6533b826fe1ef96bd1285016

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Anxiety and coping dispositions as predictors of the visual interaction between mother and child

subject

description

Abstract The “model of coping modes” distinguishes four dispositionally determined patterns of behavior (coping modes) which become apparent in stressful situations: repression, sensitization, nondefensiveness, and high anxiety. Following from this model, the present study is aimed at assessing associations between coping modes and children's looking behavior towards their mothers in a moderately stress-inducing laboratory setting. The visual exchange of 63 mothers and their eight- to 14-year-old children was observed during a ten-minute planning period for a Punch and Judy show which the child had to later perform. A close visual orientation toward the mother was registered for sensitizers. While repressers showed a heightened frequency of gazes at their mothers, their total time of looking was comparatively short. In high-anxious children, frequency of gazes as well as total time of looking were low.