Bathing routines in different infant placement settings: an ethological study

ABSTRACT

This study used an ethological approach to explore the behavioural adaptation of nineteen infants during their first six weeks in Residential Care (RC), or a Foster Family (FF) or an Infant-Mother Centre (IMC). Direct observations were conducted once a week at bath time. Observed behaviours were: sleep-wake states, visual exploration, motor activity, facial and vocal expressions. Non-parametric analyses showed that, in RC, the duration of bathing was the shortest and babies expressed more crying and withdrawal and less locomotor abilities and vocalizations. By contrast, in IMC, the bathing time was the longest and babies spent the least time in crying and showed the most locomotor abilities and vocalizations. The placement in FF showed intermediate results. This study showed sleep-wake states and behaviours that found variable expression depending on the placement environment and therefore could be considered as markers of the baby’s adaptation to his placement milieu in follow-up quantitative studies.

KEYWORDS:

• Baby
• adaptation
• institutionalization
• foster family
• observation
• bath

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge Professors Caroline Desombres and Célénie Brasselet for their careful reading, advice, and time, and Professor John Belmont for his precious help with the translation. Additionally, for their generous support we would like to thank the University of Sherbrooke, (Québec, Canada) and the Institut National Supérieur du Professorat et de l’Éducation (INSPE) Académie de Lille – Haut de France.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by International Council for Canadian Studies [grant number 27/01/2009]; Ministère français délégué à la recherche [grant number 2003/2004]; Université de Sherbrooke [grant number 124827].

Notes on contributors

Edwige Ducreux

Edwige Ducreux - Specialized in human ethology, Lecturer at the Institut National Supérieur du Professorat et de l’Éducation (INSPE, Lille), Research Associate at the PSITEC lab (University of Lille) and Associate Professor at the Department of Psychology of the University of Sherbrooke, Edwige Ducreux's research interests focus on the development of the child within his family and his community. Her research on infants placed for maltreatment or adoption has been the subject of training for professionals working in early childhood, in France as in Quebec. Her postdoctoral research, based on the father-child activation relationship, led to the development of an observational evaluation grid to qualify this relationship in vivo during periods of free play. The implementation of this evaluation tool in the services offered by the Youth Program Directorate of the Estrie Health and Social Services Centre helped to offer fathers services adapted to their expectations and specific characteristics. Finally, her current studies focuses on the child's adaptation to school. In teaching as in research, she works on the development of educational or intervention practices, aimed at giving back empowerment to the child and of his relational environment.

Guadalupe Puentes-Neuman

Guadalupe Puentes-Neuman is a clinical psychologist and an associate professor at the Department of psychology in the Université de Sherbrooke, Longueuil campus. Her clinical and research activities revolve around parent-infant relations and their impact on the child’s socioemotional development.