UNSTRUCTURED
Background: Sensitive responsiveness refers to parents’ ability to recognize and respond to infants’ cues and is one of the central aspects of early parenting.
Sensitivity to infant cry supports child’s survival and is the most apparent early attachment behavior. Sensitive responsiveness to child’s needs has been linked to parental empathy. Additionally, oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (AVP) are hormones important for sensitivity and empathy. Research on parental responsiveness indicates focus on mothers, and studies on parents-to-be are lacking. The aim of the HEART study is to test the direct and indirect (through OT and AVP levels) links between dispositional empathy and responsiveness to a life-like doll crying in couples and to verify whether these factors are predictors of responsiveness to own ’child’s cues. Exploratory analyses include predictors of sensitive responsiveness: polymorphisms of OXTR, AVPR1a and CD38 genes, personal characteristics (attachment style, temperament) and relational factors (perception of partners and own parents).
Methods: The HEART project employs standardized experimental settings that can be used with nonparents and – the assessment of parental sensitive responsiveness towards their child. The participants are couples becoming parents for the first time (111) and childless couples (110) in Poland. The procedure involves the caretaking of a life-like doll (three 10-min episodes: each partner individually and a couple), which cries as programmed during the interaction. Salivary samples and questionnaire data are collected in a planned manner. In the second part of the project’, the expectant couples are invited for the assessment of the parental sensitivity to own child (free play episodes with each parent). Parental sensitivity is assessed using the observational Ainsworth Sensitivity Scale.
Discussion: This paper presents an interdisciplinary research project that analyses the roots of the role of empathy in displaying parental sensitive responsiveness. HEART methodologically reaches beyond the questionnaire measurement, controls many factors influencing the dynamics of adult-infant interaction and focuses on the crying signal. By examining parental sensitive responsiveness of expectant couples towards their own ’child’s cues we uniquely explore the validity of the experimental design with a life-like doll.
Trial registration: osf.io/ Identifier: osf.io/z5682.