Article
Social referencing and caretaker expressive behavior in a day care setting
Infant Behavior and Development
(1991)
Abstract
Facial expressions of 18 female day care workers were observed during their natural interactions at their day care centers. Subsequently, they participated twice in a social referencing procedure, once with each of two infants for whom they cared (M age = 14.6 months, SD = 2.72). The procedure involved presentation of two ambiguous toys and caretaker posing of enjoyment/joy and fear/avoidance expressions. Results showed that infants approached closer to the toy after seeing an enjoyment/joy as opposed to a fear/avoidance expression. In addition, caretakers who were more expressive in their natural interactions were referenced more during the fear/avoidance episode, and their infants maintained a greater distance from the toy in response to the fear/avoidance expression. In particular, caretaker use of masked or mitigated negative expressions predicted greater avoidance of the toy in the fear/avoidance condition. Thus, social referencing behavior occurred with respect to nonmaternal caretakers and was related to caretakers' natural expressive behavior.
Keywords
- social referencing,
- facial expression,
- day care,
- caretaker
Disciplines
Publication Date
January, 1991
DOI
10.1016/0163-6383(91)90052-T
Citation Information
Linda A. Camras and Virginia B. Sachs. "Social referencing and caretaker expressive behavior in a day care setting" Infant Behavior and Development Vol. 14 Iss. 1 (1991) p. 27 - 36 ISSN: 0163-6383 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/linda_camras/55/