The DOI matches its Crossref record; 43 of the 43 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Stress Contagion: Physiological Covariation Between Mothers and Infants
Open accessAbstract
Emotions are not simply concepts that live privately in the mind, but rather affective states that emanate from the individual and may influence others. We explored affect contagion in the context of one of the closest dyadic units, mother and infant. We initially separated mothers and infants; randomly assigned the mothers to experience a stressful positive-evaluation task, a stressful negative-evaluation task, or a nonstressful control task; and then reunited the mothers and infants. Three notable findings were obtained: First, infants’ physiological reactivity mirrored mothers’ reactivity engendered by the stress manipulation. Second, infants whose mothers experienced social evaluation showed more avoidance toward strangers compared with infants whose mothers were in the control condition. Third, the negative-evaluation condition, compared with the other conditions, generated greater physiological covariation in the dyads, and this covariation increased over time. These findings suggest that mothers’ stressful experiences are contagious to their infants and that members of close pairs, like mothers and infants, can reciprocally influence each other’s dynamic physiological reactivity.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“It should be noted that physiological synchrony is not always a predictor of better performance outcomes. In fact, physiological synchrony can be detrimental.”
From Physiological and Behavioral Synchrony Predict Group Cohesion and Performance (2020) · cites this paper as [81]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales.
Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.54.6.1063 · Cited by 32,433
(1969) · Cited by 18,340
Baumeister, R. F., Bratslavsky, E., Finkenauer, C., & Vohs, K. D. (2001) · Review of General Psychology · doi:10.1037/1089-2680.5.4.323 · Cited by 7,678
An Approximate Distribution of Estimates of Variance Components
Satterthwaite, F. E. (1946) · Biometrics Bulletin · doi:10.2307/3002019 · Cited by 4,373
Attachment and Loss. Vol. I. Attachment.
Jones, N. B., & Bowlby, J. (1970) · Man · doi:10.2307/2798963 · Cited by 4,208
The chameleon effect: the perception–behavior link and social interaction
Chartrand, T. L., & Bargh, J. A. (1999) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.76.6.893 · Cited by 3,674
Meaney, M. J. (2001) · Annual Review of Neuroscience · doi:10.1146/annurev.neuro.24.1.1161 · Cited by 2,708
Cortical mechanisms of human imitation
Iacoboni, M., Woods, R. P., Brass, M., Bekkering, H., Mazziotta, J. C., & Rizzolatti, G. (1999) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.286.5449.2526 · Cited by 2,683
Hatfield, E. C., Cacioppo, J. T., & Rapson, R. L. (1993) · Current Directions in Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/1467-8721.ep10770953 · Cited by 2,591
Salivary cortisol in psychoneuroendocrine research: recent developments and applications
Kirschbaum, C., & Hellhammer, D. H. (1994) · Psychoneuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/0306-4530(94)90013-2 · Cited by 2,107
Barrett, L. F. (2006) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/j.1745-6916.2006.00003.x · Cited by 1,859
The social consequences of expressive suppression
Butler, E. A., Egloff, B., Wlhelm, F. H., Smith, N. C., Erickson, E. A., & Gross, J. J. (2003) · Emotion · doi:10.1037/1528-3542.3.1.48 · Cited by 1,400
Maternal emotional signaling: Its effect on the visual cliff behavior of 1-year-olds.
Sorce, J. F., Emde, R. N., Campos, J. J., & Klinnert, M. D. (1985) · Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1037/0012-1649.21.1.195 · Cited by 885
Marital interaction: Physiological linkage and affective exchange.
Levenson, R. W., & Gottman, J. M. (1983) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.45.3.587 · Cited by 855 · cited 1×
“In a seminal study, physiological linkage in married couples during a conflict conversation was a significant predictor of self-reported marital dissatisfaction in both partners (Levenson & Gottman, 1983).”
"Mood contagion": The automatic transfer of mood between persons.
Neumann, R., & Strack, F. (2000) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.79.2.211 · Cited by 837
Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology and Life Sciences
Cecen, A. A. (2010) · Cited by 785
Empathy: A physiological substrate.
Levenson, R. W., & Ruef, A. M. (1992) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.63.2.234 · Cited by 709
Hess, U., & Blairy, S. (2001) · International Journal of Psychophysiology · doi:10.1016/s0167-8760(00)00161-6 · Cited by 697
Dyadic synchrony: Its structure and function in children’s development
Harrist, A. W., & Waugh, R. M. (2002) · Developmental Review · doi:10.1016/s0273-2297(02)00500-2 · Cited by 486
Temporal Interpersonal Emotion Systems: The “TIES” That Form Relationships
Butler, E. A. (2011) · Personality and Social Psychology Review · doi:10.1177/1088868311411164 · Cited by 444
Touch attenuates infants' physiological reactivity to stress
Feldman, R., Singer, M., & Zagoory, O. (2010) · Developmental Science · doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00890.x · Cited by 436
Sbarra, D. A., & Hazan, C. (2008) · Personality and Social Psychology Review · doi:10.1177/1088868308315702 · Cited by 427
The development of social referencing.
Walden, T., & Ogan, T. A. (1988) · Child Development · doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.1988.tb01492.x · Cited by 376
Mendes, W. B., Blascovich, J., Hunter, S. B., Lickel, B. A., & Jost, J. T. (2007) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.92.4.698 · Cited by 375
Self-citationThe truth and bias model of judgment.
