Abstract
Social interactions between infants and adults are considered the foundation for later peer interactions (Mueller & Vandell, 1979). Disturbed behaviors noted during these early interactions correlate with later interaction problems (Bakeman & Brown, 1980; Field, 1979b; Sig-man, Cohen, & Forsythe, 1981). The purpose of this chapter is to review some of the literature about adult-infant interactions. After presenting an overview of the literature on harmonious and disturbed adult-infant interactions, studies from our laboratory will be reviewed, including those on infants’ early interactions with mothers, fathers, and grandmothers.