Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T15:55:37.278Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Regression Periods in Infancy: A Case Study from Catalonia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 April 2014

Marta Sadurní  and
Carlos Rostan
Marta Sadurní*
Affiliation:
University of Girona
Carlos Rostan
Affiliation:
University of Girona
*
Correspondence concerning this article or requests for a complete description of the instruments used should be addressed to Dra. Marta Sadurní, Departamento de Psicologia. Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación.Universidad de Girona. Emilio Grahit, 77. 1007 Girona (Spain). E-mail: msadurni@zeus.udg.es
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Based on Rijt-Plooij and Plooij's (1992) research on emergence of regression periods in the first two years of life, the presence of such periods in a group of 18 babies (10 boys and 8 girls, aged between 3 weeks and 14 months) from a Catalonian population was analyzed. The measurements were a questionnaire filled in by the infants' mothers, a semi-structured weekly tape-recorded interview, and observations in their homes. The procedure and the instruments used in the project follow those proposed by Rijt-Plooij and Plooij. Our results confirm the existence of the regression periods in the first year of children's life. Inter-coder agreement for trained coders was 78.2% and within-coder agreement was 90.1 %. In the discussion, the possible meaning and relevance of regression periods in order to understand development from a psychobiological and social framework is commented upon.

Nuestro trabajo estudia los periodos de regresión en la infancia. A partir del trabajo de investigación de Rijt-Plooij y Plooij (1992) sobre la emergencia de periodos de regresión en los dos primeros años de vida, se analizó la presencia de estos periodos en un grupo de 18 niños (10 niños y 8 niñas) de una población catalana. La edad de los niños estaba comprendida entre las 3 semanas y los 14 meses. Los instrumentos de recogida de información fueron un cuestionario respondido por la madre del bebé, una entrevista semi-estructurada registrada en grabadora y observaciones realizadas en casa de los sujetos. El procedimiento y los instrumentos usados en el proyecto siguen los propuestos por Rijt- Ploij y Plooij en su investigación original. Nuestros resultados confirman la existencia de periodos de regresión en el primer año de vida infantil. La concordancia entre observadores independientes entrenados fue del 78,2% y la intraobservador fue del 90,1%. Se comenta el significado que pueden tener los periodos de regresión y su interés para avanzar en la comprensión del desarrollo en un marco psicobiológico y social.

