Emotional expressions of infants and care/education practices in diverse development contexts

Author(s)

Ludmilla Dell\'Isola Pelegrini de Melo Ferreira

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Ribeirão Preto.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (PCARP/BC)
• Defense date: 2020-07-08

Examining board members

Katia de Souza Amorim; Regina Helena Lima Caldana; Suely Amaral Mello; Deise Maria Leal Fernandes Mendes; Gabriella Garcia Moura; Cristina Façanha Soares

• Advisor: Katia de Souza Amorim

Abstract

Human infants are born with a biological apparatus capable of expressing themselves emotionally. It attracts the adults\'attention in order to perform care actions which enable children\'s survival and development. Moreover, care actions produce emotional expressions in infants. The integrative literature review has shown some gaps regarding how the intertwining of babies\' emotional expressions with adult care/education actions is investigated. The contexts and participants of the studies are mainly focused on the family environment; and although researchs investigates what is said about care practices there is a lack of investigation about how they are performed daily in the relationship with the infant. This studied investigated how the care/education practices performed by adults are dialogically intertwined with the infants\' emotional expressions indifferent contexts: origin family, fostering family, the foster institution and daycare center. Four case studies were conducted using empirical material (video recordings) from the CINDEDI database. The study selected infants between four and eight months (inclusion criteria). Two stages were conducted to construct the empirical corpus. First, it was made an analysis of the video recordings of each investigated context regarding organization and routine of the environment, built interactions, adult care actions, and emergence of the infants\' emotional expressions. It aimed to identify whether and how the actions of the interaction partners are articulated to the infants\' emotional expressions. This allowed us to build an overview of the different contexts, identify some patterns of emergence of the infants\' emotional expressions and adult care actions. The second stage aimed to understand the triggering of interactions a focus on the articulation between infants\' emotional expressions and adult care actions. Interactive plots of each context were selected and illustrated in panoramic graphics, which enable to visualize and monitor both the minutiae and the chain of the selected situations. It was observed that the babies\' emotional expressions, depending on the context, set the pace of care actions offered by adults, being the infant\'s means of communication, including, to negotiate with his partner of interaction these care actions. The infants\' expressions of displeasure emerged especially when infants required care, while the smile was circumscribed to situations of more regulated interaction with adults, for instance play and face-to-face interactions. It was in family contexts (origin and fostering family), that the adults maintained longer-lasting interactions with the infants and attended to them more promptly when the infants exhibit whining or crying expressions. In institutional contexts the infant was in the crib/infant carriage (foster institution) and floor/mat (daycare center) for a longer time, and were more attended when crying, although not promptly. The complexity and dialogicity of the different contexts and interactions investigated are discussed, which circumscribe the possibilities for infants\' socioemotional development. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 14/25937-8 - Emotional expressions of babies and care/education practices in diverse development contexts
• Grantee: Ludmilla Dell Isola Pelegrini de Melo Ferreira
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate