A longitudinal, naturalistic and cross‐cultural study on emotions in early infant‐parent imitative interactions

The present longitudinal, naturalistic and cross‐cultural study aims to investigate and extend our understanding of the intersubjective nature of the early imitations that may be observed in free interactions between young infants and their parents. Thirty infants, 15 from Greece and 15 from Scotland, were observed separately with their mothers and fathers at home every 2 weeks, from the second to the sixth month after birth. In each dyad, the emotional states of both interacting partners before, during and after the imitative episodes were subjected to microanalysis. The results indicate that emotional coordination, either by direct matching of expressions or by attunement, precedes, accompanies and follows imitation. This kind of coordination was found to be the same in Crete and Scotland, and for parents and infants of both sexes. It is concluded that this coordination of emotions with early imitative phenomena is evidence of motivational coherence, both within the subjects, and between them in an intersubjective play.