Interactional synchrony between mother and toddler during book reading

Abstract

Interactional synchrony refers to the degree to which two interactive partners synchronize their behaviors over time. Interactional synchrony between mother and infant is linked to infant socio-emotional development. However, very little is known about interactional synchrony beyond infancy. The present study was an attempt to investigate the interpersonal synchrony between mothers and their 2 ½-year-old toddlers (n=49) during book reading. The goals of this study were to explore individual differences in mother-toddler interactional synchrony and to examine the contributions of child (i.e., sex and temperament) and maternal (i.e., negative affect) characteristics as well as their joint effect to interactional synchrony. Results revealed that the majority of the mother-toddler dyads were moderately synchronized and highly positively matched. Toddler’s sex and temperament (effortful control and surgency) as well as maternal negative affect made separate and joint contributions to interactional synchrony indexed by gaze coordination as well as negative and positive affect matching.