Influence of paternal involvement on fathers' infant-directedspeech and infants' brain activity to male and female speech Open Access

Abstract

Abstract Influence of paternal involvement on fathers' infant-directed speech and infants' brain activity to male and female speech By Elizabeth A. Sheehan

The present study investigated the relationship between paternal involvement and the speech fathers use with their infants, as well as, how experience with paternal speech affects patterns of brain activity to male speech for 6-month-olds. Both mothers and fathers alter their speech when talking to an infant relative to when they talk to an adult. This special speech register is called infant-directed speech (IDS) and is characterized by slower tempo, higher and more variable pitch, repetition, and simplified vocabulary. It was hypothesized that more involved fathers would use IDS to a greater degree than fathers who were less involved in caregiving. It was also expected that infants' brain activity to male speech would differ based on experience with paternal IDS.

Data were collected in two sessions. In the first session, mother-infant and father-infant interactions were recorded and analyzed to provide a descriptive account of parents' use of IDS, along with measures of parental involvement. Shortly after this session, infants' brain activity was recorded while they listened to familiar words in four conditions: male IDS, male ADS, female IDS, and female ADS. The findings revealed that paternal involvement was related to the amount of IDS fathers used but not the moderation of the acoustic characteristics of IDS, such as pitch. Moreover, infants' patterns of brain activity to male IDS were related to both paternal involvement in caregiving and fathers' use of IDS in the interactions. Overall, this study furthers our understanding of the unique contributions fathers' make to children's cognitive development and the ways infants' early experiences shape their neural development.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Infant-directed Speech 3

Characteristics of Infant-directed Speech 3

Functions of Infant-directed Speech 7

Paternal Infant-directed Speech 11

Paternal Involvement 12

Paternal Infant-directed Speech and Infant Attention 14

Event-related Potentials and Infant-directed Speech 18

Present Study and Hypotheses 22

Method 25

Participants 25

Procedure 26

Parental Report Questionnaires 26

Parent-infant Interaction Recordings and Analysis 28

Recordings 28

Natural Interaction 29

Book Reading 30

Event-related Potentials Collection and Analysis 31

Stimuli 31

Recordings for female speaker 31

Recordings for male speaker 32

Electrode Placement 33

Electrophysiological Testing 34

Averaging and Artifact Rejection 34

Measurement of Components 35

Results 36

Description of Participating Families 36

Family Characteristics 36

Parental Involvement Questionnaire 36

Parent-infant Interactions 38

Natural Interaction 38

Mean Fundamental Frequency 38

Range 39

Standard Deviation 39

Duration of Utterances 39

Variation in Infant-directed Speech 40

Relationship of Speech Measures with Paternal Involvement 41

Book Reading 42

Mean Fundamental Frequency 42

Range 42

Standard Deviation 43

Duration of Utterances 43

Variation in Infant-directed Speech 43

Relationship of Speech Measures with Paternal Involvement 43

Summary of Results for Speech Analyses 44

Event-related Potentials 45

Relations to Paternal Involvement and Infant-directed Speech 46

Summary of Results for Event-related Potentials 47

Discussion 47

Characteristics of Infant-directed Speech 48

Paternal Involvement 50

Event-related Potentials to Male and Female Speech 55

Conclusions 62

References 65

Appendices 79

Footnotes 92

Tables 93

Figure Captions 106

Figures 109

About this Dissertation

Rights statement

• Permission granted by the author to include this thesis or dissertation in this repository. All rights reserved by the author. Please contact the author for information regarding the reproduction and use of this thesis or dissertation.

School	Laney Graduate School
Department	Psychology
Degree	PhD
Submission	Dissertation
Language	English
Research Field	Psychology, Developmental
Keyword	infant-directed speech parent-infant interaction language development event-related potentials paternal involvement
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Mills, Debra, University of Wales
Committee Members	Walker, Elaine, Emory University Goodman, Sherryl H, Emory University Nygaard, Lynne, Emory University Namy, Laura, Emory University

Last modified

Primary PDF

Thumbnail	Title	Date Uploaded	Actions
	Influence of paternal involvement on fathers' infant-directedspeech and infants' brain activity to male and female speech ()	2018-08-28 13:42:32 -0400	Press to Select an action Download

Supplemental Files

Thumbnail	Title	Date Uploaded	Actions