Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Developmental Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1419159

Shaping infants' social brains through vicarious social learning: the importance of positive mother-father interactions

Provisionally accepted
Sofie Rousseau Sofie Rousseau 1,2*Nuphar Avital Nuphar Avital 1,2Yuliya Tolpyhina Yuliya Tolpyhina 3
  • 1 Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
  • 2 Ariel University, Ariel, Israel
  • 3 Social Work, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study is the first to assess whether infants' developing social brains may be susceptible to the vicarious social experience of interparental positivity. Specifically, we explored whether infants' exposure to interparental positivity may vicariously shape their neural substrates of social development. In a sample of 45 infants (MAgeMonths= 11.01; 48.9% girls), infant left-frontal resting alpha electroencephalogram (EEG) asymmetry was derived as a reliable indicator of neural substrates linked to adaptive social development. Moreover, positive characteristics of the mother-father couple relationship were assessed both by means of observation and self-report by mother and father. In addition, various relevant covariates were assessed, including interparental negativity (observed and self-reported), as well as infants' direct caregiving experiences and duration of infant exposure to mother-father relationship-dynamics (parent-report). Results indicated that higher levels of observed interparental positivity were associated with greater infant left-frontal alpha EEG asymmetry, even after accounting for covariates (β's > 0.422). The current study's results are first to suggest that positive vicarious social experiences in infants' day-to-day lives play a significant role for early neural development.

    Keywords: Infancy, vicarious social learning, Mother-father relationship, Interparental positivity, neural development, EEG, social development

    Received: 17 Apr 2024; Accepted: 28 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Rousseau, Avital and Tolpyhina. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Sofie Rousseau, Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 9112102, Jerusalem, Israel

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.