TY - JOUR
T1 - Observational measures of caregiver's touch behavior in infancy
T2 - A systematic review
AU - Serra, Juliana F.
AU - Lisboa, Isabel C.
AU - Sampaio, Adriana
AU - Pereira, Alfredo F.
N1 - Funding Information:
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/6817 - DCRRNI ID/UIDB%2F00066%2F2020/PT#
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/Investigador FCT/IF%2F00217%2F2013%2FCP1158%2FCT0001/PT#
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/3599-PPCDT/PTDC%2FPSI-GER%2F2463%2F2021/PT#
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/POR_NORTE/PD%2FBD%2F142819%2F2018/PT#
This study was conducted at the Psychology Research Centre ( PSI/01662 ), School of Psychology , the University of Minho , supported by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through the Portuguese State Budget ( UID/PSI/01662/2020 ).
This research was also supported by FCT projects PTDC/MHC/PCN/1530/2014. We thank the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and recommendations, which has assisted us in improving the quality and presentation of this article.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors
PY - 2023/7
Y1 - 2023/7
N2 - The caregiver's touch behavior during early infancy is linked to multiple developmental outcomes. However, social touch remains a challenging construct to operationalize, and although observational tools have been a gold standard for measuring touch in caregiver-infant interactions, no systematic review has been conducted before. We followed the PRISMA guidelines and reviewed the literature to describe and classify the main characteristics of the available observational instruments. Of the 3042 publications found, we selected 45 that included an observational measure, and from those we identified 12 instruments. Most of the studies were of infants younger than six months of age and assessed touch in two laboratory tasks: face-to-face interaction and still-face procedure. We identified three approaches for evaluating the caregiver's touch behavior: strictly behavioral (the observable touch behavior), functional (the functional role of the touch behavior), or mixed (a combination of the previous two). Half of the instruments were classified as functional, 25% as strictly observational, and 25% as mixed. The lack of conceptual and operational uniformity and consistency between instruments is discussed.
AB - The caregiver's touch behavior during early infancy is linked to multiple developmental outcomes. However, social touch remains a challenging construct to operationalize, and although observational tools have been a gold standard for measuring touch in caregiver-infant interactions, no systematic review has been conducted before. We followed the PRISMA guidelines and reviewed the literature to describe and classify the main characteristics of the available observational instruments. Of the 3042 publications found, we selected 45 that included an observational measure, and from those we identified 12 instruments. Most of the studies were of infants younger than six months of age and assessed touch in two laboratory tasks: face-to-face interaction and still-face procedure. We identified three approaches for evaluating the caregiver's touch behavior: strictly behavioral (the observable touch behavior), functional (the functional role of the touch behavior), or mixed (a combination of the previous two). Half of the instruments were classified as functional, 25% as strictly observational, and 25% as mixed. The lack of conceptual and operational uniformity and consistency between instruments is discussed.
KW - Measurement
KW - Observational instruments
KW - Parent-infant interaction
KW - Systematic review
KW - Touch behavior
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85154056727&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105160
DO - 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105160
M3 - Review article
C2 - 37094739
AN - SCOPUS:85154056727
SN - 0149-7634
VL - 150
JO - Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
JF - Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
M1 - 105160
ER -