Focusing attention and resisting distraction are key predictors of later cognitive development, including language (Edgar et al., 2022; Yu et al., 2019). Infants tend to focus longer when caregivers follow their focus, while caregivers' redirecting behavior is linked to shorter attention spans (e.g., Findji, 1998; Wass et al., 2018). However, most studies focus on infants' attention within the context of caregiver interactions or on sustained attention when the caregiver is present and directly visible to the infant, allowing for face-to-face interaction during the task. This study aimed to explore the relationship between maternal behaviors during mother-infant interaction and infants' distractibility using a computer-based task, where infants were assessed independently while their caregivers remained behind them.
Participants included 76 infants (34 girls; age range: 9-16 months, M(SD)=11.9(1.4)) and their mothers. Infants' distractibility was assessed using a task adapted from Salley et al. (2013), where they viewed a video with a distractor appearing midway through the trial. The percentage of trials in which infants looked at the distractor was coded. Maternal behaviors during a 10-minute free play session were categorized as "following" (engaging with the infant's focus), "initiation" (introducing a new object), and "redirecting" (shifting attention) based on Landry and Chapieski's (1989) coding scheme.
A simple linear regression model with infant age and maternal following as predictors and distractibility as the outcome variable was significant, R2=.09, F(2,72)=3.44, p=.01. Infants who showed less distractibility had mothers who engaged in more attention following behaviors (β=−.02, SE=.01, t(72)=-2.61, p=.01). Mothers' initiation (rs=-.02, p=.83) and redirecting (rs=.11, p=.36) behaviors were not significantly associated with infants' distractibility.
While the cross-sectional design limits causal conclusions, these findings carry important applied implications, indicating that encouraging parents to follow their infants' focus could serve as an everyday strategy to foster early attention regulation, which can be integrated into parenting programs.