Evidence for cultural differences in affect during mother-infant interactions

Abstract

Maternal care is considered a universal and even cross-species set of typical behaviors, which are necessary to determine the social development of children. In humans, most research on mother-infant bonding is based on Western cultures and conducted in European and American countries. Thus, it is still unknown which aspects of mother-infant behaviors are universal and which vary with culture. Here we test whether typical mother-infant behaviors of affect-communication and affect-regulation are equally represented during spontaneous interaction in Palestinian-Arab and Jewish cultures. 30 Palestinian-Arab and 43 Jewish mother-infant dyads were recruited and videotaped. Using AffectRegulation Coding System (ARCS), we behaviorally analyzed the second-by-second display of valence and arousal in each participant and calculated the dynamic patterns of affect co-regulation. The results show that Palestinian-Arab infants express more positive valence than Jewish infants and that Palestinian-Arab mothers express higher arousal compared to Jewish mothers. Moreover, we found culturally-distinct strategies to regulate the infant: increased arousal in Palestinian-Arab dyads and increased mutual affective match in Jewish dyads. Such cross-cultural differences in affect indicate that basic features of emotion that are often considered universal are differentially represented in different cultures. Affect communication and regulation patterns can be transmitted across generations in early-life socialization with caregivers.

Figure 1

Cultural differences in valence and arousal during free mother–infant interaction. (A) The horizontal axis tracks the expression of valence, and the vertical axis tracks the intensity of the affective expression. Jewish participants are represented in shades of blue (dark for the mothers and light for the infants), and Palestinian-Arab participants are represented in shades of yellow (dark for the mothers and light for the infants). (B) Cultural differences are found in maternal arousal. (C) Cultural differences are found in infant valence. (D) Cultural differences were not found in maternal valence. (E) Cultural differences were not found in infant arousal.

Figure 2

Maternal arousal mediates the association between culture and infants’ valence.

Figure 3

Maternal changes in valence and arousal during infant engagement, distress, unwinding, and calming down. The X-axes represent time, where multiple events of infant play or distress are temporally aligned in time at x = 0. Y-axes represent maternal social display of valence or arousal during infant play, distress, unwinding, and calming down. Error bars represent 1 standard error (SE). (A) Maternal arousal during infant engagement. (B) Maternal valence during infant engagement. (C) Maternal arousal during infant unwinding. (D) Maternal valence during infant unwinding. (E) Maternal arousal during infant distress. (F) Maternal valence during infant distress. (G) Maternal arousal during infant calming down. (H) Maternal valence during infant calming down.

Figure 4

Mother–infant mutual affective match in Arab and Jewish cultures. (A) Mutual match between mothers and their infants in arousal only in Jewish dyads. (B) Mutual match between mothers and their infants in valence in Jewish and Palestinian-Arab dyads.