Psychology / We examined the relationship between infant attractiveness and adult affect, focusing on the potential link between affect and differential treatment of attractive and unattractive infants in a two-phase study. In Phase 1, we investigated whether differing levels of infant facial attractiveness would elicit positive and negative affect from adults (N=87) using electromyography. Unattractive infant faces evoked significantly more corrugator supercilii and levator labii superioris movement (physiological correlates of negative affect) than attractive infant faces. In Phase 2, we measured caregiving behavior and explicit bias of the same adults toward two infant simulators, one attractive and one unattractive. Participants’ positive affect, as measured by the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, and explicit biases predicted how well they cared for the infant simulators, but their affect measured by the facial muscle movements in the EMG portion of the study did not. These results suggest that unattractive infants may be at risk for negative affective responses from adults, though the relationship between those responses and caregiving behavior remains elusive. / text

This research was one of the first longitudinal studies to determine the effectiveness of a computerized infant simulator as a deterrent to adolescent pregnancy. All of the female eighth-grade students (221) in 1994-1995 and 1995-1996 from a suburban North Texas middle school were part of this study. They were tracked from the eighth grade through high school graduation to determine whether and when pregnancies occurred. The Kaplan-Meier procedure for survival analysis was used to determine test statistics. Survival functions and hazard functions were created for each independent variable--parenting the infant simulator, ethnic and racial, involvement in co-curricular activities, and crime. Results showed the computerized infant simulator to be highly effective in postponing the on-set of pregnancies for those students who participated in the parenting simulation. Hazards peaked at 3 years, 2 months for the experimental group and at 2 years, 21/2 months for the control group. Summertime and holiday seasons marked times of the year when the majority of pregnancies occurred. Caucasians peaked before the Other ethnic group. No significant differences were detected in regard to involvement in co-curricular activities, and no involvement in crime was self-reported. The model was developed to use as a guideline for implementing a pregnancy prevention unit in schools. This model could be used by Family and Consumer Sciences classes, teen pregnancy prevention programs, childbirth preparation classes, at-risk student programs, substance abuse intervention programs, and religious education classes.

This study was conducted to replicate and extend previous research on infant caregiver behavior by demonstrating negative reinforcement of infant caregiver behavior in response to crying and teaching appropriate care responses under conditions of inconsolable crying. A computerized infant simulator was used to create a laboratory simulation of infant caregiving. In Study 1, participants were exposed to negative reinforcement conditions and an extinction condition. In the negative reinforcement condition, participants engaged in caregiving responses to escape from the cry. In the extinction condition, the cry was inescapable and two of three participants stopped engaging in the previously reinforced caregiving response. Data was collected on cumulative duration of caregiving responses. In Study 2, participants were taught a task analysis of appropriate care responses under conditions of inconsolable crying using behavior skills training. Data were collected on percentage of completed appropriate care responses. Results showed acquisition of appropriate care responses following training.