West, T. V., & Kenny, D. A. (2011) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/a0022936 · Cited by 361
Self-citationThe Development of Social Referencing
Walden, T. A., & Ogan, T. A. (1988) · Child Development · doi:10.2307/1130486 · Cited by 290
de Rosnay, M., Cooper, P., Tsigaras, N., & Murray, L. (2006) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2005.09.003 · Cited by 289
Gregory, S. W., & Webster, S. W. (1996) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.70.6.1231 · Cited by 246
Akinola, M., & Mendes, W. B. (2008) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167208323933 · Cited by 240
Self-citationMurray, L., de Rosnay, M., Pearson, J. K., Bergeron, C. D., Schofield, E., Royal‐Lawson, M., & Cooper, P. (2008) · Child Development · doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2008.01175.x · Cited by 238
Hughes, S. (1969) · PubMed Central · Cited by 234
Gregory, S. W., & Webster, S. W. (1996) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.70.6.1231 · Cited by 220
Oxytocin and mutual communication in mother-infant bonding
Nagasawa, M., Okabe, S., Mogi, K., & Kikusui, T. (2012) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2012.00031 · Cited by 214
The empathic, physiological resonance of stress
Buchanan, T. W., Bagley, S. L., Stansfield, R. B., & Preston, S. D. (2011) · Social Neuroscience · doi:10.1080/17470919.2011.588723 · Cited by 188
Publication Guidelines for Heart Rate Studies in Man
Jennings, J. R., Bberg, W. K., Hutcheson, J. S., Obrist, P. A., Porges, S. W., & Turpin, G. (1981) · Psychophysiology · doi:10.1111/j.1469-8986.1981.tb03023.x · Cited by 179
Papp, L. M., Pendry, P., & Adam, E. K. (2009) · Journal of Family Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0017147 · Cited by 151
Soto, J. A., & LEVENSON, R. W. (2009) · Emotion · doi:10.1037/a0017399 · Cited by 149
Dynamical systems modeling of physiological coregulation in dyadic interactions
Ferrer, E., & Helm, J. L. (2013) · International Journal of Psychophysiology · doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2012.10.013 · Cited by 132
Psychobiological Approaches to Social Behavior
H, H. (1965) · The American Journal of the Medical Sciences · doi:10.1097/00000441-196506000-00029 · Cited by 107
Hibel, L. C., The Family Life Project Key Investigators, Granger, D. A., Blair, C., & Cox, M. J. (2009) · Journal of Family Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0016323 · Cited by 92
Guastello, S. J., Pincus, D., & Gunderson, P. R. (2006) · PubMed · Cited by 91
Touch Therapy Effects on Development
Field, T. M. (1998) · International Journal of Behavioral Development · doi:10.1080/016502598384162 · Cited by 62
Williams, S. R., Cash, E. D., Daup, M., Geronimi, E. M. C., Sephton, S. E., & Woodruff‐Borden, J. (2013) · Biological Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2013.02.015 · Cited by 56
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- 10.1037/0022-3514.79.2.211 · DOI
Cited by
Sorted by citations
More than a feeling: A unified view of stress measurement for population science
Epel, E. S., Crosswell, A. D., Mayer, S. E., Prather, A. A., Slavich, G. M., Puterman, E., & Mendes, W. B. (2018) · Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.yfrne.2018.03.001 · Cited by 1,077
“When the mother and infant were reunited and the infants were placed directly on the mothers’ laps, infants of stressed mothers showed an immediate increase in sympathetic nervous system activation compared to a resting baseline, whereas infants of non-stressed mothers did not show an increase (Waters et al., 2014).”
Self-citationInterpersonal autonomic physiology: a systematic review of the literature
Palumbo, R. V., Marraccini, M. E., Weyandt, L. L., Wilder-Smith, O., McGee, H. A., Liu, S., & Goodwin, M. S. (2017) · Personality and Social Psychology Review · doi:10.1177/1088868316628405 · Cited by 566
Speaker Gaze Increases Information Coupling between Infant and Adult Brains
Leong, V., Byrne, E., Clackson, K., Georgieva, S., Lam, S., & Wass, S. (2017) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1702493114 · Cited by 299
Jakubiak, B. K., & Feeney, B. C. (2016) · Personality and Social Psychology Review · doi:10.1177/1088868316650307 · Cited by 331
Emotion dysregulation: A theme in search of definition
Thompson, R. A. (2019) · Development and Psychopathology · doi:10.1017/s0954579419000282 · Cited by 315
Metadata
- Authors
- Waters, S. F., West, T. V., & Mendes, W. B.
- Affiliations
- University of California, San Francisco (US)
- New York University (US)
- Venue
- Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2014-01-30
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 934-942
- ISSN
- 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9280
- PMC
- PMC4073671
- OpenAlex
- W2159102798
- Cited by
- 231
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 29 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 23 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 19 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 22 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 25 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 23.67
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (T32MH019391)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Infant Health and Development
- Keywords
- emotional contagion, stress contagion, mother-infant dyads, physiological reactivity, infant social behavior
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Child Development, Electrocardiography, Emotions, Female, Heart Rate, Humans, Infant, Male, Mother-Child Relations, Social Behavior, Stress, Psychological
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
