Journal
FAMILY PROCESS
Volume 47, Issue 4, Pages 445-463Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/j.1545-5300.2008.00265.x
Keywords
Coparenting; Infants; Triangular Relationships
Categories
Funding
- NICHD NIH HHS [K02 HD047505, R01 HD042179-04, K02 HD 47505, R01 HD042179, R01 HD42179] Funding Source: Medline
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Infants appear to be active participants in complex interactional sequences with their parents far earlier than previously theorized. In this report, we document the capacity of 3-month-old infants to share attention with two partners (mothers and fathers) simultaneously, and trace links between this capacity and early family group-level dynamics. During comprehensive evaluations of the family's emergent coparenting alliance completed in 113 homes, we charted infants' eye gaze patterns during two different mother-father-infant assessment paradigms. Triangular capacities (operationalized as the frequency of rapid multishift gaze transitions between parents during interactions) were stable across interaction context. Infants exhibiting more advanced triangular capacities belonged to families showing evidence of better coparental adjustment. Theoretical and practice implications of these findings are discussed.
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