Keywords

regression periodschild developmentbrain system developmentPeriodos de regresióndesarrollo infantildesarrollo del sistema cerebral
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , May 2002 , pp. 36 - 44
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bever, Th.G. (1982). Regression in the service of development. In Bever, Th. G.. (Ed.), Regressions in mental development: Basic phenomena and theories (pp. 153–188). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment. London: Hogarth Press.Google Scholar
Chugani, H.T., Phelps, E.M., & Mazziotta, J.C. (1987). Positron emission tomography study of human brain functional development. Annals of Neurology, 22, 487–497.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chugani, H.T. (1994). Development of regional brain glucose metabolism in relation to behavior and plasticity. In Dawson, G. & Fisher, K.W. (Eds.), Human behavior and developing brain (pp. 153–206). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Connell, J.P., & Furman, W. (1984). The study of transitions: Conceptual and methodological issues. In Emde, R.N. & Harmon, J.H. (Eds.), Continuities and discontinuities in development (pp. 153–173). New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dehaene-Lambertz, G., & Dehaene, S. (1997). In defense of learning by selection. Neurobiological and behavioral evidence revisited. Behavioral and Brain Science, 20, 561–562.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elman, J.L., Bates, E.A., Johnson, M.H., Karmiloff-Smith, A., Parisi, D., Plunkett, K. (1996). Rethinking innateness: A connectionist perspective on development. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Fisher, K.W, Pipp, S.L., & Bullock, D. (1984). Detecting development discontinuities: Methods and measurement. In Emde, R.N. & Harmon, J.H. (Eds.), Continuities and discontinuities in development (pp. 95–121). New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, K.W., & Rose, S.P. (1994). Dynamic development of coordination of components in brain and behavior: A framework for theory and research. In Dawson, G. & Fisher, K.W. (Eds.), Human behavior and the developing brain (pp. 3–66). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Fisher, K.W. (Ed.). (1983). New directions for child development: Levels and transitions in children's development. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Geert, P. van (1991). A dynamic system model of cognitive and language growth, Psychological Review, 98, 3–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geert, P. van (1997). Variability and fluctuation: A dynamic view. In Amsel, C. & Renninger, K.A. (Eds.), Change and development: Issues and theory, methods and applications (pp. 193–212). Mahwah, NJ: Earlbaum.Google Scholar
Hoffer, M.A. (1987). Early social relationships: A psychobiologist's view. Child Development, 58, 633–647.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huttenlocher, P.R. (1990). Morphometric study of human cerebral cortex development. Neuropsychologia, 28, 517–527.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Huttenlocher, P.R. (1994). Synaptogenesis, synapse elimination, and neural plasticity in human cerebral cortex. In Nelson, Ch.A. (Ed.), Threats to optimal development. The Minnesota Symposia on Child Psychology, Vol. 27. (pp. 35–54). Hillsdale; NJ: Earlbaum.Google Scholar
Huttenlocher, P.R., & Dabholkar, A.S. (1997). Developmental anatomy of prefrontal cortex. In Krasnegor, N.A., Lyon, G.R., & Goldman-Rakic, P.S. (Eds.), Development of prefrontal cortex (pp. 69–84). Baltimore, MD: Brookes.Google Scholar
Johnson, M.H. (1997). Developmental cognitive neurosciences: An introduction. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Karmiloff-Smith, A. (1994). Précis of Beyond modularity: A developmental perspective on cognitive science. Behavioral and Brain Science. 17, 693–745.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lampl, M. & Emde, R.N. (1983). Episodic growth in infancy: A preliminary report of length, head circumference and behavior. In Fisher, K.W. (Ed.), New directions for child development: Levels and transitions in children's development. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Lecours, A.R. (1982). Correlates of developmental behavior in brain maturation. In Bever, Th.G.. (Ed.), Regressions in mental development: Basic phenomena and theories (pp. 103–116). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Magnusson, D., & Cairns, R.B. (1996). Developmental science: Toward a unified framework. In Cairns, R.B., Elder, G.H., & Costello, E.J. (Eds.), Developmental science (pp. 7–30). Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCall, R.B., Eichnor, D.H., & Hogarty, P.S. (1977). Transitions in early development. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 42, (3, Serial No 171).Google Scholar
Plooij, F.X., & Rijt-Plooij, H.H.C. van de (1989). Evolution of human parenting. Canalization, new types of learning, and mother-infant conflict. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 4, 177–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plooij, F.X., & Rijt-Plooij, H.H.C. van de (1994). Learning by instincts, developmental transitions, and the roots of culture in infancy. In Gadner, R.A., Chiarelli, A.B., Gardner, B.T., & Plooij, F.X. (Eds.), The ethological roots of culture (pp. 357–373). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prechtl, H.F.R. (1982). Regressions and transformations during deurological devleopment. In Bever, Th.G (Ed.), Regressions in mental development: Basic phenomena and theories (pp.103–116). Hillsdale, NJ: Earlbaum.Google Scholar
Reznick, J.S., Corley, R., & Robinson, J. (1997). A longitudinal twin study of intelligence in the second year. Monographs of the society for research in child development, 62 (1, Serial No. 249).Google Scholar
Rijt-Plooij, H.H.C. van de, & Plooij, F.X. (1987). Growing independence, conflict and learning in mother-infant relation in free-ranging chimpanzees, Behavior, 101, 1–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rijt-Plooij, H.H.C. van de, & Plooij, F.X. (1992). Infantile regressions: Disorganization and onset of transition periods. Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, 10, 129–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rijt-Plooij, H.H.C. van de, & Plooij, F.X. (1993). Distinct periods of mother-infant conflict in normal development: Sources of progress and germs of pathology. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 34, 229–245.[Spanish translation of questionnaire in C. Rostan, Análisis de los periodos de regresión y transición durante el primer año de vida. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Girona, Spain. (1998).]CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schaffer, H.R. (1984). The child's entry in the social world. London: Academic PressGoogle Scholar
Spitz, R.A. (1959). A genetic field theory of ego formation: Its implication for pathology. New York: International Universities Press.Google Scholar
Schore, A.N. (1994). Affect regulation and the origin of the self: The neurobiology of emotional development. Hillsdale, NJ: Earlbaum.Google Scholar
Tatcher, R.W. (1992). Cyclic cortical reorganization. Brain & Cognition, 20, 24–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tatcher, R.W. (1997). Human frontal lobe development. A theory of cyclical cortical reorganization. In Krasnegor, N.A., Lyon, G.R., & Goldman-Rakic, P.S. (Eds.), Development of Prefrontal cortex (pp. 85–113). Baltimore, MD: Brookes.Google Scholar
Thelen, E., & Smith, L.B. (1994). A dynamic systems approach to the development of cognition and action. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Towen, B.C.L. (1998). The brain development and function. Developmental Review, 18, 504–526.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trevarthen, C. (1982a). The primary motives for cooperative understanding. In Butterworth, G. & Light, P. (Eds.), Social Cognition: Studies of development of understanding (pp. 77–109). Brighton, UK: Hasvester Press.Google Scholar
Trevarthen, C. (1982b). Basic patterns of psychogenetic change in infancy. In Bever, T.G. (Ed.), Regression in mental development: Basic phenomena and theories (pp. 7–46). Hillsdale, NJ: Earlbaum.Google Scholar
Trevarthen, C. (1984). Emotions in infancy: Regulators of contact and relationships with persons. In Sherer, K & Ekman, P. (Eds.), Approaches to emotion. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Trevarthen, C. (1995). Contracts of mutual understanding: Negotiating meaning and moral sentiments with infants. Journal of Contemporany Legal Issues, 6, 373–406.Google Scholar
Yakolev, P.I., & Lecours, A.R. (1967). The myelogenetic cycles of regional maturation of the brain. In Minkowski, A. (Ed.), Regional development of the brain in early life (pp. 3–70). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Zelazzo, Ph R., (1982). The year-old infant. A period of major cognitive development. In Bever, Th.G.. (Ed.), Regressions in mental development: Basic phenomena and theories (pp. 47–79). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar