive emotional relationships appear to be a culture-common characteristic of mother-infant dyads near the beginning of life, but this relational construct is moderated by community-specific (country and regional) context.

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