Assessing bidirectional relations between infant temperamental negative affect, maternal anxiety symptoms and infant affect-biased attention across the first 24-months of life

Developmental theories suggest affect-biased attention, preferential attention to emotionally salient stimuli, emerges during infancy through coordinating individual differences. Here we examined bidirectional relations between infant affect-biased attention, temperamental negative affect, and maternal anxiety symptoms. Infant-mother pairs (N = 342; 50% girls; 52% White) participated when infants were 4, 8, 12, 18 and 24 months of age. Greater fluctuation in maternal anxiety symptoms at 12- and 18-months prospectively related to greater rigidity in attention to angry facial configurations. Greater fluctuation in maternal anxiety symptoms at 18-months prospectively related to greater rigidity in attention to happy facial configurations. Finally, greater fluctuation in maternal anxiety symptoms at 4- and 12-months prospectively related to greater rigidity in infant negative affect. These results suggest that environmental uncertainty, linked to fluctuating maternal anxiety, may shape early socioemotional development.